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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Disruption of Frontal Lobe Neural Synchrony During Cognitive Control by Alcohol Intoxication
Published on: February 6, 2019
The "conscious pilot"-dendritic synchrony moves through the brain to mediate consciousness
1Department of Anesthesiology, Center for Consciousness Studies, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA. hameroff@u.arizona.edu
Abstract:
Cognitive brain functions including sensory processing and control of behavior are understood as "neurocomputation" in axonal-dendritic synaptic networks of "integrate-and-fire" neurons. Cognitive neurocomputation with consciousness is accompanied by 30- to 90-Hz gamma synchrony electroencephalography (EEG), and non-conscious neurocomputation is not. Gamma synchrony EEG derives largely from neuronal groups linked by dendritic-dendritic gap junctions, forming transient syncytia ("dendritic webs") in input/integration layers oriented sideways to axonal-dendritic neurocomputational flow. As gap junctions open and close, a gamma-synchronized dendritic web can rapidly change topology and move through the brain as a spatiotemporal envelope performing collective integration and volitional choices correlating with consciousness. The "conscious pilot" is a metaphorical description for a mobile gamma-synchronized dendritic web as vehicle for a conscious agent/pilot which experiences and assumes control of otherwise non-conscious auto-pilot neurocomputation.
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