Mapping the Structure of Neural States Associated with Conscious Experience
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) April 8, 2026 Francis Smith Jr
Conscious experience is consistently associated with neural activity that is organized in structured, low-dimensional state spaces, rather than merely by activation magnitude or location. Across multiple measurement methods, neural states during conscious perception are restricted to admissible configurations, form meaningful geometric and topological relationships, and are dynamically accessible under perturbation. Distances in neural representational space track similarities in experience, and categorical perceptual distinctions correspond to clustering and boundaries in neural state space. This review synthesizes findings from neural correlates of consciousness, representational similarity analysis, neural manifold studies, perturbational approaches, and sensory systems to clarify empirically grounded constraints on how neural activity is organized in association with conscious experience.