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...
Trends in Neurosciences
December 1, 2023
Jaan Aru, Matthew E Larkum, James M Shine
Interactions with large language models (LLMs) have led to the suggestion that these models may soon be conscious. From the perspective of neuroscience, this position is difficult to defend. For one, the inputs to LLMs lack the embodied, embedded information content characteristic of our sensory contact with the world around us. Secondly, the architectures of present-day artificial intelligence...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
November 14, 2023
Brandon R Munn, Eli J Müller, Jaan Aru et al.
Understanding the neurobiological mechanisms underlying consciousness remains a significant challenge. Recent evidence suggests that the coupling between distal-apical and basal-somatic dendrites in thick-tufted layer 5 pyramidal neurons (L5PN), regulated by the nonspecific-projecting thalamus, is crucial for consciousness. Yet, it is uncertain whether this thalamocortical mechanism can support...
Nature Communications
October 27, 2023
Brandon R Munn, Eli J Müller, Vicente Medel et al.
The human brain displays a rich repertoire of states that emerge from the microscopic interactions of cortical and subcortical neurons. Difficulties inherent within large-scale simultaneous neuronal recording limit our ability to link biophysical processes at the microscale to emergent macroscopic brain states. Here we introduce a microscale biophysical network model of layer-5 pyramidal...
Cell Reports
August 29, 2023
Eli J Müller, Brandon R Munn, Michelle J. Redinbaugh et al.
The neurobiological mechanisms of arousal and anesthesia remain poorly understood. Recent evidence highlights the key role of interactions between the cerebral cortex and the diffusely projecting matrix thalamic nuclei. Here, we interrogate these processes in a whole-brain corticothalamic neural mass model endowed with targeted and diffusely projecting thalamocortical nuclei inferred from...
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
July 1, 2023
Daniel Collerton, James Barnes, Nico J Diederich et al.
80 citations
Despite decades of research, we do not definitively know how people sometimes see things that are not there. Eight models of complex visual hallucinations have been published since 2000, including Deafferentation, Reality Monitoring, Perception and Attention Deficit, Activation, Input, and Modulation, Hodological, Attentional Networks, Active Inference, and Thalamocortical Dysrhythmia Default...
Brain : a journal of neurology
September 14, 2022
James M Shine, Claire O'Callaghan, Ishan C Walpola et al.
63 citations
The neuromodulatory arousal system imbues the nervous system with the flexibility and robustness required to facilitate adaptive behaviour. While there are well understood mechanisms linking dopamine, noradrenaline and acetylcholine to distinct behavioural states, similar conclusions have not been as readily available for serotonin. Fascinatingly, despite clear links between serotonergic...
Schizophrenia Bulletin
June 8, 2016
Ben Alderson-Day, Kelly Diederen, Charles Fernyhough et al.
134 citations
In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the potential for alterations to the brain's resting-state networks (RSNs) to explain various kinds of psychopathology. RSNs provide an intriguing new explanatory framework for hallucinations, which can occur in different modalities and population groups, but which remain poorly understood. This collaboration from the International...