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22Sizing Up Consciousness: Towards an Objective Measure of the Capacity for ExperienceOxford University Press. 2018.This book explores how we can measure consciousness. It clarifies what consciousness is, how it can be generated from a physical system, and how it can be measured. It also shows how conscious states can be expressed mathematically and how precise predictions can be made using data from neurophysiological studies.
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30The Integrated Information Theory of ConsciousnessIn Susan Schneider & Max Velmans (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, Wiley. 2017.Integrated information theory (IIT) starts from the essential properties of experience and translates them into requirements that any physical system must satisfy to be conscious. It argues that the physical substrate of consciousness (PSC) must constitute a maximum of irreducible, internal cause‐effect power of a specific form, and provides a calculus to determine, in principle, both the quality and the quantity of an experience. Applied to the brain, IIT predicts that the spatio‐temporal grain…Read more
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21Integrated Information Theory of ConsciousnessIn Susan Schneider & Max Velmans (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, Wiley. 2017.Integrated information theory (IIT) starts from the essential properties of experience (axioms) and translates them into requirements that any physical system must satisfy to be conscious (postulates; see Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness: An Outline, this volume). The postulates of IIT can be seen as a list of requirements for something to exist ‘for itself’, as an intrinsic entity, and thus have relevance for ontology and metaphysics. Some implications of the theory include the di…Read more
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1This paper presents Integrated Information Theory (IIT) 4.0. IIT aims to account for the properties of experience in physical (operational) terms. It identifies the essential properties of experience (axioms), infers the necessary and sufficient properties that its substrate must satisfy (postulates), and expresses them in mathematical terms. In principle, the postulates can be applied to any system of units in a state to determine whether it is conscious, to what degree, and in what way. IIT of…Read more
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74Causal reductionism and causal structuresNature Neuroscience 24. 2021.Causal reductionism is the widespread assumption that there is no room for additional causes once we have accounted for all elementary mechanisms within a system. Due to its intuitive appeal, causal reductionism is prevalent in neuroscience: once all neurons have been caused to fire or not to fire, it seems that causally there is nothing left to be accounted for. Here, we argue that these reductionist intuitions are based on an implicit, unexamined notion of causation that conflates causation wi…Read more
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388Consciousness and the Fallacy of Misplaced ObjectivityNeuroscience of Consciousness 7 (2): 1-12. 2021.Objective correlates—behavioral, functional, and neural—provide essential tools for the scientific study of consciousness. But reliance on these correlates should not lead to the ‘fallacy of misplaced objectivity’: the assumption that only objective properties should and can be accounted for objectively through science. Instead, what needs to be explained scientifically is what experience is intrinsically— its subjective properties—not just what we can do with it extrinsically. And it must be…Read more
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55IIT, half masked and half disfiguredBehavioral and Brain Sciences 45. 2022.The target article misrepresents the foundations of integrated information theory and ignores many essential publications. It, thus, falls to this lead commentary to outline the axioms and postulates of IIT and correct major misconceptions. The commentary also explains why IIT starts from phenomenology and why it predicts that only select physical substrates can support consciousness. Finally, it highlights that IIT's account of experience – a cause–effect structure quantified by integrated info…Read more
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2A Macro Agent and Its ActionsIn Jan Voosholz & Markus Gabriel (eds.), Top-Down Causation and Emergence, Springer Verlag. pp. 135-155. 2021.In science, macro level descriptions of the causal interactions within complex, dynamical systems are typically deemed convenient, but ultimately reducible to a complete causal account of the underlying micro constituents. Yet, such a reductionist perspective is hard to square with several issues related to autonomy and agency: agents require borders that separate them from the environment, at least in a biological context, agents are associated with macroscopic systems, and agents are supposed …Read more
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16Episodic thought distinguishes spontaneous cognition in waking from REM and NREM sleepConsciousness and Cognition 97 (C): 103247. 2022.
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1Consciousness: Here, There and Everywhere?Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 370 (1668): 20140167. 2015.The science of consciousness has made great strides by focusing on the behavioural and neuronal correlates of experience. However, while such correlates are important for progress to occur, they are not enough if we are to understand even basic facts, for example, why the cerebral cortex gives rise to consciousness but the cerebellum does not, though it has even more neurons and appears to be just as complicated. Moreover, correlates are of little help in many instances where we would like to kn…Read more
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From the Phenomenology to the Mechanisms of Consciousness: Integrated Information Theory 3.0PLOS Computational Biology 10 (5). 2014.This paper presents Integrated Information Theory of consciousness 3.0, which incorporates several advances over previous formulations. IIT starts from phenomenological axioms: information says that each experience is specific a sh it is what it is by how it differs from alternative experiences; integration says that it is unified a sh irreducible to non-interdependent components; exclusion says that it has unique borders and a particular spatio-temporal grain. These axioms are formalized into p…Read more
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13Beta Oscillatory Changes and Retention of Motor Skills during Practice in Healthy Subjects and in Patients with Parkinson's DiseaseFrontiers in Human Neuroscience 11. 2017.
