phenomenon · claim-type · cross-domain-transfer · mechanism · claim-relation · replication-status · limitation — grounded in the full text| phenomenon | neural correlates of visual consciousness— “In round terms, the NCC is the minimal set of neuronal events that gives rise to a specific aspect of a conscious percept.” | |
| claim-type | mechanism— “This framework offers a coherent scheme for explaining the neural correlates of (visual) consciousness in terms of competing cellular assemblies.” | |
| method — evidence | — “A framework is not a detailed hypothesis or set of hypotheses; rather, it is a suggested point of view for an attack on a scientific problem, often suggesting testable hypotheses.” | |
| transfer | from politics / electoral competition: The structure of a democratic election — primaries, a winning party that stays in power and shapes later events, and opinion polls — is imported as an explicit working model of how transient neuronal coalitions compete and how one comes to dominate and constitute the conscious percept.— “The winning coalition associated with an object or event would correspond to the winning party, which would remain in power for some time and would attempt to influence and control future events.” | transfers[0] |
| mechanism | Attention makes an object conscious by biasing the competition between rival neuronal coalitions while those coalitions are still forming, rather than by acting on an already-formed percept.— “Attention probably acts by biasing the competition among rival coalitions, especially during their formation24.” | mechanisms[0] |
| mechanism | Positive feedback loops iteratively re-excite a neuron, driving its activity past the consciousness threshold and then holding it there for the duration of a snapshot.— “Positive feedback loops could, by iteratively exciting the neuron, push its activity increasingly upward so that the activity not only reaches above some critical threshold, but is maintained there for some time.” | mechanisms[1] |
| mechanism | Feature detectors are built by neurons detecting recurring correlations in their inputs and modifying their synapses so those inputs drive them more easily — the brain is thereby detecting apparent causation.— “A broad answer is that neurons do this by detecting common and significant correlations in their inputs and by altering their synapses (and perhaps other properties) so that they can more easily respond to such inputs.” | mechanisms[2] |
| mechanism | Because motion is coded as a constant firing rate held fixed within one snapshot, a change of motion has no explicit representation, which is why acceleration is hard to perceive.— “It is not surprising, then, that if the eyes do not move in smooth pursuit, the brain is very poor at recognizing acceleration even though it is good at distinguishing movements36.” | mechanisms[3] |
| builds-on | Hebb's cell-assembly idea— “‘Coalitions’ implies ‘assemblies’—an idea which goes back at least to Hebb22—plus competition among them (see also ref. 23).” | claim_relations[0] |
| extends | Crick & Koch's own 1990 paper, 1995 proposal and 1998 review— “Many of our basic ideas on consciousness, such as the importance of attention and correlated firing, were outlined in our 1990 paper11, and in 1995, we suggested a plausible function for consciousness12 and later updated our ideas in a 1998 review3.” | claim_relations[1] |
| contradicts | the authors' own earlier claim (1990 paper, ref. 11) that synchronized 40 Hz firing is sufficient for the NCC— “We no longer think11 that synchronized firing, such as the so-called 40 Hz oscillations, is a sufficient condition for the NCC.” | claim_relations[2] |
| sense | framework - explicitly NOT a hypothesis or set of hypotheses, but a suggested point of view for attacking a problem, which may suggest testable hypotheses— “A framework is not a detailed hypothesis or set of hypotheses; rather, it is a suggested point of view for an attack on a scientific problem, often suggesting testable hypotheses.” | senses[0] |
| sense | neural correlate of consciousness - the minimal set of neuronal events giving rise to one specific aspect of a conscious percept— “In round terms, the NCC is the minimal set of neuronal events that gives rise to a specific aspect of a conscious percept.” | senses[1] |
| sense | private - a stipulated sense: accessible exclusively to the owner of the brain, so the percept itself cannot be conveyed even though information about it can— “we mean that it is accessible exclusively to the owner of the brain; it is impossible for me to convey to you the exact nature of my conscious percept of the color red, though I can convey information about it, such as whether two shades of red appear to me to be the same or different.” | senses[2] |
| audit | EVIDENCE CORRECTED (RE-GROUNDED) · qualia —contrasted-with→ NCC — Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its span and kept, but the span sets the search for NCC against explaining qualia directly; contrasted-with is loose.— “Instead, we are attempting to find the neural correlate(s) of consciousness (NCC), in the hope that when we can explain the NCC in causal terms, this will make the problem of qualia clearer3.” | concept_edges[0] |
| retracted | EVIDENCE CORRECTED (RE-GROUNDED) · qualia —contrasted-with→ NCC — RE-GROUNDED. The old span was about the difficulty of explaining redness. This sentence names both and states the programme's own substitution - '…correlate(s) of consciousness (NCC), in the hope that when…'.— “Instead, we are attempting to find the neural correlate(s) of consciousness (NCC), in the hope that when we can explain the NCC in causal terms, this will make the problem of qualia clearer3.”— “No one has produced any plausible explanation as to how” | concept_edges[0] |
| for which use | limitation — the scope of the framework: WE HAVE CONCENTRATED ON THE VISUAL SYSTEM OF PRIMATES, LEAVING ON ONE SIDE SOME OF THE MORE DIFFICULT ASPECTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS, SUCH AS EMOTION AND SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS— “As a matter of tactics, we have concentrated on the visual system of primates, leaving on one side some of the more difficult aspects of… | limitations[0] |
| for which use | limitation — the anatomical completeness of the framework: the authors ACKNOWLEDGE SOME RELEVANT ASPECTS OF THE BRAIN THAT HAVE BEEN LEFT OUT | limitations[1] |
| for which use | limitation — the originality claim, precisely: MOST OF THE IDEAS WE FAVOR HAVE BEEN SUGGESTED BEFORE, BUT THEIR COMBINATION IS ORIGINAL - the claim is on the combination, not the components | limitations[2] |
