Sue Pockett

Email: s.pockett@auckland.ac.nz

The nature of consciousness

EEG correlates of conscious sensations

I am currently involved in testing the hypothesis that conscious sensations (aka qualia) are brain-generated, roughly brain-sized, spatiotemporal electromagnetic patterns. This hypothesis, together with a considerable amount of empirical evidence which already exists to support it, answers to some commonly advanced objections to its plausibility and some material on its implications, is laid out in a book published in 2000, called

The Nature of Consciousness: A Hypothesis. The book can be browsed at the link below and purchased at any online bookseller.

A further line of work involves the relative timing of the sensation of willing a movement and the movement itself, and the related question of whether or not consciousness causes behavior.

• Pockett, S. (2012) The electromagnetic field theory of consciousness: a testable hypothesis about the characteristics of conscious as opposed to non-conscious fields. Journal of Consciousness Studies (in press).
• Pockett S, Brennan BJ, Bold GEJ and Holmes MD (2011) A possible physiological basis for the discontinuity of consciousness. Frontiers in Psychology 2:377. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00377. (View a PDF version of the article)
• Pockett S (2011) Initiation of intentional actions and the electromagnetic field theory of consciousness. Humana.Mente 15, 150 - 175. (View a PDF version of the article)
• Ruiz Y, Pockett S, Freeman WJ, Gonzalez E and Guang L (2010) A method to study global spatial patterns related to sensory perception in scalp EEG. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 191: 110-118.
• Pockett S and Purdy SC (2010) Are voluntary movements initiated preconsciously? The relationships between readiness potentials, urges and decisions. In: W Sinnott-Armstrong and L Nadel (Eds) Conscious Will and Responsibility: A Tribute to Benjamin Libet. Eds, New York; OUP. (View a PDF version of the article)
• Pockett S and Holmes MD (2009) Intracranial EEG power spectra and phase synchrony during consciousness and unconsciousness. Consciousness and Cognition, 18: 1049-1055. (View a PDF version of the article)
• Pockett S, Bold GEJ and Freeman WJ (2009) EEG synchrony during a perceptual-cognitive task: Widespread phase synchrony at all frequencies. Clinical Neurophysiology 120, 695-708. (View a PDF version of the article)
• Pockett S (2009) Brain basis of voluntary control. In: WP Banks (Ed), Encyclopedia of Consciousness Volume 1, pp 123-133. Oxford: Elsevier. (View a PDF version of the article)
• Pockett S, Whalen S, McPhail AVH and Freeman WJ (2007) Topography, independent component analysis and dipole source analysis of movement related potentials. Cognitive Neurodynamics 1, 327-340.
• Pockett S, Zhou ZZ, Brennan BJ and Bold GEJ (2007) Spatial resolution and the neural correlates of sensory experience. Brain Topography 20, 1-6. (View a PDF version of the article)
• Pockett S and Miller A (2007) The rotating spot method of timing subjective events. Consciousness and Cognition 16, 241-254. (View a PDF version of the article)
• Pockett S (2007) The concept of free will: philosophy, neuroscience and the law. Invited Paper: Behavioral Sciences and the Law 25, 281-293. (View a PDF version of the article)
• Banks WP and Pockett S (2007) Libet's work on the neuroscience of free will. Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, Blackwell.
• Pockett S (2007) Difficulties with the electromagnetic field theory of consciousness: an update. Invited paper: NeuroQuantology 3, 271-275.
• Pockett S., Banks W.P. and Gallagher S. (2006) Does consciousness cause behavior? Cambridge Mass: MIT Press. (View an online version of the article)
• Pockett S (2006) The neuroscience of movement. In Does Consciousness Cause Behavior? Eds S. Pockett, W. Banks and S. Gallagher. Cambridge Mass., MIT Press.
• Pockett S, Banks WP and Gallagher S (2006) Editors' introduction. In Does Consciousness Cause Behavior? Eds S. Pockett, W. Banks and S. Gallagher. Cambridge Mass., MIT Press.
• Pockett S (2006) The great subjective back-referral debate: do neural responses increase during a train of stimuli? Consciousness and Cognition 15, 551-559.