Neuroscience of Consciousness
January 17, 2026
Sergio Ponce de Leon, Jeff Yoshimi
Abstract Integrated information theory (IIT) makes two predictions about the role of inactive neurons in consciousness. According to the silent brain (SB) prediction, rendering all active neurons inactive (“silent”) in the physical substrate of consciousness (the “main complex”) does not eliminate the presence of consciousness, because the neurons are still able to spike. According to the...
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences
September 1, 2025
Jeff Yoshimi
4 citations
Abstract Lopes (2021) has argued against my use of neural networks and dynamical systems theory in neurophenomenology. Responding to his argument provides an opportunity to articulate a pluralist approach to neurophenomenology, according to which multiple theoretical frameworks—symbolic, dynamical systems, connectionist, etc.—can be used to study consciousness and its relationship to neural...
Contributions to Phenomenology
2023
Pablo Contreras Kallens, Jeff Yoshimi
Abstract: More has been written about phenomenology than could possibly be read in a single person’s lifetime, or even in several lifetimes. Despite its unwieldy size, this vast “horizon” of literary output has a tractable structure. We leverage the tools of bibliometrics to study the structure of the phenomenology literature, and test several hypotheses about it. We create an author-wise...
Consciousness and Cognition
July 2015
Jeff Yoshimi, David W Vinson
Aron Gurwitsch's theory of the structure and dynamics of consciousness has much to offer contemporary theorizing about consciousness and its basis in the embodied brain. On Gurwitsch's account, as we develop it, the field of consciousness has a variable sized focus or "theme" of attention surrounded by a structured periphery of inattentional contents. As the field evolves, its contents change...
Frontiers in Psychology
2011
Jeff Yoshimi
23 citations
I show how the dynamics of consciousness can be formally derived from the "open dynamics" of neural activity, and develop a mathematical framework for neuro-phenomenological investigation. I describe the space of possible brain states, the space of possible conscious states, and a "supervenience function" linking them. I show how this framework can be used to associate phenomenological...