Making Sense of Multiple NCCs and the No-Report Paradigms

Neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) studies have faced two kinds of confounding empirical findings: multiple peaks and excessive activations recorded by ERP in the temporal domain and by fMRI in the spatial domain, respectively. These confounds have led to the well-known proposals of multiple NCCs and no-report paradigms. However, ‘the exact neural underpinnings of conscious experience remain a mystery.’ This study introduces a cognitive model, the Twin Cognitive Cycle (TCC), a system-level cognitive process model developed from an executable system simulated to generate semantic reports, to make sense of the multiple peaks and ‘overestimated’ activations. The model comprises five stages of activation occurring across four cognitive regions during the generation of a semantic report, consistent with a combination of the characteristics proposed by several multiple-NCC theories. It also offers an explanation for why no-report paradigms are able to drastically reduce neural activity.