Our understanding of the relationship between neural activity and psychological states has advanced greatly in recent decades. But we are still unable to explain conscious experience in terms of physical processes occurring in our brains. This paper introduces a conceptual framework that may contribute to an explanation. All physical processes entail the transfer, transduction, and...
To explain consciousness as a physical process we must acknowledge the role\nof energy in the brain. Energetic activity is fundamental to all physical\nprocesses and causally drives biological behaviour. Recent neuroscientific\nevidence can be interpreted in a way that suggests consciousness is a product\nof the organization of energetic activity in the brain. The nature of energy\nitself,...
April 26, 2018Robert Pepperell2 citations
preprint
To understand consciousness within the framework of natural science we must acknowledge the role of energy in the brain. Many contemporary neuroscientists regard the brain as an information processor. However, evidence from brain imaging experiments demonstrates that the brain is actually a voracious consumer of energy, and that functionality is intimately tied to metabolism. Maintaining a...