arXiv Preprint Archive
August 19, 2026
Jeremiah Hendren, Matteo Grasso, Francesco Ellia et al.
preprint
Integrated Information Theory (IIT) proposes that all quality is structure: the quality of every experience can be characterized as a phenomenal structure and accounted for as a causal structure. The IIT method can be called intrinsic in that, first, it starts by characterizing the intrinsic structure of a single experience in an absolute sense (not relative to other experiences) and, second,...
August 13, 2026
Giulio Tononi, Andrew Haun, Chen Song et al.
Everyone lives within a Perception Box (PB). What we see and hear—how we interpret it and what it means to us—depends on our brain and learning history. Recognizing that perception is subjective, and understanding why, are key steps to open our minds, counteract bias, and reduce suffering. This project seeks to establish a rigorous theoretical and empirical foundation for the science of the PB....
arXiv Preprint Archive
August 12, 2026
Kallum Robinson, Giulio Tononi, Naotsugu Tsuchiya et al.
The classical problem of Other Minds has dogged philosophers for millennia; asking if we have any way to truly understand the experience of another mind. We know our own intrinsic experience by acquaintance, but can only ever hope to possess an extrinsic description of another's, with the two separated by an acquaintance gap. Structural approaches aim to characterise experience in terms of a...
arXiv Preprint Archive
August 11, 2026
Matteo Grasso, Jeremiah Hendren, Giulio Tononi
To be conscious is to have an experience - not a collection of phenomenal atoms, but a structured whole composed of distinctions and the relations that bind them. Integrated Information Theory (IIT) identifies the essential properties of every experience (axioms), formulates them operationally as postulates that a substrate must satisfy, and unfolds the cause-effect power of the resulting...
iScience
October 17, 2025
Renzo Comolatti, Matteo Grasso, Giulio Tononi
Time flows-or at least the time of our experience does. Can we provide an objective account of why the conscious present encompasses a succession of moments that slip from now to then-an account of why time feels flowing? Integrated Information Theory (IIT) aims to account for both the presence and quality of consciousness in objective, physical terms. Given a substrate's architecture and...
arXiv Preprint Archive
November 30, 2024
Renzo Comolatti, Matteo Grasso, Giulio Tononi
Time flows, or at least the time of our experience does. Can we provide an objective account of why experience, confined to the short window of the conscious present, encompasses a succession of moments that slip away from now to then--an account of why time feels flowing? Integrated Information Theory (IIT) aims to account for both the presence and quality of consciousness in objective,...
Cambridge quarterly of healthcare ethics : CQ : the international journal of healthcare ethics committees
October 18, 2023
Matthew Owen, Zirui Huang, Catherine Duclos et al.
Organoids and specifically human cerebral organoids (HCOs) are one of the most relevant novelties in the field of biomedical research. Grown either from embryonic or induced pluripotent stem cells, HCOs can be used as in vitro three-dimensional models, mimicking the developmental process and organization of the developing human brain. Based on that, and despite their current limitations, it...
Entropy
February 11, 2023
William Marshall, Matteo Grasso, William G. P. Mayner et al.
19 citations
Integrated information theory (IIT) starts from consciousness itself and identifies a set of properties (axioms) that are true of every conceivable experience. The axioms are translated into a set of postulates about the substrate of consciousness (called a complex), which are then used to formulate a mathematical framework for assessing both the quality and quantity of experience. The...
arXiv Preprint Archive
June 4, 2022
Giulio Tononi, Larissa Albantakis, Melanie Boly et al.
preprint
This essay addresses the implications of integrated information theory (IIT) for free will. IIT is a theory of what consciousness is and of how its presence and quality can be accounted for in physical terms. According to IIT, the presence of consciousness is accounted for by a maximum of cause-effect power in the brain. Moreover, the way an experience feels is accounted for by how that...
The Behavioral and brain sciences
March 23, 2022
Giulio Tononi, Melanie Boly, Matteo Grasso et al.
The target article misrepresents the foundations of integrated information theory (IIT) and ignores many essential publications. It, thus, falls to this lead commentary to outline the axioms and postulates of IIT and correct major misconceptions. The commentary also explains why IIT starts from phenomenology and why it predicts that only select physical substrates can support consciousness....
Neuroscience of Consciousness
2021
Francesco Ellia, Jeremiah Hendren, Matteo Grasso et al.
61 citations
Objective correlates-behavioral, functional, and neural-provide essential tools for the scientific study of consciousness. But reliance on these correlates should not lead to the 'fallacy of misplaced objectivity': the assumption that only objective properties should and can be accounted for objectively through science. Instead, what needs to be explained scientifically is what experience is...
Neuroscience of Consciousness
2021
Matteo Grasso, Andrew M. Haun, Giulio Tononi
20 citations
Neuroscience has made remarkable advances in accounting for how the brain performs its various functions. Consciousness, too, is usually approached in functional terms: the goal is to understand how the brain represents information, accesses that information, and acts on it. While useful for prediction, this functional, information-processing approach leaves out the subjective structure of...
Iris (Roma Tre University)
2017
Alessio Bucci, Matteo Grasso
25 citations
Sleep and dreaming are important daily phenomena that are receiving growing attention from both the scientific and the philosophical field. The increasingly popular predictive brain framework within cognitive science aims to give a full account of all aspects of cognition. The aim of this paper is to critically assess the theoretical advantages of Predictive Processing (PP, as proposed by Clark...