Modelling developments in consciousness within a multidimensional framework.
Neuroscience of consciousness January 1, 2024 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1093/nc/niae026 via PubMed
Summary
A multidimensional framework for consciousness, which has been applied to psychedelic states, disorders of consciousness, and non-human animals, is expanded by adding temporal profiles. This allows modeling changes across life cycles and the progression of disorders of consciousness. The expansion enables new comparisons across development and species, and highlights the importance of fluctuations in patients with disorders of consciousness.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Adding temporal profiles to the multidimensional framework of consciousness enables modeling changes across life cycles and the progression of disorders of consciousness, facilitating new comparisons and highlighting fluctuations in patients. |
Abstract
A recent advancement in consciousness science has been the introduction of a multidimensional framework of consciousness. This framework has been applied to global states of consciousness, including psychedelic states and disorders of consciousness, and the consciousness of non-human animals. The multidimensional framework enables a finer parsing of both various states of consciousness and forms of animal consciousness, paving the way for new scientific investigations into consciousness. In this paper, the multidimensional model is expanded by constructing temporal profiles. This expansion allows for the modelling of changes in consciousness across the life cycles of organisms and the progression over time of disorders of consciousness. The result of this expansion is 2-fold: (i) it enables new modes of comparison, both across stages of development and across species; (ii) it proposes that more attention be given to the various types of fluctuations that occur in patients who are suffering from disorders of consciousness.