Väitös (psykologia): MA Dmitri Filimonov
MA Dmitri Filimonov esittää väitöskirjansa ”Electrophysiological correlates of perceptual consciousness: event-related potentials in vision and hearing” julkisesti tarkastettavaksi Turun yliopistossa perjantaina 28.8.2026 klo 12.15 (Turun yliopisto, Educarium, Edu1, Assistentinkatu 5, Turku).
Vastaväittäjänä toimii tohtori Renzo Lanfranco (Karoliininen instituutti, Ruotsi) ja kustoksena professori Antti Revonsuo (Turun yliopisto). Tilaisuus on englanninkielinen. Väitöksen alana on psykologia.
Tiivistelmä väitöstutkimuksesta:
This dissertation investigates how the brain creates conscious experiences in vision and hearing. Neural correlates of consciousness are regions of the brain and related physiological processes that give rise to our lived experiences, such as feeling joy, thinking a thought, seeing vibrant colours, or hearing a melody. The dissertation specifically focuses on what happens in the brain when a sound or an image becomes part of consciousness. It includes four experimental studies and one review of recent research.
The methods used in the dissertation include electroencephalography (EEG) for measuring brain activity, experimental paradigms that manipulate subjective auditory and visual experiences, and measures of consciousness. Study I compares the neural correlates of consciousness in vision, hearing, and audiovisual conditions, investigating their similarities and differences. Study II investigates whether auditory consciousness is independent of attention to stimulus features and the requirement to respond to the stimulus. Study III addresses the question of whether different stages of sound processing can influence the neural correlates of consciousness and how clearly the stimulus is heard. Study IV investigates the neural correlates of consciousness in simple auditory hallucinations, asking whether they are similar when the stimulus is present or absent, but the conscious experience remains the same. Study V reviews new evidence and challenges in research on the visual neural correlates of consciousness, systematising results from fifty-three recent experiments. The results are discussed in the broader context of the science of consciousness and are used to evaluate contemporary theories of consciousness.
The main finding is that conscious seeing and hearing are related to specific neural correlates of consciousness, or changes in brain activity. In vision, this change is called the visual awareness negativity, or VAN. In hearing, a similar change is called the auditory awareness negativity, or AAN. These brain responses appear relatively early after a stimulus and are found over sensory areas of the brain that process sights and sounds. The dissertation also shows that these brain responses are connected specifically to conscious experience itself. They do not seem to depend on whether a person pays attention to a particular feature of the stimulus, makes a response, or processes the stimulus at a certain task level. This suggests that VAN and AAN are not just signs of attention or decision-making, but are related to visual and auditory consciousness. Taken together, the results support the idea that conscious experience is closely connected to early activity in sensory areas of the brain.
These results support some contemporary theories of consciousness, such as Recurrent Processing Theory, while challenging others, such as Global Neuronal Workspace Theory. The dissertation provides fundamental knowledge about the nature of our subjective experience. Consciousness is important in many major discussions, and understanding its fundamental features has legal, social, medical, ethical, and technological implications. Theories of consciousness increasingly inform debates about artificial intelligence, the clinical assessment of awareness, neurotechnology, and ethics. They also try to explain what it is like to experience the world as a human being. In simple terms, this dissertation helps to clarify how the brain turns sights and sounds into experiences that are actually lived through by a person.
