Distinct characteristics of conscious experience are met by large-scale neuronal synchronization

Conscious processes have a number of distinct properties that need to be accounted for by neuronal mechanisms supporting conscious experience. It is proposed that synchronization of distributed neuronal activity patterns meets most of these requirements. A major problem for the identification of neuronal correlates of consciousness is the distinction between the processes that lead to conscious experience and those that follow once contents have become conscious. Criteria for this distinction are discussed in the context of published evidence.