From uncertainty and entropy to coherence and consciousness
Brain-X April 1, 2025 Majid Beshkar
Consciousness may arise from the brain's process of reducing uncertainty about sensory input, a mechanism that can be understood as minimizing informational and thermodynamic entropy. Sensory processing is described as Bayesian inference, and conscious awareness emerges when uncertainty falls below a critical threshold. The framework links consciousness to negentropy and emphasizes coherence, including possible quantum coherence, in perception. It challenges existing models like Integrated Information Theory and proposes that consciousness acts as a cooling mechanism for neuronal circuits, measurable by temperature changes. Direct empirical evidence is lacking, but the perspective suggests new directions for understanding the physical and computational foundations of conscious experience.