Mapping the structure of neural states associated with conscious experience.
Frontiers in human neuroscience January 1, 2026 Francis G Smith
A review of empirical findings on the neural organization of conscious experience finds that conscious states are consistently associated with neural activity that is restricted to low-dimensional subspaces or manifolds, structured by meaningful geometric and topological relationships, and dynamically accessible under perturbation. Distances in neural representational space track experiential similarity, categorical perceptual distinctions correspond to clustering and boundaries in neural state space, and perturbational measures distinguish accessible experiential states from inactive or fragmented configurations. The authors provide a unifying structural synthesis of empirically grounded constraints on the neural organization associated with conscious experience, without advancing a specific theory of consciousness.