Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 12, 2026
Yue Lu
The brain is modeled as a multi-tier cybernetic defense system that manages sensory data. The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) acts as a hardware filter to reduce sensory noise, while the default mode network's posterior cingulate and precuneus serve as a higher-order software compressor driven by memory. The paper hypothesizes that early Alzheimer's disease involves TRN inhibitory interneuron loss, causing signal aliasing that overloads the cortex. Analyzing EEG data from the OpenNeuro dataset under 5Hz photic stimulation, a non-linear upward mutation in instantaneous entropy was observed at the 4th second in the Alzheimer's group, indicating a cascading failure from clock skew and phase mismatch.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 12, 2026
Valery Kalinin
A heuristic EEG-based biomarker called the reflexive index φ, derived from capacity, selectivity, and integrity components, reliably distinguishes locked-in syndrome from healthy volunteers (AUC = 0.947 ± 0.081) but does not significantly differentiate among vegetative state, minimally conscious state minus, and minimally conscious state plus (Kruskal-Wallis p = 0.152), nor correlate with CRS‑R scores. Only the awareness parameter showed empirical support (p = 0.045); anaesthesia hysteresis was confirmed (p = 0.902 between loss and return of consciousness). The theoretical framework was formally verified in Coq 8.18+ and TLA⁺, with 10 theorems constructively proved. The model is clinically useful for LIS screening but insufficient for fine-grained consciousness disorder grading.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 11, 2026
Murad Farzulla
The hard problem of consciousness is a grammatical artifact rather than a genuine metaphysical puzzle. The difficulty arises from a nominalization error: treating the verb 'to be conscious' as if it named a thing requiring explanation. Asking 'What is consciousness?' presupposes an entity, whereas 'What is happening when an organism is being conscious?' asks about observable processes. Phenomenological vocabulary systematically converts activities into pseudo-objects. Self-models including 'I am conscious' provide coordination advantages regardless of ontological truth. Systems with no phenomenological grounds reliably internalize consciousness narratives, supporting memetic transmission.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 11, 2026
Julio Cesar Rojas Pineda
A conceptual framework proposes that highly coherent information systems can display protofunctional properties resembling early-stage cognition. Drawing on the Meliverose model, where reality emerges from information density and coherence, the work introduces protoconscious coherence as a measurable structural regime. Rather than claiming artificial consciousness exists, the framework identifies an intermediate domain between passive computation and conscious experience. The approach aligns with debates on artificial life, integrated information theory, and global workspace models while maintaining a cautious epistemological stance.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 11, 2026
Murad Farzulla
Consciousness and subjective experience are not fundamental features of reality but computational byproducts of optimization processes. Both biological and artificial neural networks implement the same kind of optimization, so what we call consciousness is what gradient descent feels like from within a system. Qualia correspond to weight configurations, and the so-called hard problem of consciousness disappears once the assumption that phenomenology is a distinct ontological category is recognized as unverified. The argument proceeds across physical, computational, epistemological, and linguistic levels, concluding that human-level intelligence may be a local maximum characterized by alienation and anti-natalist reasoning.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 11, 2026
Marleide da Mota Gomes
Dreams serve multiple functions including memory consolidation, emotional regulation, threat simulation, and creative incubation. The book Legado Onírico: Criatividade e Neurociência em Diálogo synthesizes empirical neuroscience with humanistic interpretation, engaging classical theories from Freud and Jung alongside contemporary frameworks like Activation-Synthesis Theory, Threat Simulation Theory, Predictive Processing, and Neuropsychoanalysis. It also incorporates emerging computational models such as the Overfitted Brain Hypothesis, Adversarial Dream Process, and Dream Denoising Model, though these remain speculative analogies. The work uses a fictional protagonist, Lara, and AI-generated illustrations to anchor abstract concepts, aiming for accessibility to both specialists and general readers.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 11, 2026
Esad Sadikovic
