Michael Pitts
Professor of Psychology
Email
| 503-517-7721
On sabbatical 2025-26.
Cognitive neuroscience, perception, attention and consciousness
Curriculum Vitae
Visit the SCALP LAB website
Office Hours
Education and Professional Positions
2001 B.A., Psychology, Brain and Behavior Program, University of New Hampshire
2004, M.S., Psychology, Behavioral Neuroscience Program, Colorado State University
2007, Ph.D., Psychology, Perception and Brain Science Program, Colorado State University
2007-2009, Postdoctoral Trainee, Institute for Neural Computation, University of California San Diego
2009-2011, Postdoctoral Researcher, Neurosciences Department, University of California San Diego
2011-2015, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Reed College
2015-2021, Associate Professor of Psychology, Reed College
2021-present, Professor of Psychology, Reed College
Recent Projects and Positions
Principal Investigator, Templeton World Charity Foundation Grant, Triangulating neural correlates of consciousness, 2022-2026.
Principal Investigator, Templeton World Charity Foundation Grant, Bifurcation dynamics in a no-report paradigm, 2022-2026.
Co-center PI, Templeton World Charity Foundation Grant, Accelerating research on consciousness: An adversarial collaboration to test contradictory predictions of global neuronal workspace and integrated information theory, 2020-2025.
Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant, Isolating neural mechanisms of perceptual awareness from post-perceptual processes, 2018-2022.
Teaching
My courses include cognitive neuroscience, neuroscience of consciousness, and attention & consciousness research, and (course descriptions below). In most of these courses, students read, discuss, and critique research articles, learn the methodological techniques of cognitive neuroscience, and develop novel experimental questions that can be explored in the laboratory.
PSY 217 Neuroscience of Consciousness
PSY 334 Cognitive Neuroscience
PSY 417 Attention and Consciousness Research
Research
My area of expertise is in cognitive electrophysiology of perception, attention, and consciousness. I specialize in electroencephalography (EEG), event-related potentials (ERPs), and behavioral psychophysics. Some of the major questions my research seeks to resolve are: How does brain activity differ during conscious versus nonconscious processing? Which cognitive functions require attention and awareness and which can be carried out automatically? Are attention and awareness fully dissociable? My laboratory includes two 64-channel EEG systems that can be used to record and map the brain waves of human subjects while they perform visual and auditory tasks.
Selected Recent Publications
See CV for complete publications list [PDF].
(Reed student co-authors in bold)
Cogitate et al. (2025). Adversarial testing of global neuronal workspace and integrated information theories of consciousness. Nature, 642, 133-142. [LINK]
Cohen, M., Dembski, C., Ortego, K., Steinhilber, C., & Pitts, M. (2024). Neural signatures of visual awareness independent of post-perceptual processing. Cerebral Cortex, 34, bhae415. [LINK]
Zhu, Y., Li, C., Hendry, C., Glass, J., Canseco-Gonzalez, E., Pitts, M., & Dykstra, A. (2024). Isolating neural signatures of conscious speech perception with a no-report sine-wave speech paradigm. The Journal of Neuroscience, 44(8), 1-12. [LINK]
Melloni, L., Mudrik, L., Pitts, M. et al. (2023). An adversarial collaboration protocol for testing contrasting predictions of global neuronal workspace and integrated information theory. PLoS ONE 18(2):e0268577. [LINK]
Hatamimajoumerd, E., Murty, N., Pitts, M., & Cohen, M. (2022). Decoding perceptual awareness across the brain with a no-report fMRI masking paradigm. Current Biology, 32, 1-11. [LINK]
Yaron, I., Melloni, L., Pitts, M., & Mudrik, L. (2022). The ConTrSt database for analyzing and comparing empirical studies of consciousness theories. Nature Human Behavior, 6, 593-604. [LINK]
Kronemer et al. (2022). Human visual consciousness involves large scale cortical and subcortical networks independent of task report and eye movement activity. Nature Communications, 13:7342, 1-17. [LINK]
Dembski, C., Koch, C., & Pitts, M. (2021). Perceptual awareness negativity: A physiological correlate of sensory consciousness. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 25(8), 660-670.
Melloni, L., Mudrik, L., Pitts, M., & Koch, C. (2021). Making the hard problem of consciousness easier: Championing open science, an adversarial collaboration aims to unravel the footprints of consciousness. Science, 372(6545), 911-912.
Cohen, M., Ortego, K., Kyroudis, A., & Pitts, M. (2020). Distinguishing the neural correlates of perceptual awareness and post-perceptual processing. The Journal of Neuroscience, 40(25), 4925-4935. [LINK]
Pitts, M., Lutsyshyna, A.L., & Hillyard, S. (2018). The relationship between attention and consciousness: An expanded taxonomy and implications for "no report" paradigms. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 373:20170348.
Graulty, C., Papaioannou, O., Bauer, P., Pitts, M., & Canseco-Gonzalez, E. (2018). Hearing Shapes: Event-related potentials reveal the time course of auditory-visual sensory substitution. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 30:4, 498-513.
Baumgartner, H., Graulty, C., Hillyard, S., & Pitts, M. (2018). Does spatial attention modulate the earliest component of the visual evoked potential? Cognitive Neuroscience, 9:1-2, 4-19.
Schelonka, K., Graulty, C., Canseco-Gonzalez, E., & Pitts, M. (2017). ERP signatures of conscious and unconscious word and letter perception in an inattentional blindness paradigm. Consciousness & Cognition, 54, 56-71.
Jackson-Nielsen, M., Cohen, M., & Pitts, M. (2017). Perception of ensemble statistics requires attention. Consciousness & Cognition, 48, 149-160.
Shafto, J. & Pitts, M. (2015). Neural signatures of conscious face perception in an inattentional blindness paradigm. The Journal of Neuroscience, 35(31), 10940-10948.
Snyder, J., Yerkes, B., & Pitts, M. (2015). Testing domain-general theories of perceptual awareness with auditory brain responses. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(6), 295-297.
Pitts, M., Padwal, J., Fennelly, D., Martinez, A., & Hillyard, S. (2014). Gamma band activity and the P3 reflect post-perceptual processes, not visual awareness. NeuroImage, 101, 337-350.
Davidson, G. & Pitts, M. (2014). Auditory event-related potentials associated with perceptual reversals of bistable pitch motion. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8:572, 1-10.