Intrinsic Cause-Effect Power: The Tradeoff Between Differentiation and Specification.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Neuroscience
• Philosophy of Mind

Background:

• Integrated Information Theory (IIT) posits consciousness arises from a system's cause-effect power.
• IIT characterizes consciousness by properties like intrinsic, specific, unitary, definite, and structured experiences.
• Operationalizing IIT requires assessing substrate units' cause-effect power intrinsically and specifically.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address IIT's operational requirements for the intrinsic existence of consciousness.
• To develop measures for assessing the intrinsic availability (specification) and specificity (differentiation) of cause-effect repertoires in substrate units.
• To explore the relationship between specification, differentiation, and integrated information.

Main Methods:

• Formalizing IIT's requirements for cause-effect power in substrate units.
• Introducing 'intrinsic difference from maximal specification' to quantify the repertoire of cause-effect states.
• Illustrating concepts with simple micro-unit systems and discussing implications for macro-units and neural systems.

Main Results:

• Requirement (i) for intrinsic existence is assessed by intrinsic difference from maximal specification.
• Requirement (ii) for specific cause-effect power is assessed by intrinsic difference from maximal differentiation.
• A tradeoff between differentiation and specification is identified as necessary for intrinsic existence.

Conclusions:

• Intrinsic existence, a prerequisite for consciousness in IIT, depends on both maximal specification and differentiation.
• These measures provide a quantitative framework for assessing consciousness according to IIT.
• The findings have implications for understanding consciousness in neural systems and other complex systems.