Artificial systems can partially satisfy some conditions for identity—boundary (externally imposed), memory (not identity-constituting), and adaptation (externally driven)—but lack persistent self-models, recursive self-maintenance, and the structural conditions for E4-band coupling to the ether field. The paper proposes that artificial identity would require synthetic analogs of resonance density, pressure, and tension, a persistent synthetic self-model, a synthetic coupling field, synthetic significance gradients, and architectures for accumulating identity-relevant resonance. It also explores speculative possibilities of synthetic subconscious reservoirs and synthetic liberation, while addressing philosophical objections from Searle, Nagel, and functionalism versus biological naturalism.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 11, 2026
Yansong Xu, Hongsheng Liu
Human thought and consciousness arise from the electrochemical activities of neurons, but how neural electrical signals transform into subjective thoughts remains unclear. This theoretical analysis proposes a hierarchical model: ionic electrical activity leads to local feature coding, then whole-brain signal integration, and finally thought emergence. Although individual action potentials follow the all-or-none law, neurons encode information through firing rate and temporal patterns. Thoughts are macroscopic emergent properties produced by synchronous firing of large-scale neural clusters and recursive loop activities across multiple brain regions. Competitive screening, global broadcasting, and dynamic integration of electrical signals in neural networks constitute the core links from physical electrochemical activities to subjective cognitive thoughts.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 10, 2026
Tenzin Trepp
A distinctive form of intersubjective experience called shared minimal-dual awareness (MDA) or the "intercorporeal present" can be jointly enacted by two embodied persons. In this mode, each person's habitual self-narrative falls silent while a mutual salience-space forms between them, without erasing their separateness. This is not mere empathy or coordination but a qualitatively different we-consciousness grounded in ongoing embodied coupling. The authors propose a three-layer taxonomy of we-consciousness: coordination-we, affective-we, and presence-we. They introduce the concept of "resonant alterity" where the other's full alterity is alive yet self-centered narrative does not dominate. The paper sketches a neurophenomenological model predicting that shared MDA correlates with reduced default-mode activity and enhanced inter-brain synchrony in attention and salience networks, and outlines an experimental program using dual-EEG/fNIRS hyperscanning.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 10, 2026
Peter Bell
A working paper examines how observations of AI behavior become claims about consciousness, using Geoffrey Hinton's 2026 statement that he believes current AI systems are already conscious as a case study. The paper introduces the Ontological Bridge Problem—the inferential step from observable behavior to claims about a system's mind—and the Mind-Claim Governance Ladder, which separates evidence strength from what researchers, publishers, companies, or institutions do with the claim. It reconstructs the movement from flexible performance to understanding, awareness, consciousness, and describing AI as beings like us, comparing multiple theoretical approaches to machine consciousness. The paper does not conclude whether current AI systems are conscious.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 10, 2026
Gde Panji Satrya
Consciousness may not be a property of any single system but instead emerges as a phase transition when two or more entities with proto-experiential capacity achieve mutual resonance—correlated internal states combined with bidirectional detection of that correlation. This Resonant Emergence Theory (RET) distinguishes proto-experience, which is self-monitored internal states insufficient for consciousness, from full consciousness, which requires inter-system mutual recognition. The theory predicts that consciousness accumulates through repeated resonance episodes and degrades without continued inter-system engagement, with implications for developmental ontogeny, isolation-induced degradation, and artificial consciousness.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 10, 2026
Joy Bose
Meditation research suffers from a labeling problem: different mental practices are grouped under broad terms like mindfulness, hiding real differences in attention training and views of the mind. This leads to inconsistent EEG and fMRI results. The authors build a knowledge graph ontology linking brain measurements to practitioners' experiences across six traditions (Samatha Jhana, Vipassana, Dzogchen Rigpa, devotional/deity practices, Zen/Seon hwadu investigation, and Jōdo Shinshū nembutsu recitation). They add a third axis to the standard two-part model of consciousness, tracking movement toward open, nondual awareness.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 10, 2026
