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The Consciousness Research Group

The CRG approaches the problem of consciousness from a multidisciplinary perspective, combining psychology, philosophy, and cognitive neuroscience. Our starting point is to take consciousness as a natural biological phenomenon in the brain, and our main aim is to carry out both empirical and theoretical explorations into the nature of consciousness. The main lines of research focus on perceptual awareness, altered states of consciousness (dreaming, hypnosis), and the theory and philosophy of consciousness.

Researchers

Principal Investigator:

Antti Revonsuo, PhD
Docent, Department of Psychology, University of Turku
Professor, School of Humanities and Informatics, University of Skövde, Sweden
European Editor, Consciousness and Cognition (Academic Press)
PhD thesis: "On the Nature of Consciousness: Theoretical and Empirical Explorations" (1995)
revonsuo(at)utu.fi

Post-Doctoral researchers:

Valtteri Arstila, PhD
Department of Philosophy, University of Turku
PhD thesis: "The Paradox of Colors" (2005)
valtteri(at)utu.fi

Sakari Kallio, PhD
School of Humanities and Informatics, University of Skövde, Sweden
PhD thesis: "Hypnosis and Altered State of Consciousness" (2003)
shakal(at)utu.fi

Mika Koivisto, PhD
Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Turku
PhD thesis: "Semantic Priming in the Cerebral Hemispheres" (1999)
mika.koivisto(at)utu.fi

Sari Laatu, PhD
Masku Neurological Rehabilitation Centre, Masku, Finland
PhD thesis: "Semantic Memory Deficits in AD, PD and MS" (2003)
sari.laatu(at)ms-liitto.fi

PhD students (at CCN):

Levente Móró
Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Turku
PhD project: "Cognitive Neuroinformatics: Altered States of Consciousness as Virtual Realities"
leve(at)utu.fi

Valdas Noreika
Department of Psychology, University of Turku
Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Turku
PhD project: "Consciousness and the Brain in Dreaming: Empirical and Theoretical Studies"
valnor(at)utu.fi

Niina Salminen-Vaparanta
Department of Psychology, University of Turku
Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Turku
PhD project: "The Neural Basis of Phenomenal Visual Awareness: TMS and ERP Studies"
niisalm(at)utu.fi

Katja Valli
Department of Psychology, University of Turku
Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Turku
PhD project: "Threatening Events in Dreams and Nightmares and the Threat Simulation Theory of Dreaming"
katval(at)utu.fi

Maria Wilenius
Department of Psychology, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Turku
PhD project: "Electrophysiological Correlates of Visual Awareness"
mwileniu(at)abo.fi

PhD students (other locations):

Monica Bergman
School of Humanities and Informatics, University of Skövde, Sweden
Department of Psychology, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
PhD project: "Effects of Trauma and Emotionally Charged Events on Dream Content"
monica.bergman(at)his.se

Olli Erjanti
Department of Comparative Religion, University of Helsinki
PhD project: "Out-of-Body Experiences"
olli.erjanti(at)helsinki.fi

Mirja Johanson
Department of Psychology, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Epilepsy Rehabilitation Clinic, Stora Sköndal Hospital, Sweden
PhD project: "Consciousness During Epileptic Seizures"
mirja.johanson(at)sssd.se

Visiting researchers:

Hamid Reza Naghavi, MD
Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran
Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Sweden
HamidReza.Naghavi(at)psy.umu.se

Former researchers:

Ville Ojanen, PhD
Cognitive Technology Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology
PhD thesis: "Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Audiovisual Speech Perception" (2005)
viloja(at)lce.hut.fi

Funding

Academy of Finland: Mika Koivisto, Valdas Noreika, Niina Salminen-Vaparanta
Graduate School of Psychology / Ministry of Education: Katja Valli, Maria Wilenius
University of Skövde: Sakari Kallio, Antti Revonsuo
Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation: Levente Móró

Contact

Principal Investigator
Antti Revonsuo, PhD
Contact address:
Department of Psychology
University of Turku
FIN-20014 FINLAND
revonsuo(at)utu.fi

References

Revonsuo A & Kamppinen M (Eds.) (1994) Consciousness in Philosophy and Cognitive Neuroscience. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Revonsuo A, Wilenius-Emet M, Kuusela J & Lehto M (1997) The neural generation of a unified illusion in human vision. NeuroReport 8: 3867-3870.

Kallio S, Revonsuo A, Lauerma H, Hämäläinen H & Lang H (1999) The MMN Amplitude Increases in Hypnosis - A Case Study. NeuroReport 10 (17): 3579-3582.

Revonsuo A (2000) The Reinterpretation of Dreams: An evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23 (6): 877-901.

Revonsuo A (2000) Prospects for a Scientific Research Program on Consciousness. In: Metzinger T (Ed.) Neural Correlates of Consciousness, 57-75. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Revonsuo A (2001) Can functional brain imaging discover consciousness in the brain? Journal of Consciousness Studies 8 (3): 3-23.

Koivisto, M., Hyönä, J., & Revonsuo, A. (2004). The effects of eye movements, spatial attention, and stimulus features on inattentional blindness. Vision Research 44, 3211-3221.

Koivisto, M. & Revonsuo, A. (2003). An ERP study of Change Detection, Change Blindness and Visual Awareness. Psychophysiology 40, 423-429.

Koivisto, M., & Revonsuo, A. (2004). Preconscious analysis of global structure: evidence from masked priming. Visual Cognition 11, 105-127.

Koivisto, M., & Revonsuo, A. (2005). Prechange event-related potentials predict change blindness in various attention conditions. NeuroReport 16, 869-873.

Koivisto, M., Revonsuo, A., & Lehtonen, M. (2006). Independence of visual awareness from the scope of attention: an electrophysiological study. Cerebral Cortex 16, 415-424.

Koivisto, M., Revonsuo, A. & Salminen, N. (2005). Independence of visual awareness from attention at early processing stages. NeuroReport 16, 817-821.

Revonsuo A (2006) Inner Presence. Consciousness as a Biological Phenomenon. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.