Chapter 10 · 28 min

Conscious Experience

Chapter 10 of How the Brain Works: Conscious Experience.

Watch the complete chapter ↗

Visual credits

12 sources

Sources and credits for imagery used in this film, including material incorporated into explanatory animations.

  • Owen Lecturing

    Martin.R.Coleman

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Philips MRI scanner at Sahlgrenska University Hospital

    Jan Ainali

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • EEG Recording Cap

    Chris Hope

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • David Chalmers at TASC 2008

    Zereshk

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

    David Chalmers at TASC 2008 — Zereshk. CC BY 3.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:David_Chalmers_TASC2008.JPG

  • Daniel Dennett in Moscow, 2012

    Dmitry Rozhkov

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

    Daniel Dennett in Moscow, 2012 — Dmitry Rozhkov. CC BY-SA 3.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daniel_Dennett_2.jpg

  • Stanislas Dehaene, 2014

    Per Henning/NTNU

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

    Stanislas Dehaene, 2014 — Per Henning/NTNU. CC BY 2.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stanislas_Dehaene_2014.jpg

  • Melloni et al. 2023 preregistered protocol title and authors

    Lucia Melloni, Liad Mudrik, Michael Pitts and coauthors

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

    Melloni et al. 2023 preregistered protocol title and authors — Lucia Melloni, Liad Mudrik, Michael Pitts and coauthors. CC BY 4.0. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268577

  • Cogitate 2025 Nature paper title, authors and DOI

    Cogitate Consortium, O. Ferrante, U. Gorska-Klimowska and coauthors

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

    Cogitate 2025 Nature paper title, authors and DOI — Cogitate Consortium, O. Ferrante, U. Gorska-Klimowska and coauthors. CC BY 4.0. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08888-1

  • Cogitate 2025 Figure 2b: six intracranial temporal-generalization heatmaps

    Cogitate Consortium, O. Ferrante, U. Gorska-Klimowska and coauthors

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Cogitate 2025 Figure 3b–c: complete top plot row

    Cogitate Consortium, O. Ferrante, U. Gorska-Klimowska and coauthors

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Melloni et al. 2023 protocol: Experiment 2 heading

    Lucia Melloni, Liad Mudrik, Michael Pitts and coauthors

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

    Melloni et al. 2023 protocol: Experiment 2 heading — Lucia Melloni, Liad Mudrik, Michael Pitts and coauthors. CC BY 4.0. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268577

  • Christof Koch, 2008

    Romanpoet

    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

Research references

Selected sources from the episode’s research and scientific figures.

