Information Closure Theory of Consciousness

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Information Theory

Background:

• Neural information processing occurs across multiple scales, from fine-grained neuronal activity to macro-scale interactions.
• Conscious awareness is linked to specific scales of coarse-grained information, not individual neuron activity or large-scale communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce the Information Closure Theory of Consciousness (ICT), a novel informational theory.
• Hypothesize that conscious processes involve non-trivial informational closure (NTIC) with the environment at specific scales.
• Propose quantitative definitions for conscious content and level within the ICT framework.

Main Methods:

• Theoretical framework development based on information theory and neurophysiological evidence.
• Formulation of the concept of non-trivial informational closure (NTIC) at coarse-grained scales.
• Development of quantitative definitions for conscious content and level.

Main Results:

• ICT posits that conscious experience is confined by informational closure across scales.
• The theory provides new quantitative measures for conscious content and level.
• ICT offers explanations for various consciousness phenomena and reconciles existing theories.

Conclusions:

• Information Closure Theory of Consciousness (ICT) provides a parsimonious framework for understanding consciousness.
• ICT suggests that information serves as a bridge between consciousness and physical reality.
• The theory has implications for understanding the scale-dependent nature of conscious experience.