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9Local and Widespread Slow Waves in Stable NREM Sleep: Evidence for Distinct Regulation MechanismsFrontiers in Human Neuroscience 12. 2018.
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28EEG Differentiation Analysis and Stimulus Set MeaningfulnessFrontiers in Psychology 8. 2017.A set of images can be considered as meaningfully different for an observer if they can be distinguished phenomenally from one another. Each phenomenal difference must be supported by some neurophysiological differences. Differentiation analysis aims to quantify neurophysiological differentiation evoked by a given set of stimuli to assess its meaningfulness to the individual observer. As a proof of concept using high-density EEG, we show increased neurophysiological differentiation for a set of …Read more
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105Schizophrenia and the mechanisms of conscious integrationBrain Research Reviews 31 (2): 391-400. 2000.
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48Consciousness, information integration and the brainIn Steven Laureys (ed.), Boundaries of Consciousness, Elsevier. 2006.
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259The information integration theory of consciousnessIn Max Velmans & Susan Schneider (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, Blackwell. pp. 287--299. 2007.
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136Investigating neural correlates of conscious perception by frequency-tagged neuromagnetic responsesProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Usa 95 3198-3203. 1998.
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103Increased synchronization of neuromagnetic responses during conscious perceptionJournal of Neuroscience 19 (13): 5435-5448. 1999.
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85Consciousness and the integration of information in the brainIn H. Jasper, L. Descarries, V. Castellucci & S. Rossignol (eds.), Consciousness: At the Frontiers of Neuroscience, Lippincott-raven. 1998.
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2Consciousness differentiated and integratedIn Axel Cleeremans (ed.), The Unity of Consciousness, Oxford University Press. 2003.
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174Reentry and the Dynamic Core: Neural Correlates of Conscious ExperienceIn Thomas Metzinger (ed.), Neural Correlates of Consciousness, Mit Press. 2000.
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328Complexity and coherency: integrating information in the brainTrends in Cognitive Sciences 2 (12): 474-484. 1998.The brains of higher mammals are extraordinary integrative devices. Signals from large numbers of functionally specialized groups of neurons distributed over many brain regions are integrated to generate a coherent, multimodal scene. Signals from the environment are integrated with ongoing, patterned neural activity that provides them with a meaningful context. We review recent advances in neurophysiology and neuroimaging that are beginning to reveal the neural mechanisms of integration. In addi…Read more
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45Information: In the stimulus or in the context?Behavioral and Brain Sciences 20 (4): 698-700. 1997.The distinction between receptive field and conceptual field is appealing and heuristically useful. Conceptually, it is more satisfactory to distinguish between information from the environment and from the brain. We emphasize here a selectionist view that considers information transmission within the brain as modulated by a stimulus, rather than information transmission from a stimulus as modulated by the context.
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214Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiologyTrends in Cognitive Sciences 14 (2): 88-100. 2010.Dreams are a remarkable experiment in psychology and neuroscience, conducted every night in every sleeping person. They show that the human brain, disconnected from the environment, can generate an entire world of conscious experiences by itself. Content analysis and developmental studies have promoted understanding of dream phenomenology. In parallel, brain lesion studies, functional imaging and neurophysiology have advanced current knowledge of the neural basis of dreaming. It is now possible …Read more
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56Sleep and synaptic homeostasisBehavioral and Brain Sciences 28 (1): 85-85. 2005.We propose that sleep is linked to synaptic homeostasis. Specifically, we propose that: (1) Wakefulness is associated with synaptic potentiation in cortical circuits; (2) synaptic potentiation is tied to the homeostatic regulation of slow wave activity; (3) slow wave activity is associated with synaptic downscaling; and (4) synaptic downscaling is tied to several beneficial effects of sleep, including performance enhancement.
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94Classes of network connectivity and dynamicsComplexity 7 (1): 28-38. 2001.Many kinds of complex systems exhibit characteristic patterns of temporal correlations that emerge as the result of functional interactions within a structured network. One such complex system is the brain, composed of numerous neuronal units linked by synaptic connections. The activity of these neuronal units gives rise to dynamic states that are characterized by specific patterns of neuronal activation and co-activation. These patterns, called functional connectivity, are possible neural corre…Read more
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173A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes ImaginationBasic Books. 2000.A Nobel Prize-winning scientist and a leading brain researcher show how the brain creates conscious experience
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University of Wisconsin, MadisonRegular Faculty
Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Mind |