This is the temporo-spatial theory of consciousness. 🧵1/13

59 views May 30, 2024 ~2 min read

This is the temporo-spatial theory of consciousness.

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This theory is from a study in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews which posits that four neuronal mechanisms account for different dimensions of consciousness. sciencedirect.com/science/articl… 2/13

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Consciousness is a complex phenomenon that includes different dimensions, however the exact neuronal mechanisms underlying the different dimensions of consciousness (e.g. level/state, content/form, phenomenal/experiential, cognitive/reporting) remain an open question. 3/13

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Time and space are the central and most basic building blocks of nature, however can be constructed in different ways. 4/13

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While the different ways of constructing time and space have been extensively investigated in physics, their relevance for the brain’s neural activity and, even more importantly, consciousness remains largely unknown. 5/13

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Given that (i) time and space are the most basic features of nature and (ii) that the brain itself is part of nature, we here consider the brain and its neural activity in explicitly temporal and spatial terms. 6/13

Temporo-spatial nestedness accounts for level/state of consciousness, stating that the brain’s spontaneous activity shows a sophisticated temporal structure that operates across different frequencies from infraslow over slow and fast frequency ranges. 7/13

The temporal-spatial alignment accounts for content/form of consciousness; a single stimuli as in “phase preference” allows to bind and align the single stimuli to the ongoing spontaneous activity of the brain. 8/13

Temporo-spatial expansion accounts for phenomenal consciousness, and shows that the amplitude of stimulus-evoked neural activity can be considered a marker of consciousness: the higher the amplitude, the more likely the stimulus will be associated with consciousness. 9/13

Temporo-spatial globalization accounts for cognitive features of consciousness, stating that the stimuli and their respective contents become globally available for cognition; this is possible by the architecture of the brain with lateral prefrontal and parietal cortex. 10/13

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These four mechanisms together amount to what we describe as “temporo-spatial theory of consciousness” and can be tested in various neurologic and psychiatric disorders. 11/13

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For example, temporo-spatial alignment is altered in psychiatric patients corresponding to abnormal form of consciousness; while temporo-spatial expansion and globalization are impaired in neurologic patients that show changes in phenomenal features of consciousness. 12/13

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From this, consciousness is then primarily temporo-spatial and does no longer require the assumption of the existence and reality of a mind – the mind-body problem can be replaced what one of us describes as “world-brain problem”. 13/13

This is the temporo-spatial theory of consciousness. 🧵1/13

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