| for which use | limitation — this framework as an account of qualia: the authors state it is fruitless to approach that problem head-on and substitute the search for neural correlates Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[3] |
| for which use | limitation — this framework as a law-like account: the authors state biological systems do not have rigid laws and that evolution produces mechanisms with exceptions Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[4] |
| replication | untested | |
| limitation | The framework is deliberately restricted to primate vision and sets aside emotion and self-consciousness. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[0] |
| limitation | The authors acknowledge that relevant parts of the brain are omitted from the framework. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[1] |
| limitation | The individual ideas are not new; only their combination is claimed as original. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[2] |
| limitation | The hard problem is declared unapproachable head-on and replaced with a different, tractable target. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[3] |
| limitation | Biological frameworks are said to differ in kind from those in physics, because biology has few rules without exceptions. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | limitations[4] |
finding · quantity · variable · definition · key-term — grounded in the full text| finding | The framework's central claim is that the coalition of mutually supporting neurons that wins the ongoing competition at a given moment is what the subject is conscious of. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[0] |
| finding | The authors retract their earlier position that synchronized firing, in particular 40 Hz oscillations, is sufficient for the NCC. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[1] |
| finding | An explicit representation of a feature is necessary for that feature to become conscious but is not on its own sufficient to produce the NCC. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[2] |
| finding | Consciousness of a visual scene is claimed to begin at the top of the hierarchy with the gist of the scene, with the details filled in afterwards as activity descends to lower levels. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[3] |
| finding | The binding of an object's features is simply their membership in one coalition. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[4] |
| finding | The penumbra — the neurons influenced by, but not part of, the NCC — is proposed as the substrate of unconscious priming. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[5] |
| finding | No recorded case of purely parietal damage led to a complete loss of conscious vision. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[6] |
| finding | The sensory cortex's job is described as building and using highly specific but multidimensional feature detectors, for properties such as orientation, motion and faces. Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.findings[7] |
| quantity | 40 Hz — the synchronized-firing frequency the authors previously proposed, and now reject, as sufficient for the NCC Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.quantities[0] |
| quantity | ten — number of headings under which the framework's ingredients are set out Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.quantities[1] |
| definition | NCC Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.definitions[0] |
| definition | framework Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.definitions[1] |
| definition | private Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.definitions[2] |
| definition | projective field Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.definitions[3] |
| definition | explicit representation Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.definitions[4] |
| definition | essential node Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.definitions[5] |
| definition | zombie modes Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.definitions[6] |
| definition | net-wave Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.definitions[7] |
| definition | coalitions of neurons Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.definitions[8] |
| definition | snapshots Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.definitions[9] |
| definition | binding Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.definitions[10] |
| definition | penumbra Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | content_tags.definitions[11] |
| concept | framework Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | concepts[0] |
| concept | qualia Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | concepts[1] |
| concept | NCC Quotation withheld — this paper is not ours to reproduce, and the page has already quoted as much of it as the rights layer allows. The tag, its field and its confidence stand; the sentence is at the publisher. | concepts[2] |
When we have changed our mind. Some entries in the table begin with a word in capitals and the reason for it. EVIDENCE CORRECTED — the finding still stands, but we had quoted the wrong sentence from the paper, and the quotation has been replaced with the right one. RETRACTED — the entry itself was wrong; it stays on the page, marked, with the reason, rather than being deleted. WITHDRAWN AND REPLACED — the entry was wrong, and a corrected version of it appears in the entries below. Each mark carries its own reason, in brackets, because the reasons differ from one entry to the next. An entry we have WITHDRAWN is removed from this page and kept in the record, with its reason. A line reading Audit and a date is a later re-reading of the entry against its whole sentence: DOUBTFUL means it was kept, and the reason says what is loose about it. Quotation marks inside the tagger's sentence. Where a tag is the tagger's own sentence, a phrase in quotation marks inside it is borrowed from the paper — the tagger's wording around it is not. The paper's own sentence is the evidence quote for that row; on this page it is withheld with the article, and the article is at its publisher. Nothing inside quotation marks anywhere on this page is ours: if it is quoted, it is the paper's. Whose words a concept carries. A concept entry records a term the paper itself uses, so the term, the sense given for it, and its evidence are the paper's own words, quoted where the paper fixes them. This is the opposite of a sense entry in the tag table, which is the tagger's sentence about how the paper uses a term. Where a concept entry could not be grounded in the paper's words, the entry says so on its own row.
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