Philosophy meets neuroscience in the study of consciousness

Conscious experience is central to human life, yet the processes underlying its emergence remain among the most debated questions in behavioral neuroscience. Over the past decade, the field has moved beyond simple contrasts between “conscious” and “unconscious” states toward mechanistic accounts grounded in large-scale brain dynamics, multisensory integration, and the interaction between perception, action, and self-representation. Progress has been driven by converging approaches, including computational frameworks (e.g., predictive processing and global workspace–type architectures), causal perturbation methods (such as TMS, DBS, and intracranial stimulation), and high-dimensional analyses of neural data from EEG, MEG, fMRI, and single-unit recordings. In parallel, experimental paradigms involving anesthesia, sleep, psychedelics, meditation, and disorders of consciousness have provided structured and naturalistic perturbations of subjective experience.Despite this progress, major challenges remain. Competing theories often make overlapping predictions, subjective reports can be unreliable or unavailable, especially in clinical contexts, and many proposed neural markers remain correlational rather than mechanistic. A persistent gap also separates first-person approaches (phenomenology and introspective reports) from third-person measures (behavioral performance, physiological indices, and neural signatures). Bridging these divides through closer integration of philosophy of mind, rigorous experimental design, and reproducible analytics is essential to advance how consciousness is measured, interpreted, and clinically addressed.This Research Topic aims to integrate philosophical frameworks with cutting-edge neuroscience to clarify what it means to explain consciousness and how such explanations can be empirically tested. We welcome contributions that: (i) operationalize core philosophical concepts (e.g., phenomenal character, selfhood, unity, intentionality) into measurable variables; (ii) propose or evaluate experimental designs capable of discriminating between competing theories; and (iii) advance methods for bridging first person and third person data, including neurophenomenology, structured experience sampling, and computational modeling.By uniting diverse perspectives, the collection seeks to foster a shared vocabulary across disciplines and highlight best practices for inference (e.g., causal reasoning, control of confounds, preregistration, open data/code). Ultimately, we aim to accelerate progress toward reliable, generalizable markers of consciousness and mechanistic insights that can guide clinical assessment and therapeutic innovation.We particularly welcome submissions of Original Research, Review, Methods, and Perspective articles on the following (but not limited to) subtopics:• Philosophical analysis of key constructs (e.g., qualia, selfhood, agency, time consciousness) with testable neuroscientific implications.• Comparative evaluation of leading theories (e.g., global workspace–style models, predictive processing, integrated information, higher-order approaches) using theory-discriminating predictions.• Neurophenomenology and integrative methods that combine structured first-person reports with neural and behavioral measurements.• Altered states of consciousness (e.g., sleep, anesthesia, psychedelics, meditation) as probes for underlying mechanisms and computational principles.• Disorders of consciousness and minimally verbal populations: assessment, biomarkers, and ethical considerations.• Causal perturbation and multiscale recordings (e.g., TMS, DBS, intracranial EEG, laminar recordings) to move from correlation toward mechanism.• Reproducible pipelines, open science, and robust statistics for consciousness research, including individual-difference and cross-cultural approaches. Topic editors: Aristea Ilias Ladas, Christos A. Frantzidis Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78953/philosophy-meets-neuroscience-in-the-study-of-consciousness