Intrinsic brain activity and phenomenal contents Comment on “Beyond task response—Pre-stimulus activity modulates contents of consciousness” by G. Northoff, F. Zilio & J. Zhang

Abstract

I applaud the sustained efforts of Northoff, Zilio, Zhang and their various collaborators to put intrinsic brain activity to a more prominent place in the current research into consciousness and its neural correlates. The target article convincingly argues for a need to integrate the pre-stimulus levels of activation into theorizing about stimulus-evoked activity in the brain, and provides a host of empirically informed hypotheses about the interplay between intrinsic and evoked activations. In this comment, I indicate how, building on this pioneering work, one may go farther and ascribe to intrinsic brain activity an even more central role in the theory of conscious experience.