Publications by Aaron Schurger

First-person experience cannot rescue causal structure theories from the unfolding argument

Michael Herzog, Adrien Christophe Doerig, Aaron Schurger

We recently put forward an argument, the Unfolding Argument (UA), that integrated information theory (IIT) and other causal structure theories are either already falsified or unfalsifiable, which provoked significant criticism. It seems that we and the cri ...

Elsevier2022

Hard criteria for empirical theories of consciousness

Michael Herzog, Adrien Christophe Doerig, Aaron Schurger

Consciousness is now a well-established field of empirical research. A large body of experimental results has been accumulated and is steadily growing. In parallel, many Theories of Consciousness (ToCs) have been proposed. These theories are diverse in nat ...

2021

Response to commentaries on 'hard criteria for empirical theories of consciousness'

Michael Herzog, Adrien Christophe Doerig, Aaron Schurger

In consciousness research, we have a very large number of theories, which exceeds by far the number of theories in other fields. We recently presented a set of criteria for evaluating and comparing theories of consciousness, and then applied the criteria t ...

2021

The unfolding argument: Why IIT and other causal structure theories cannot explain consciousness

Kathryn Hess Bellwald, Michael Herzog, Adrien Christophe Doerig, Aaron Schurger

How can we explain consciousness? This question has become a vibrant topic of neuroscience research in recent decades. A large body of empirical results has been accumulated, and many theories have been proposed. Certain theories suggest that consciousness ...

2019

The Unfolding Argument: Why Recurrent Processing Cannot Explain Consciousness

Michael Herzog, Adrien Christophe Doerig, Aaron Schurger

Neuroscientific theories aim to explain paradigm cases of consciousness such as masking, binocular rivalry or the transition from dreamless sleep to wakefulness. The most popular theories are based on computational principles. Recurrent processing is a key ...

2018

Entrainment of Voluntary Movement to Undetected Auditory Regularities

Olaf Blanke, Leila Cammoun, Aaron Schurger, Nathan Quentin Faivre

In physics “entrainment” refers to the synchronization of two coupled oscillators with similar fundamental frequencies. In behavioral science, entrainment refers to the tendency of humans to synchronize their movements with rhythmic stimuli. Here, we asked ...

Springer Nature2017

Performance monitoring for brain-computer-interface actions

Olaf Blanke, Steven Gale, Olivia Gozel, Aaron Schurger

When presented with a difficult perceptual decision, human observers are able to make metacognitive judgements of subjective certainty. Such judgements can be made independently of and prior to any overt response to a sensory stimulus, presumably via inter ...

Elsevier2017

Reckoning the moment of reckoning in spontaneous voluntary movement

Aaron Schurger

National Academy of Sciences2016

Neural Antecedents of Spontaneous Voluntary Movement. A New Perspective

Aaron Schurger

Elsevier Science London2016

Nowhere and Everywhere: The Causal Origin of Voluntary Action

Aaron Schurger

The idea that intentions make the difference between voluntary and non-voluntary behaviors is simple and intuitive. At the same time, we lack an understanding of how voluntary actions actually come about, and the unquestioned appeal to intentions as discre ...

Springer2015

Visual Feedback Dominates the Sense of Agency for Brain-Machine Actions

Olaf Blanke, Nathaniel Evans, Steven Gale, Aaron Schurger

Recent advances in neuroscience and engineering have led to the development of technologies that permit the control of external devices through real-time decoding of brain activity (brain-machine interfaces; BMI). Though the feeling of controlling bodily m ...

Public Library of Science2015

Oscillatory neural responses evoked by natural vestibular stimuli in humans

Bruno Herbelin, Olaf Blanke, Christophe Lopez, Steven Gale, Aaron Schurger

While there have been numerous studies of the vestibular system in mammals, less is known about the brain mechanisms of vestibular processing in humans. In particular, of the studies that have been carried out in humans over the last 30 years, none has inv ...

American Physiological Society2015

Intentions and voluntary actions: Reframing the problem

Aaron Schurger

Nachev and Hacker are justified in drawing our attention to the importance of conceptual clarity and coherence as these are too often overshadowed by technical sophistication and methodological rigor, which by themselves count for little. But can a process ...

Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd2014

Consciousness and the Social Brain

Aaron Schurger

American Association for the Advancement of Science2014