# How the Brain Transitions from Conscious to Subliminal Perception

## TL;DR

This study uses k-core percolation to analyze how the human brain transitions from conscious to subliminal perception, revealing that the core of the conscious network overlaps with the subliminal state, challenging previous models.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel application of k-core percolation to identify the core brain regions involved in conscious and subliminal perception, providing new insights into consciousness modeling.

## Key findings

- Inner core of conscious network coincides with subliminal state
- Transition driven by inactivation of peripheral network shells
- Core of the brain's functional network is in the unconscious state

## Abstract

We study the transition in the functional networks that characterize the human brains' conscious-state to an unconscious subliminal state of perception by using k-core percolation. We find that the most inner core (i.e., the most connected kernel) of the conscious-state functional network corresponds to areas which remain functionally active when the brain transitions from the conscious-state to the subliminal-state. That is, the inner core of the conscious network coincides with the subliminal-state. Mathematical modeling allows to interpret the conscious to subliminal transition as driven by k-core percolation, through which the conscious state is lost by the inactivation of the peripheral k-shells of the conscious functional network. Thus, the inner core and most robust component of the conscious brain corresponds to the unconscious subliminal state. This finding imposes constraints to theoretical models of consciousness, in that the location of the core of the functional brain network is in the unconscious part of the brain rather than in the conscious state as previously thought.