Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2019
Ravinder Jerath, Connor Beveridge, Michael Jensen
17 citations
Brain waves of different frequencies are not just spatially separate but form a layered, hierarchical structure that mirrors the layered nature of conscious experience. The slowest oscillations act as a foundation that coordinates faster ones, together creating a unified metastable continuum. This isomorphism between neural oscillations and phenomenal experience explains how voluntary breathing and meditation can modulate the mind and have therapeutic effects for psychiatric disorders.
International Journal of Complementary & Alternative Medicine
January 1, 2016
Ravinder Jerath
8 citations
The brain integrates signals from the five senses with internal bodily signals to create a unified sense of reality, but how this happens is not fully explained. The authors expand a previously proposed three-dimensional model of consciousness, suggesting that sensory inputs are superimposed onto an existing internal dynamic space—the body's internal 3D default space—after a slight delay. Examples from meditation illustrate how practices that achieve cardio-respiratory synchronization and brain coherence can induce a parasympathetic-dominant state, allowing an experience of the inner self. Understanding this physical and functional space may clarify memory and cognition and help clinicians treat mind disorders by recommending stress-reduction techniques alongside medication.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2024
Ravinder Jerath, Connor Beveridge
2 citations
Reflexes integrate multimodal sensory information rapidly, yet how unconscious processes contribute to consciousness remains unclear. The Default Space Theory (DST) proposes a unified internal representation that integrates sensory inputs, cognition, emotion, and unconscious processes. Neuroimaging advances (fMRI, EEG, MEG) highlight neural oscillations and sensory integration in conscious experience. This perspective argues that research on reflexes' dynamic relationship with consciousness is lacking, particularly top-down cortical modulation of subcortical reflex circuits. Understanding how the brain encodes a multimodal model of self and environment to produce quick reflex responses could clarify boundaries between conscious and unconscious activity, offering new avenues for studying consciousness's physical nature.
Journal of Neurological Sciences and Research.
April 10, 2026
Ravinder Jerath
Consciousness may arise from an internally generated three-dimensional 'default space' that the brain projects, rather than directly mirroring the external world. In this model, the brain creates a virtual reality of experience by integrating sensory inputs with memories and expectations, meaning perception is shaped as much by prior knowledge and top-down expectations as by incoming stimuli. Evidence from sensory illusions and hallucinations supports this Default Space Theory (DST), demonstrating the brain's ability to construct or alter perceptual reality. The analysis suggests that profound religious or spiritual experiences—visions, voices, and transcendent sensations—can be understood as internally generated experiences produced by the brain's default generative mechanisms, consistent with an evidence-based DST framework.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2015
Ravinder Jerath, Molly W Crawford, Vernon A Barnes
The Global Workspace Theory and Integrated Information Theory are two leading models of consciousness, but they fail to explain many aspects of conscious experience. This theoretical paper compares them to the authors' own model, in which the thalamus fills in processed sensory information from corticothalamic feedback loops within a proposed three-dimensional default space, recreating internal and external worlds in the mind. This 3D default space comprises all cells of the body, communicating via gap junctions and electrical potentials to create a unified space. Visual and non-visual sensory information is filled in within this dynamic space, producing a seamless conscious experience. The neural sensory memory space is likely generated by baseline neural oscillatory activity from the default mode network, other salient networks, brainstem, and reticular activating system.