title: Stimulus independence, social cognition and consciousness.
abstract: Abstract A consensus emerging from neuroscience is that certain brain regions show activity correlated with stimulus independent (e.g. private) conscious thought and yet are also implicated in public social processes. The fact that systems supporting social processing also exhibit activity with no obvious perceptual referent, can be seen as support for the framework suggested by Graziano and Kerber (this volume) once it is recognized that the property of stimulus independence is also an important feature of consciousness. Understanding the social basis behind private stimulus independent thought, therefore, may provide an important assessment of the validity of the Graziano and Kerber hypothesis.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Social Neuroscience , The Max Planck Institute for Human and Cognitive Brain Sciences , Leipzig , Germany.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Smallwood