arXiv Preprint Archive
May 16, 2023
Alireza Zaeemzadeh, Giulio Tononi
Originally developed as a theory of consciousness, integrated information theory provides a mathematical framework to quantify the causal irreducibility of systems and subsets of units in the system. Specifically, mechanism integrated information quantifies how much of the causal powers of a subset of units in a state, also referred to as a mechanism, cannot be accounted for by its parts. If...
iScience
March 17, 2023
Matias Lorenzo Cavelli, Rong Mao, Graham Findlay et al.
In humans, the level of consciousness is assessed by quantifying the spatiotemporal complexity of cortical responses using Perturbational Complexity Index (PCI) and related PCIst (st, state transitions). Here we validate PCIst in freely moving rats and mice by showing that it is lower in NREM sleep and slow wave anesthesia than in wake or REM sleep, as in humans. We then show that (1) low PCIst...
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...
PLoS One
February 10, 2023
Lucia Melloni, Liad Mudrik, Michael Pitts et al.
106 citations
The relationship between conscious experience and brain activity has intrigued scientists and philosophers for centuries. In the last decades, several theories have suggested different accounts for these relationships. These theories have developed in parallel, with little to no cross-talk among them. To advance research on consciousness, we established an adversarial collaboration between...
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...
arXiv Preprint Archive
June 4, 2022
Giulio Tononi, Larissa Albantakis, Melanie Boly et al.
This essay addresses the implications of integrated information theory (IIT) for free will. IIT is a theory of what consciousness is and what it takes to have it. According to IIT, the presence of consciousness is accounted for by a maximum of cause-effect power in the brain. Moreover, the way specific experiences feel is accounted for by how that cause-effect power is structured. If IIT is...
Sleep
April 11, 2022
Benjamin Baird, Giulio Tononi, Stephen LaBerge
41 citations
(1) To critically test whether a previously reported increase in frontolateral 40 Hz power in lucid REM sleep, used to justify the claim that lucid dreaming is a "hybrid state" mixing sleep and wakefulness, is attributable to the saccadic spike potential (SP) artifact as a corollary of heightened REM density. (2) To replicate the finding that lucid dreams are associated with physiological...
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....
Nature Communications
February 25, 2022
Minji Lee, Leandro R. D. Sanz, Alice Barra et al.
120 citations
Consciousness can be defined by two components: arousal (wakefulness) and awareness (subjective experience). However, neurophysiological consciousness metrics able to disentangle between these components have not been reported. Here, we propose an explainable consciousness indicator (ECI) using deep learning to disentangle the components of consciousness. We employ electroencephalographic (EEG)...
Consciousness and Cognition
2022
Benjamin Baird, Mariel Kalkach Aparicio, Tariq Alauddin et al.
17 citations
Evidence suggests continuity between cognition in waking and sleeping states. However, one type of cognition that may differ is episodic thoughts of the past and future. The current study investigated this across waking, NREM sleep and REM sleep. We analyzed thought reports obtained from a large sample of individuals (N = 138) who underwent experience-sampling during wakefulness as well as...
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
June 1, 2021
Benjamin Baird, Stephen LaBerge, Giulio Tononi
13 citations
Dreamers were long thought absolutely isolated from the outside world. Yet psychophysiological studies over the past 40 years have firmly established that lucid dreamers can use eye movements to report on their dream content in real time while in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. We now also know that sensory input is not completely suppresssed during sleep. A recent study by Konkoly et al....
Entropy
March 18, 2021
Leonardo S. Barbosa, William Marshall, Larissa Albantakis et al.
74 citations
The Integrated Information Theory (IIT) of consciousness starts from essential phenomenological properties, which are then translated into postulates that any physical system must satisfy in order to specify the physical substrate of consciousness. We recently introduced an information measure (Barbosa et al., 2020) that captures three postulates of IIT-existence, intrinsicality and...
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...
Scientific Reports
October 13, 2020
Lucie Bréchet, Denis Brunet, Lampros Perogamvros et al.
92 citations
Why do people sometimes report that they remember dreams, while at other times they recall no experience? Despite the interest in dreams that may happen during the night, it has remained unclear which brain states determine whether these conscious experiences will occur and what prevents us from waking up during these episodes. Here we address this issue by comparing the EEG activity preceding...
