Neural Noise

Open multi-center iEEG dataset with tasks probing conscious visual perception

2 min read

  • An open multi-center intracranial EEG dataset with tasks probing conscious visual perception supports reproducible decoding and consciousness research.1
  • Multi-center iEEG enables benchmarking; task design targets neural correlates of awareness.1 1

Weekly enrichment (2026-07-20)

  • The dataset was published in Scientific Data (2025, vol. 12, article 854; DOI 10.1038/s41597-025-04833-z) and shares iEEG from 38 pharmaco-resistant epilepsy patients recorded under an identical protocol across three academic medical centers: NYU Langone’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, Brigham and Women’s/Boston Children’s Hospital (Harvard), and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.2
  • Stimuli were foveally presented suprathreshold images (~6 × 6° of visual angle) spanning four categories (faces, objects, letters, false fonts), three orientations (front, left, right), and three durations (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 s).2
  • Participants performed a non-speeded Go/No-Go target-detection task over 20 blocks in an AABB structure, with categories counterbalanced as task-relevant or task-irrelevant, plus a separate motor localizer task.2
  • Recordings span 4,771 electrodes across the 38 participants (1,238 surface/subdural contacts, 3,533 depth/stereo-EEG contacts) captured on 256-channel NATUS amplifiers at per-participant sampling rates of 512–2048 Hz; grids included 8×8 (10 mm pitch) and 8×16 (3 mm pitch) arrays, with strips of 4–12 and depths of 8–12 contacts.2
  • Behavioral quality was high—mean target-detection accuracy 95.52% (SD 7.58) and mean reaction time 0.64 s (SD 0.14); data are organized in BIDS with demographics, clinical information, electrode reconstructions, behavior, and eye-tracking, plus preprocessing/analysis code.2
  • The dataset was generated by the COGITATE consortium’s preregistered adversarial collaboration pitting Global Neuronal Workspace Theory against Integrated Information Theory; the iEEG is released here while fMRI and simultaneous MEG (independent samples) are shared separately, with the broader effort spanning 256 participants across all three modalities.2 3
  • Context: the consortium’s main results (Nature 2025, vol. 642, pp. 133–142; DOI 10.1038/s41586-025-08888-1) localized information about conscious content to visual, ventrotemporal, and inferior frontal cortex, with sustained occipital/lateral-temporal responses tracking stimulus duration.4
  • Context: those findings challenged both theories—IIT by the absence of sustained synchronization within posterior cortex, and GNWT by the general lack of ignition at stimulus offset and limited prefrontal representation of some conscious dimensions.4

Footnotes

  1. https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiX0FVX3lxTE1hQ1ktdXN5Q2p0Y09RQmdZY1hQQmo5am5vdHFEdjZGV2s5MXk1NEhCa3ViY1otaUV2YTQ0dXRPTl8xWmhkNlYtRnpPMi1la1pYc1NjOGxaR0ZIWnczcXI4?oc=5 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-025-04833-z ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. https://cogitate-consortium.github.io/cogitate-data/03_cogdataset/ ↩

  4. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08888-1 ↩ ↩2

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