For centuries, the nature of consciousness has baffled scientists and philosophers alike. What transforms neural activity into the rich, subjective experience of seeing a face, hearing a melody, or feeling the warmth of the sun?

The Cogitate Consortium, a group of researchers from across the globe, including Professor Ole Jensen from Oxford University’s departments of Experimental Psychology and Psychiatry, set out to change that. The consortium brought together the proponents of two influential theories of consciousness—Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT), led by Stanislas Dehaene, and Integrated Information Theory (IIT), proposed by Giulio Tononi—for a rigorous empirical test.

Their adversarial collaboration, a model of scientific inquiry famously advocated for by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman over 20 years ago, represents a fundamental shift in how science can be done. Rather than seeking to confirm pre-existing beliefs, the experiment was designed such that all predictions, methods, and interpretations were registered in advance, eliminating post-hoc rationalisations.

University of Wollongong researchers have experimentally confirmed that changes in hammer strike angle significantly affect the fracture path and form of stone flakes produced by Neanderthals during the Middle Paleolithic.

Published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, the findings contradict a widely cited fracture model that credited rock core geometry and stiffness with flaking patterns and predicted that hammer strike angle would have minimal effect on flake formation. Results suggest a greater degree of cognitive control by early human tool makers than previously recognized.

Middle Paleolithic stone tool technology is defined by deliberate core preparation to produce flakes of predetermined size and shape. First appearing in the archaeological record between 200,000 and 400,000 years ago, the Levallois method is a hallmark of Neanderthal tool making in this period.