A neuronal mechanism for state and content of consciousness

What is it about?

We describe a theory of consciousness based on recent advanced knowledge about how cortical pyramidal neurons are involved in changing the state of consciousness and selecting what becomes the contents of consciousness. Crucially, subcortical thalamic mechanisms that change the level of activity of the cortical "content neurons" stand at the center stage of this mechanism. The "dendritic integration theory" of consciousness based on this mechanism naturally explains how current context and expectations shape the way how actual sensory data is experienced.

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Why is it important?

This theory is not purely speculative as it is based on empirical neurobiological knowledge gathered over recent years and that combines neuroscience knowledge and behavioral data on subjective consciousness phenomena in a consistent way. It is also important because for most of the years of scientific research on consciousness studies and theories of consciousness states have been separate from studies and theories of contents of consciousness; this theory brings these two perspectives together in a single theory. If this theory proves correct, clinical practices of anesthesia and treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases can be more precisely tuned to be effective and concomitant screening and diagnostic methods advanced.