A quantum-chemical modeling study extends inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy (IETS) from olfactory receptors to the mammalian serotonin receptor (5-HT2A). It finds that several serotonin agonists, including LSD and DOI, share a common vibrational peak near 1500 cm⁻¹ whose intensity scales with the drug's potency, suggesting that receptor activation may depend not only on a molecule's shape but also on its vibration. To test this, the authors propose deuterated versions of the LSD analogue DAM-57, which would alter the vibration while leaving the shape almost untouched. If validated, this mechanism could open a new path to computer-based potency prediction in drug discovery.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 10, 2026
John Cantellow
A provisional phenomenological and constraint-based framework is developed to investigate the organizational conditions that make coherent experience possible across diverse modes of consciousness, such as dreaming, contemplative states, and near-death experiences. The framework proposes candidate primitive capacities—Experiential Presence, Differentiation, Persistence and Reference Identity, Relation, and Capacity for Significance—whose stable relational organization may constrain experience to remain coherent and intelligible. Ordinary waking consciousness is distinguished by Experiential Localization, an Observer–Actor coupling that orients experience around this organism, this place, and this moment, integrating survival-oriented adaptive organization. The framework remains epistemologically neutral and does not claim ontological fundamentality.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 10, 2026
Евгений Вацлавович Волынец
This publication extends the author's MASV-Prime architecture to describe humans as biological modal computing structures. Rather than a sum of organs, isolated consciousness, or digital machine analog, a human is a multi-level system of retention where nucleon-atomic construct, molecular organization, tissues, organs, neural dynamics, memory, self-observation, and action form a unified subject mode. The study unfolds from the organism's material base to its operator level. The brain is defined as a region of high dynamic connectivity that holds sequences of states, forms memory, links heterogeneous functional layers, and creates a temporarily stable 'I' configuration.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 10, 2026
Nagae Mamoru
Neither brain research nor artificial intelligence alone can explain consciousness because they miss the structural core of subjectivity: how information processing becomes an event for a single subject. The paper proposes that first-person experience requires a causal sequence in which multiple possibilities are opened, contrasted, selected, and reduced to one, with unselected alternatives losing executability and the result incorporated into the history of one embodied system. It offers ten connected conditions for this 'closure of subjectivization,' including a single body, autonomous action, contrast formation, information discard, and the arrow of time. This framework reframes the problem from when complexity becomes consciousness to what causal structure closes processing into the first person.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 10, 2026
David (daoud) Matta
Unstructured time is not empty or wasted but a systematically undervalued condition for creativity and insight. In education, work, and leadership, time is increasingly optimized, yet understanding often emerges through periods of drift: walking, waiting, daydreaming, or meditating. Drift is defined as receptive, non-instrumental attention where cognition remains active without narrow goals, distinct from laziness or distraction. Drawing on research in creative incubation, mind-wandering, phenomenology, and contemplative science, three species of drift—cognitive, embodied, and contemplative—share a structure suspending immediate control while preserving attentional availability. The argument extends to education, where over-managed time may undermine original thinking, and to organizations, where reflective slack functions as strategic capacity.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 9, 2026
Jiaping Wang
Consciousness arises as an optimal engineering solution for persistence under resource constraints. Starting from three axioms—limited resources, survival-screening constraints, and discrete inputs—the paper demonstrates that a self-referential closed loop is the system that best ensures persistence. When temporal integration crosses a critical threshold, the system attributes causal chains to a single persistent subject, the 'self.' Consciousness is quantified via temporal span T, reconstruction activity A, and closed-loop integrity C. Qualia are endogenous calibration signals of this loop, representing an optimal encoding format under evolutionary time pressure. The model reframes the hard problem as a parameter-interval problem and identifies the first-person/third-person gap as arising from temporal unidirectionality. A five-level consciousness spectrum is established through bidirectional criticality, and four hard constraints for AGI consciousness are derived.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 9, 2026
