Timing of neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) onset

Determine the precise time after stimulus onset at which the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) occur in human visual perception, specifying the temporal window during which electrophysiological signatures uniquely associated with conscious awareness arise.

Background

A longstanding goal in consciousness research is to pinpoint when, relative to stimulus presentation, neural activity specifically associated with conscious awareness emerges. Prior studies have reported early, mid-latency, and late timings, with discrepancies often attributed to differences in paradigms, stimulus predictability, and analysis methods.

This study emphasizes that even within a single experiment using heterogeneous stimuli at threshold contrast, estimated onset times of candidate markers (e.g., N200 and P300) can vary substantially across matched subsets of trials, underscoring the difficulty of establishing a definitive timing for NCC. While the authors observe onsets around 200 ms for content-independent markers, the general question of the exact onset time of NCC remains unresolved in the broader literature.