Title: Inference rules for identifying the content NCCs based on Pearl's causal analysis framework

Presenting Author: Borysław Paulewicz|SWPS University, faculty in Katowice

Abstract:
The issue of how to differentiate between the genuine Neural Correlates of Conscious Content
(content NCCs) and the mere correlates (i.e., the confounders) has been addressed in several recent
methodological papers and conference presentations. Most of the authors identified only two kinds
of confounders, namely the predecessors and the consequences of the proper NCCs. Using only a
small set of non-controversial assumptions underlying Pearl's causal analysis framework I will
formally prove that when trying to identify the NCCs using arbitrary measures of content (e.g.,
verbal report or physiological indicators in the so called "no-report" paradigms), there are several
different kinds of confounders possible other than the predecessors and the consequences of the
NCCs. I will also show how Pearl's causal analysis framework, together with an operational
definition of content NCC, can be used to derive general inference rules for identifying content
NCCs. Finally, I will prove that - contrary to what is sometimes claimed in the literature - when
compared to the paradigms where stimulus properties are subject to experimental manipulation
(variable stimulus paradigm) the paradigms with fixed stimuli, such as the binocular rivalry
paradigm, are



limited in the sense that the set of inference rules for identifying the NCCs applicable to the general
fixed stimulus paradigm is a proper subset of the set of inference rules applicable to the general
variable stimulus paradigm.