Direct manipulation of conscious visual perception by real-time fMRI multivoxel pattern decoded neurofeedback of frontoparietal brain activity
Conscious visual experience arises not just from sensory input but from the frontal cortex's active construction of perception, especially under ambiguous conditions. Using fMRI and multivoxel pattern analysis during a motion-detection task, the study found that frontal activity increased when stimuli were difficult to discriminate, indicating attentional and metarepresentational mechanisms. Notably, motion direction could be decoded from orbitofrontal and temporal patterns even without conscious report, showing the brain maintains representations of stimuli outside awareness. When sensory information was insufficient, participants relied on reconstructive processes integrating perceptual fragments with memory. These results support a representational view where frontal cortex both facilitates access to and helps construct conscious experience.