PLoS One
2020
Stefan Dürschmid, Christoph Reichert, Nike Walter et al.
Brain function requires the flexible coordination of billions of neurons across multiple scales. This could be achieved by scale-free, critical dynamics balanced at the edge of order and disorder. Criticality has been demonstrated in several, often reduced neurophysiological model systems. In the intact human brain criticality has yet been only verified for the resting state. A more direct link...
Entropy
November 27, 2019
Andrew M. Haun, Giulio Tononi
158 citations
There must be a reason why an experience feels the way it does. A good place to begin addressing this question is spatial experience, because it may be more penetrable by introspection than other qualities of consciousness such as color or pain. Moreover, much of experience is spatial, from that of our body to the visual world, which appears as if painted on an extended canvas in front of our...
Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference
July 1, 2019
Minji Lee, Benjamin Baird, Olivia Gosseries et al.
4 citations
The aim of the study was to investigate differences in cortical networks based on the state of consciousness. Five subjects performed a serial-awakening paradigm with electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. We considered four states of consciousness: (1) non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep with no conscious experience, (2) NREM sleep with conscious experience, (3) rapid eye movement (REM)...
Scientific Reports
March 26, 2019
Minji Lee, Benjamin Baird, Olivia Gosseries et al.
98 citations
The neuronal connectivity patterns that differentiate consciousness from unconsciousness remain unclear. Previous studies have demonstrated that effective connectivity, as assessed by transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with electroencephalography (TMS-EEG), breaks down during the loss of consciousness. This study investigated changes in EEG connectivity associated with consciousness...
Psychology of consciousness (Washington, D.C.)
March 1, 2019
Benjamin Baird, Brady A. Riedner, Melanie Boly et al.
41 citations
Strong conceptual and theoretical connections have been made between meditation practice, mindfulness and lucid dreaming. However, only a handful of empirical studies have evaluated the relationship between lucid dreaming and meditation, and conclusions remain tempered by methodological limitations. Here we evaluate the relationship between meditation, mindfulness and lucid dream frequency...
Scientific Reports
December 6, 2018
Benjamin Baird, Anna Castelnovo, Olivia Gosseries et al.
74 citations
Humans typically lack awareness that they are dreaming while dreaming. However, at times a remarkable exception occurs and reflective consciousness can be regained while dreaming, referred to as lucid dreaming. While most individuals experience lucid dreams rarely there is substantial variance in lucid dream frequency. The neurobiological basis of lucid dreaming is unknown, but evidence points...
Scientific Reports
November 5, 2018
Matthieu Darracq, Chadd M. Funk, Daniel Polyakov et al.
49 citations
Sleep and anesthesia entail alterations in conscious experience. Conscious experience may be absent (unconsciousness) or take the form of dreaming, a state in which sensory stimuli are not incorporated into conscious experience (disconnected consciousness). Recent work has identified features of cortical activity that distinguish conscious from unconscious states; however, less is known about...
Journal of Neuroscience
September 10, 2018
Francesca Siclari, Giulio Bernardi, Jacinthe Cataldi et al.
148 citations
Dreaming can occur in both rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM (NREM) sleep. We recently showed that in both REM and NREM sleep, dreaming is associated with local decreases in slow wave activity (SWA) in posterior brain regions. To expand these findings, here we asked how specific features of slow waves and spindles, the hallmarks of NREM sleep, relate to dream experiences. Fourteen healthy...
European Journal of Neuroscience
August 24, 2018
Daniela Dentico, David R. W. Bachhuber, Brady A. Riedner et al.
18 citations
Our recent finding of a meditation-related increase in low-frequency NREM sleep EEG oscillatory activities peaking in the theta-alpha range (4-12 Hz) was not predicted. From a consolidated body of research on sleep homeostasis, we would expect a change peaking in slow wave activity (1-4 Hz) following an intense meditation session. Here we compared these changes in sleep with the post-meditation...
Oxford Scholarship Online
May 30, 2018
Marcello Massimini, Giulio Tononi
Sizing up Consciousness explores, at an introductory level, the potential practical, clinical, and ethical implications of a general principle about the nature of consciousness. Using information integration theory (IIT) as a guiding principle, the book takes the reader along a scientific trajectory to face fundamental questions about the relationships between matter and experience. What is so...