bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
August 4, 2026
Conor H. Murray, Michael Angyus, Sam Suchin et al.
preprint
Abstract Altered states of consciousness (ASC) refer to states that differ markedly from normal waking consciousness. ASC may occur spontaneously, such as in dreaming, or through consciousness modifying techniques, from meditation, to cannabis and psychedelics. The etymology behind the term psychedelic, meaning mind-manifesting, is based on the hypothesis that certain substances, including...
Entropy (Basel, Switzerland)
May 29, 2026
Zoe Lee-Youngzie, Naotsugu Tsuchiya, Michael Robinson et al.
4 citations
Recent work in the structural approach to consciousness has shown great promise as a research paradigm for the formal and empirical study of the phenomenal qualities of experience, i.e., qualia. In this paradigm, qualia are characterized by modeling the internal organization of parts within an experience, or by modeling external relations between instances of experience. A major next step for...
Elife
January 5, 2024
Daniel Toker, Eli J Müller, Hiroyuki Miyamoto et al.
21 citations
Consciousness is thought to be regulated by bidirectional information transfer between the cortex and thalamus, but the nature of this bidirectional communication - and its possible disruption in unconsciousness - remains poorly understood. Here, we present two main findings elucidating mechanisms of corticothalamic information transfer during conscious states. First, we identify a highly...
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
February 1, 2022
Daniel Toker, Ioannis Pappas, Janna D. Lendner et al.
148 citations
Mounting evidence suggests that during conscious states, the electrodynamics of the cortex are poised near a critical point or phase transition and that this near-critical behavior supports the vast flow of information through cortical networks during conscious states. Here, we empirically identify a mathematically specific critical point near which waking cortical oscillatory dynamics operate,...
bioRxiv
June 11, 2021
Daniel Toker, Ioannis Pappas, Janna D. Lendner et al.
3 citations
preprint
Mounting evidence suggests that during conscious states, the electrodynamics of the cortex are poised near a critical point or phase transition, and that this near-critical behavior supports the vast flow of information through cortical networks during conscious states. Here, for the first time, we empirically identify the specific critical point near which conscious cortical dynamics operate...
Brain
March 6, 2021
Joel Frohlich, Daniel Toker, Martin M. Monti
204 citations
Abstract A common observation in EEG research is that consciousness vanishes with the appearance of delta (1–4 Hz) waves, particularly when those waves are high amplitude. High amplitude delta oscillations are frequently observed in states of diminished consciousness, including slow wave sleep, anaesthesia, generalized epileptic seizures, and disorders of consciousness, such as coma and the...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
July 10, 2019
Joel Frohlich, Lynne M. Bird, John Dell’italia et al.
preprint
Numerous theories link consciousness to informationally rich, complex neural dynamics. This idea is challenged by the observation that children with Angelman syndrome (AS), while fully conscious, display a hypersynchronous electroencephalogram (EEG) phenotype typical of information-poor dynamics associated with unconsciousness. If informational complexity theories are correct, then sufficiently...
PLoS Computational Biology
October 16, 2014
Srivas Chennu, Paola Finoia, Evelyn Kamau et al.
249 citations
Theoretical advances in the science of consciousness have proposed that it is concomitant with balanced cortical integration and differentiation, enabled by efficient networks of information transfer across multiple scales. Here, we apply graph theory to compare key signatures of such networks in high-density electroencephalographic data from 32 patients with chronic disorders of consciousness,...