PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Valdas Noreika
AU  - Andrés Canales-Johnson
AU  - William J. Harrison
AU  - Amy Johnson
AU  - Aurina Arnatkevičiūtė
AU  - Justin Koh
AU  - Srivas Chennu
AU  - Tristan A. Bekinschtein
TI  - Wakefulness state modulates conscious access: Suppression of auditory detection in the transition to sleep
AID  - 10.1101/155705
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 155705
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/26/155705.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/26/155705.full
AB  - Neural basis of consciousness and its suppression are typically studied by manipulating stimuli around the conscious access threshold, or – alternatively – by contrasting conscious and unconscious states (i.e. awake/sleep). Here we show that behavioural and neural markers of conscious access are dependent on wakefulness state, and thus a comprehensive description of the neural basis of conscious access requires an integrated assessment of the state of consciousness. In particular, we demonstrate that a distinctive steepness of a behavioural slope of conscious access is severely compromised during the transition to sleep. Likewise, electrophysiological markers show a delayed processing of target-mask interaction during drowsiness. Consequently, the resolution of conscious access shifts from perceptual to executive stages of processing in the drowsy state of consciousness. Once the goal is set – to report the awareness of a target – the brain is capable to adapt to rapidly changing wakefulness states, revealing that the neural signatures of conscious access and its suppression may not be hard-wired but flexible to maintain performance.