The Metacontinuum: Bridging cellular composition to cognitive functions in brain organization.
Bio Systems September 1, 2025 Gustavo Guzmán, Elsa Magaña-Cuevas, Rocío Hernández-Rizo et al.
Brain organization arises from molecular, cellular, and systems-level processes that together produce cognitive function. While individual biological codes have been characterized at specific scales, their integration across levels remains poorly understood. Existing theories of consciousness recognize diverse electrophysiological signatures but fail to explain the continuity linking molecular and neural codes. The metacontinuum hypothesis is proposed as a unifying framework connecting these layers of biological information processing. Molecular codes establish cellular identity and circuit properties, while neural codes organize these circuits into systems supporting cognition.