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Information integration: its relevance to brain function and consciousness.

¹Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53719, USA. gtononi@wisc.edu

Archives Italiennes De Biologie

|December 24, 2010

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Understanding consciousness is key to cognitive function. This study proposes consciousness arises from a system's capacity for information integration, linking it to quale and world-matching abilities.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Theoretical Psychology
Philosophy of Mind

Background:

Cognitive functions require understanding consciousness.
Current theories lack a unified empirical and theoretical framework for consciousness.

Purpose of the Study:

To propose a theoretical framework where consciousness is defined by a system's capacity for information integration.
To explore the relationship between information integration, quale, and a system's ability to interact with its environment.
To connect information integration to cognitive functions, both normal and pathological.

Main Methods:

Theoretical analysis of causal mechanisms and information generation.
Conceptualization of information integration as a measure of consciousness.
Examination of quale as integrated informational relationships.
Analysis of how information integration relates to a system's causal structure and environmental matching.

Main Results:

Consciousness is posited to be a system's capacity for information integration.
Integrated information, termed quale, specifies the quantity and quality of experience.
Information integration is proposed to maximize at specific spatial and temporal scales.
Changes in information integration correlate with a system's ability to match environmental causal structures.

Conclusions:

The information integration approach provides a framework for understanding consciousness.
This framework is consistent with existing experimental and clinical observations.
Understanding information integration is crucial for analyzing cognitive functions in health and disease.