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Understanding Physical Processes in Describing a State of Consciousness: A Review

Charles Johnstone, Prashant S. Alegaonkar

arXiv Preprint Archive January 12, 2023 preprint

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Review
Keywords Consciousness awareness Sentience Cognition Quantum neuroscience q-bio.nc Quantum biology Quantum brain dynamics Neural systems Neurological organization
Key findings Consciousness is an unresolved scientific problem linked to brain signaling, quantum phenomena, and integrated information, with its nature and mechanisms still unclear.

Abstract

The way we view the reality of nature, including ourselves, depend on consciousness.It also defines the identity of the person, since we know people in terms of their experiences. In general, consciousness defines human existence in this universe. Furthermore, consciousness is associated with the most debated problems in physics such as the notion of observation, observer,in the measurement problem. However,its nature, occurrence mechanism in the brain and the definite universal locality of the consciousness are not clearly known. Due to this consciousness is considered asan essential unresolved scientific problem of the current era.Here, we review the physical processes which are associated in tackling these challenges. Firstly, we discuss the association of consciousness with transmission of signals in the brain, chain of events, quantum phenomena process and integrated information. We also highlight the roles of structure of matter,field, and the concept of universality towards understanding consciousness. Finally, we propose further studies for achieving better understanding of consciousness.