Broken Mirrors of the Mind: Illusions, Paradoxes, and the Construction of Consciousness

Dear Colleagues,

For this Special Issue, we welcome empirical, theoretical, and computational work that examines perceptual illusions, cognitive biases, paradoxes, hallucinations, and delusions to advance a scientific theory of consciousness. Distortions of perception and belief are treated here not as curiosities, but as systematic probes of how conscious experience is constructed, maintained, and modified in the mind–brain system.

We especially welcome contributions that address the bidirectional relationship between consciousness and these phenomena:

• How illusions, biases, paradoxes, and psychotic-like experiences constrain models of conscious perception, cognition, and the self;
• How conscious processes (attention, awareness, metacognition, self-representation, insight) contribute to the generation, amplification, attenuation, or dissolution of such distortions.

Relevant approaches include experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, psychiatry and neurology, philosophy of the mind, and computational modeling (e.g., predictive processing, global workspace, higher-order and recurrent models, integrated information, enactive and embodied accounts). Studies may focus on basic laboratory paradigms and clinical states, or altered and atypical forms of experience, provided they explicitly link their findings to theories of consciousness.

For this Special Issue, we will consider the following submissions:

• Original empirical articles (behavioral, neuroimaging, electrophysiological, clinical, computational);
• Theory and model papers with clear empirical implications;
• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses on any of the above themes.

All submissions will undergo rigorous peer review according to the journal’s standards.

Prof. Dr. Baingio Pinna
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.