Consciousness is the state of subjective awareness of oneself and one's environment, encompassing the capacity for experience, perception, attention, and the integration of sensory and cognitive information into a unified point of view. In neuroscience and cognitive science it is studied along two complementary dime…
Consciousness is the state of subjective awareness of oneself and one's environment, encompassing the capacity for experience, perception, attention, and the integration of sensory and cognitive information into a unified point of view. In neuroscience and cognitive science it is studied along two complementary dimensions: the level of arousal or wakefulness, which ranges across the sleep-wake cycle and is disrupted in coma and disorders of consciousness, and the contents of awareness, the specific perceptual, emotional, and reflective states that occupy the mind at a given moment. Contemporary research investigates the neural correlates of consciousness, the brain structures and large-scale network dynamics, including thalamocortical and frontoparietal interactions, whose activity accompanies conscious experience. Major theoretical frameworks, such as global workspace and integrated information accounts, seek to explain how distributed neural processing gives rise to unified awareness, while empirical work uses neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and behavioral paradigms to distinguish conscious from unconscious processing. Clinically, the assessment of consciousness is central to neurology and critical care, informing the evaluation of brain injury, anesthesia, and altered states. As a subject spanning philosophy of mind, cognitive neuroscience, and clinical medicine, the study of consciousness addresses how awareness arises, how it can be measured, and how it is altered in health and disease.
12 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.
The 12 articles above have been cited 60 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.
A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Consciousness, linking to each citing work.