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conscious awareness

·July 19, 2026·25 min read

Is Working Memory the Subconscious Engine of Consciousness?

A new study evaluates the historical capacity debates and architectural frameworks linking working memory to conscious awareness, presenting an alternative "Spectrum Model" of human memory encoding.

This shows the outline of two heads and speech bubbles.

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·June 12, 2026·10 min read

How the Unconscious Blocks Distressing Language

The unconscious mind acts as a selective gatekeeper, actively suppressing negative spoken words before they can reach conscious awareness.

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·April 13, 2025·6 min read

Why You Sometimes Don’t Feel Pain Until It’s Too Late

New research highlights how the brain’s own chemistry can suppress pain, explaining why severely injured individuals, like WWII soldiers, sometimes feel little discomfort. The key lies in a brain region called the periaqueductal grey (PAG), which dampens pain signals before they reach conscious awareness.

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·September 18, 2023·5 min read

How Babies Unravel the Origin of Conscious Awareness and Purpose

Researchers delved into the age-old question of agency, using human infants as their study subjects. By tethering an infant's foot to a crib-mounted mobile, they observed the moment a baby realizes they can influence the environment.

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·March 16, 2022·3 min read

Largest Ever Psychedelics Study Maps Changes of Conscious Awareness to Neurotransmitter Systems

Study reveals how psychedelic drug-induced changes in subjective awareness are rooted in specific neurotransmitter systems.

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·June 5, 2021·4 min read

Is It Time to Give Up on Consciousness as ‘the Ghost in the Machine’?

Giving up the theory that consciousness is like a "ghost in the machine" to focus on the neurobiology of brain mechanisms behind conscious awareness is an essential step to better understand the human mind, researchers argue.

This shows a brain and a finger with lightening coming out of it

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·May 4, 2021·4 min read

The Gateway to Conscious Awareness

The anterior insular cortex appears to be a gate to conscious awareness, researchers conclude.

This shows the L5p neurons in the thalamocortical circuit

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·September 30, 2019·4 min read

Finding the root of consciousness: Is this brain cell your ‘mind’s eye’?

Researchers believe they have identified specific neurons that are responsible for conscious awareness. Previous studies have implicated both thalamocortical circuits and cortico-cortico circuits in consciousness. The new study reports these networks intersect via L5p neurons. Directly activating L5p neurons made mice react to weaker sensory stimuli. The researchers say if consciousness requires L5p neurons, all brain activity without them must be unconscious.

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·April 25, 2019·3 min read

Off with her head! Did Anne Boleyn really try to speak after being beheaded?

The common myth that Anne Boleyn tried to speak after her untimely demise at the hands of her executioner may have scientific evidence behind it. Researchers explore how consciousness may remain intact for a period of time after death, and what that may mean for medical sciences.