The field of consciousness research has shifted over the past decade from identifying neural correlates of consciousness toward developing and testing theories. However, rather than converging on a single theory, the field has seen a parallel progression of competing theories. To identify the structural factors behind this trajectory, this systematic meta-review examines 22 review articles...
Nightmares, especially when frequent, can significantly disrupt the brain’s process of consolidating emotional memories during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. REM provides a unique neurobiological environment for integrating emotionally charged experiences, but nightmares fragment or shorten this stage, impairing emotional regulation and memory clarity. This literature review synthesizes...
Artificial intelligence systems continue to increase in sophistication, renewing the questions of what structurally distinguishes conscious experience from computation. This paper develops a unified framework for consciousness by combining Recurrent Processing Theory (RPT) with a weakened form of Integrated Information Theory (IIT). The aim is to articulate a mechanistic account in which...
This narrative review examines the ways that Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse expose human consciousness in different linguistic and stylistic modes: soliloquy and stream of-consciousness. Relying on A. C. Bradley’s interpretation of the soliloquy, William James’s conception of consciousness as a “stream,” and the aesthetics of modernism, this paper proposes that both...
Though distinctly different in their effects, hallucinations occurring from schizophrenia (SCZ) symptoms and psychedelic drug action can appear similar. To investigate how different mechanisms underlie these effects, this paper highlights similarities at the molecular and anatomical network level and identifies potential new therapeutic applications and directions for research. This paper...