  1. Publisher report ↗
  2. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08888-1 ↗
  3. Primary PDF ↗
  4. One-page original report, Figure 1 ↗
  5. Primary record ↗
  6. Primary PDF ↗
  7. Mashour, Roelfsema, Changeux and Dehaene, 2020, Conscious Processing and the Global Neuronal Workspace Hypothesis ↗
  8. Albantakis et al., IIT 4.0 (2023) ↗
  9. Nature Fig. 2 ↗
  10. original response ↗
  11. Manuscript ↗
  12. Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness ↗
  13. Accessible primary full text ↗
  14. Europe PMC ↗
  15. 2023 preregistered protocol ↗
  16. documentation ↗
  17. dataset description ↗
  18. Correction ↗
  19. IIT authors' empirical-validation page ↗
  20. PsyArXiv DOI 10.31234/osf.io/zsr78 ↗
  21. Primary letter/signatories ↗
  22. What makes a theory of consciousness unscientific? ↗
  23. Consciousness or pseudo-consciousness? ↗
  24. A science of consciousness beyond pseudo-science and pseudo-consciousness ↗
  25. editorial on adversarial collaboration ↗
  26. Nature correspondence ↗
  27. Integrated information theory: the good, the bad and the misunderstood ↗
  28. PubMed 42114729 ↗
  29. There can be more to consciousness research than theory testing ↗
  30. Consortium publications ↗
  31. release documentation ↗
  32. public code organization ↗
  33. Nature's 24 June 2023 report ↗
  34. university-hosted copy of the published report ↗
  35. Scientific American's eyewitness report by John Horgan ↗
  36. Anil Seth's Nautilus account, 5 July 2023 ↗
  37. Forskning & Framsteg lead ↗
  38. The neural correlate of (un)awareness: lessons from the vegetative state ↗
  39. Cognitive Motor Dissociation in Disorders of Consciousness ↗
  40. author manuscript ↗
  41. 2015 JAMA Neurology editorial ↗
  42. Weill Cornell's 19 October 2015 account ↗
  43. 2024 primary record and abstract ↗
  44. institutional full-text route ↗
  45. 1998 PNAS model ↗
  46. Dehaene and Changeux, 2011, Experimental and Theoretical Approaches to Conscious Processing ↗
  47. 2004 formulation ↗
  48. Tononi, Boly, Massimini and Koch, 2016 ↗
  49. Seth and Bayne, 2022, Theories of consciousness ↗
  50. Frankish's 2016 author eprint ↗
  51. Chalmers, Consciousness and its Place in Nature ↗
  52. Chalmers, Phenomenal Concepts and the Explanatory Gap ↗
  53. NIDCD hearing account ↗
  54. Nature paper PDF ↗
  55. 10.1038/nature11020 ↗
  56. Brain paper ↗
  57. 10.1093/brain/awx313 ↗
  58. Accepted/public paper PDF ↗
  59. 10.1016/j.cub.2025.03.081 ↗
  60. PNAS paper PDF ↗
  61. 10.1073/pnas.1602948113 ↗
  62. Protocol ↗
  63. report ↗
  64. Kazazian, Monti and Owen's 2025 review ↗
  65. 10.1093/brain/awaf075 ↗
  66. Public MSP2 code ↗
  67. Funder project 0567 ↗
  68. project roster ↗
  69. 2025 preprint ↗
  70. author manuscript readable through ResearchGate ↗
  71. Publisher abstract ↗
  72. 10.1016/j.concog.2026.104075 ↗
  73. Primary record ↗
  74. 10.1016/j.cortex.2026.03.021 ↗
  75. author manuscript ↗
  76. 2018 AAN/ACRM/NIDILRR recommendations ↗
  77. Spanish Society of Neurorehabilitation recommendations ↗
  78. 10.1007/s00134-025-08224-1 ↗
  79. Cambridge full text ↗
  80. society roadmap ↗
  81. Data release ↗
  82. MSP1 analysis code ↗
  83. 2014 portrait ↗
  84. TASC2008 photograph ↗
  85. 2008 photograph ↗
  86. 2005 Pioneer Award portrait ↗
  87. Research-group page ↗
  88. Team page ↗
  89. media page ↗
  90. Faculty profile ↗
  91. 27 May 2025 report ↗
  92. 30 April 2025 institutional report ↗
  93. Brain Inspired episode 211 ↗
  94. YouTube ↗
  95. Templeton World Charity Foundation's COGITATE page ↗
  96. consortium press page ↗
  97. Pari Center, Consciousness and the Brain with Liad Mudrik ↗
  98. Anil Seth's Nautilus account ↗
  99. Ken Mogi creator-blog lead ↗
  100. https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/130307/1/VS_science2006.pdf): ↗
  101. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.16.738188): ↗

How this film was made

Created and editorially directed by Anders Lunde using a custom production system developed over six months. AI assists research, drafting, programming, and visual production; I review and edit the material and make the final editorial decisions. Narration uses text-to-speech. Visuals combine custom-built scientific animations, AI-generated reconstructions, and credited scientific imagery.

Generated reconstructions illustrate scientific interpretations. They are distinct from photographs, specimens, and measured data.

More about the creator and production →