Consciousness is a central aspect of our experience of the world. The neural fingerprint of this experience, however, remains one of the least understood aspects of the human brain. No agreement has yet emerged on which aspects of brain function underlie its presence, and what changes are connected to its disappearance in the healthy brain, and in pathological conditions as disorders of consciousness. I am interested in how the human brain process information in the absence of conscious awareness. In order to elucidate the common principles of processing under loss of consciousness, I use EEG, fMRI and intracranial recordings and focus on three different states: sleep, sedation, and disorders of consciousness. By comparing conscious and unconscious processing I aim to identify brain activations associated with conscious awareness, or in other words, aim to uncover a neural fingerprint of consciousness.