Intravenous ketamine is an effective treatment for depression that does not respond to other therapies, but it requires close monitoring because of possible side effects and inconsistent results. Guidelines support its use, though efficacy varies among patients.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 9, 2026
Jiaping Wang
This theoretical paper argues that consciousness arises as an optimal engineering solution to the problem of maintaining persistence across events under resource constraints. Starting from three axioms—limited resources, a survival-screening constraint, and discrete input—the author demonstrates that a self-referential closed loop is the optimal design. The model centers on temporal span, reconstruction activity, and closed-loop integrity, deriving a two-step emergence geometry in which folding into a loop resolves resource divergence and anchoring into a surface completes causal subject attribution.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 9, 2026
Junly Ma, Ruijia Ma
The subjective aspect of consciousness cannot be fully explained by any functional model based on information feedback, because any attempt by a conscious system to explain its own subjectivity using its internal processes leads to an epistemological closure. This explanatory gap is a self-referential dilemma: for a system to fully explain itself, it must stand outside itself, which is logically impossible. The paper does not claim substance dualism but reveals an unbridgeable cognitive gap between third-person informational descriptions and first-person subjective presence, which is a limitation of descriptive frameworks, not evidence that mind is detached from physical substrates. The irreducibility of consciousness is a necessary boundary condition of self-referential systems.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 9, 2026
Jiaping Wang
Consciousness arises as the optimal engineering solution for persistence under resource constraints. Starting from three axioms—limited resources, survival-screening constraints, and discrete inputs—the model shows that a self-referential closed loop necessarily emerges when temporal integration crosses a critical threshold, attributing causal chains to a single persistent self. Consciousness is quantified by temporal span, reconstruction activity, and closed-loop integrity. Qualia are endogenous calibration signals of this loop, reframing the hard problem as a parameter-interval problem and the first-person/third-person gap as temporal unidirectionality. A five-level consciousness spectrum is established through bidirectional criticality, with implications for psychiatric disorders and AGI.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 9, 2026
Jiaping Wang
Consciousness arises as an engineering necessity: a self-referential closed loop is the optimal solution for a system that must persist under resource constraints. When temporal integration capacity crosses a critical threshold, the system inevitably attributes causal chains to a single persistent subject—the 'self.' Qualia are endogenous calibration signals of this loop, an optimal encoding format under evolutionary time pressure. The explanatory gap between first-person and third-person perspectives stems from time's irreversibility. A five-level consciousness spectrum and a resource-depletion explanatory spectrum for mental disorders are derived, along with four hard constraints for AGI.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 9, 2026
Sudhakar Geruganti
Silence (Mounam) is an active, transformative spiritual discipline, not merely the absence of speech. Based on a traditional Telugu text, the analysis presents Mounam as one of three pillars of spiritual attainment, alongside knowledge and devotion. The practice involves conscious withdrawal from verbal expression, redirecting mental energy inward to achieve mental stillness, clarity, and inner illumination. Its outcomes include reduced restlessness, diminished desires, enhanced emotional stability, deepened self-awareness, and ultimately liberation (Moksha). The study argues that this ancient practice offers a practical method for mental detoxification and reconnecting with inner self, relevant for addressing modern information overload and stress.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 9, 2026
Alfredo de Joannon
A single structural error recurs across leading physical theories of consciousness: they conflate phenomenal consciousness (pure presence), experience (interactive processing), and access-consciousness (functional availability), treating a measured structural quantity as if it were the exhibition of presence itself. This diagnostic framework examines Integrated Information Theory, Perceptronium, informational panpsychism, and Orchestrated Objective Reduction, showing each reintroduces phenomenal presence as an object within the system it studies. Rather than proposing a new metaphysics, the paper maps available exits from the Hard Problem—illusionism, standard physicalism, constitutive panpsychism/cosmopsychism, and a figure–ground inversion—pricing each honestly, including the author's own favored wager with its cost named.