Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28978696›Full record

ReviewThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2017

Should a Few Null Findings Falsify Prefrontal Theories of Conscious Perception?

Brian Odegaard, Robert T Knight, Hakwan Lau

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 99 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
99citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

99 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Review
  6. Consciousness, subjectivity, and aging in western thought.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026
    Review
  7. Intrinsic units: identifying a system's causal grain.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2026
    Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Review
  13. The multiple generator hypothesis of consciousness.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2025
    Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Metacognition as a window into subjective affective experience.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2024
    Review
  17. Article
  18. Review
  19. Review
  20. Article

39 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Brian OdegaardDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1563, odegaard.brian@gmail.com.
Robert T KnightHelen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720.
Hakwan LauDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1563.

Funding

ATTENTION, ORIENTATION, & THE HUMAN PREFRONTAL CORTEXR37NS021135 · NINDS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · PI KNIGHT, ROBERT THOMAS · 2013 to 2019
$3.6M
Neural basis of metacognitionR01NS088628 · NINDS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI FLEMING, STEPHEN MICHAEL, LAU, HAKWAN · 2014 to 2018
$1.7M
NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS088628NINDS NIH HHS R37 NS021135
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Is activity in prefrontal cortex (PFC) critical for conscious perception? Major theories of consciousness make distinct predictions about the role of PFC, providing an opportunity to arbitrate between these views empirically. Here we address three common misconceptions: (1) PFC lesions do not affect subjective perception; (2) PFC activity does not reflect specific perceptual content; and (3) PFC involvement in studies of perceptual awareness is solely driven by the need to make reports required by the experimental tasks rather than subjective experience per se. These claims are incompatible with empirical findings, unless one focuses only on studies using methods with limited sensitivity. The literature highlights PFC's essential role in enabling the subjective experience in perception, contra the objective capacity to perform visual tasks; conflating the two can also be a source of confusion.

Indexed as

AnimalsAwarenessBrain MappingConsciousnessHumansMemoryPerceptionPrefrontal Cortexattentionawarenessconsciousnessmetacognitionprefrontal cortex

Identifiers

PMID28978696
PMCPMC5628405

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.