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Francis Smith

3 papers in the library · publishing 2026

Papers

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The Prospective Structure of Qualia: Transition Fields, Anchoring, and Configuration Mismatch

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) August 23, 2026 Francis Smith

This preprint develops a state-space account of phenomenal character in which conscious experience depends not only on the configuration presently realized, but also on the represented structure of transitions available from that configuration. The framework distinguishes current phenomenal configuration, external anchoring, and a prospective transition field describing the topology of...

Neural Dynamics, Structural Eligibility, Availability, and Content: A Factorized Framework for Conscious Realization

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) August 12, 2026 Francis Smith

Consciousness research often moves from neural measurements to claims about conscious states without clearly separating the biological system, the observation procedure, empirical state-space structure, operational coordination, and theoretical realization conditions. This paper develops a factorized framework that distinguishes these levels and asks which distinctions are empirically...

Mapping the structure of neural states associated with conscious experience.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2026 Francis G Smith

A central challenge in consciousness research concerns the relationship between neural activity and conscious experience. While decades of work have identified numerous neural correlates of consciousness, these findings increasingly indicate that activation magnitude, localization, or stimulus processing alone are insufficient to account for awareness. What remains less clearly articulated is...