Neuroscience of consciousness
January 1, 2025
Robert Worden
1 citation
A computer cannot be conscious. If the brain is only a neural computer, brains cannot be conscious. Consciousness implies something else happening in the brain beyond computation. In a running computer, information about outside events is encoded to enable computation, but the information needed to decode that encoding (e.g., to interpret volts as bits) is not inside the computer; meaning is defined only by an external entity. Similarly, a book’s meaning requires outside knowledge to read. Consciousness contains meaningful information about external events, but a computer without decoding contains none. Therefore, if the brain is only a computer, consciousness cannot be realized by events inside the brain. The paper suggests an analogue model of 3-D space as a possible source of consciousness, meriting further investigation.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2026
Robert Worden
Consciousness may arise from un-encoded information in an analogue model of 3-D space, specifically a wave excitation in the thalamus that stores information as a Fourier transform, similar to a hologram. Neurons couple to this wave, but the wave itself is the source of consciousness, not neural computation. The theory avoids the decoding problem inherent in neural theories, where encoded information requires external decoding not present in the brain. Although such a wave has not been detected, indirect evidence exists in the mammalian thalamus and insect central body. The theory is an initial conceptual outline, potentially falsifiable, and could explain why consciousness evolved, with many details remaining to be worked out.
arXiv Preprint Archive
July 25, 2024
Robert Worden
A wave-like excitation in animal brains may serve as a working spatial memory for representing three-dimensional space. The hypothesis is supported by evidence from multiple fields, including connectomics, computational modeling, experimental neuroscience, genomics, proteomics, animal behavior, and biophysics. If such a wave exists, it could plausibly be identified as the source of consciousness, potentially advancing understanding of the mind and reshaping views of human cognition.
arXiv Preprint Archive
May 20, 2024
Robert Worden
A proposed projective wave theory of consciousness addresses three core difficulties: how neurons that cause consciousness are selected, how a detailed internal model of 3D space arises, and how distorted neural representations are decoded into an undistorted conscious experience. The theory posits that the brain's internal model of local 3D space is held not in neurons but in a wave excitation that carries a projective transform of Euclidean space, and that this wave is the source of spatial consciousness. Although such a wave has not yet been detected, indirect evidence exists in the mammalian thalamus and the insect brain's central body. The theory aligns with the spatial form of consciousness and has a positive Bayesian balance between its assumptions and the data it explains.