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Related Experiment Videos

Can humans perceive their brain states?

Boris Kotchoubey1, Andrea Kübler, Ute Strehl

  • 1Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy. boris.kotchoubey@uni-tuebingen.de

Consciousness and Cognition
|March 9, 2002
PubMed
Summary

Humans can learn to perceive their own brain activity, specifically slow cortical potentials (SCPs), through training. This learned perception is linked to the ability to control these neural processes.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Science
  • Neuroplasticity

Background:

  • The brain perceives the external world and the body, but self-perception of neural activity is not understood.
  • Brain tissue lacks direct receptors for its own activity.
  • Self-control of brain processes suggests potential for learned self-perception.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether humans can learn to perceive their own brain activity.
  • To explore the relationship between the control and perception of neural processes.

Main Methods:

  • Training patients to control electroencephalogram (EEG) low-frequency components: slow cortical potentials (SCPs).
  • Utilizing "probe" sessions for patients to estimate the quality of their SCP shifts.
  • Analyzing the correlation between recorded SCP amplitudes and subjective estimates.

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Main Results:

  • The correspondence between SCP amplitudes and subjective estimates improved with training.
  • The ability to perceive SCPs correlated with the ability to control them.
  • Perception was independent of peripheral factors like muscle tone and vigilance.

Conclusions:

  • Humans can acquire the ability to perceive their own neural activity through learning.
  • This learned perception of brain activity is linked to volitional control.
  • Findings challenge the notion that self-perception of neural activity is impossible.