Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science
July 1, 2022
Tam Hunt, Marissa Ericson, Jonathan Schooler
52 citations
As tools for measuring consciousness emerge, there is no settled theory of what they measure. This article categorizes tests that infer the presence and complexity of phenomenal or subjective experience, proposing a taxonomy of measurable correlates of consciousness (MCC) with three subcategories: neural, behavioral, and creative correlates. It also suggests ways different theories of consciousness might be empirically distinguished and reflects on how broader philosophical views, such as materialism and panpsychism, could be informed by scientific evidence.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
February 16, 2022
Asa Young, Tam Hunt, Marissa Ericson
34 citations
Brain-generated electromagnetic field oscillations are increasingly seen as causal drivers of consciousness. Recent work highlights how the body's endogenous rhythms organize these fields through entrainment. This paper examines evidence of shared oscillations between the brain and other body parts in humans and animals, testing the Slowest Shared Resonance (SSR) principle of General Resonance Theory. The SSR principle states that macro-consciousness in coupled field systems depends on the slowest common denominator frequency. It predicts that a system's SSR decreases with distance between the brain and resonating structures. Observed resonance relationships—between brain and gastric neurons, sensory organs, and spinal cord—generally match these predictions, empirically supporting the SSR principle.
Front Psychol
June 1, 2023
Mostyn W. Jones, Tam Hunt
17 citations
The brain's production of conscious qualities like colors and pains remains unexplained by standard neuroscience, which focuses on synaptic information processing and spike codes. Electromagnetic field theories offer a promising alternative, proposing that brain-generated electromagnetic fields, rather than synaptic firing alone, give rise to qualia. This review evaluates several such theories, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses compared to standard approaches, and concludes that EM-field accounts provide more viable explanations for how qualia arise and unify into complex perceptions.
Front Hum Neurosci
March 1, 2024
Tam Hunt, Mostyn Jones, Johnjoe Mcfadden et al.
11 citations
This editorial examines the potential of electromagnetic field theories to explain consciousness, highlighting both promising avenues and significant challenges. It discusses how neural electromagnetic fields might integrate information across brain regions, offering a framework for conscious experience. However, it also addresses obstacles such as the lack of direct causal evidence and difficulties in testing these theories empirically. The piece calls for interdisciplinary collaboration to refine hypotheses and develop experimental approaches that could bridge theoretical gaps.
Preprints.org
September 24, 2025
Tam Hunt
preprint
Pain perception arises from electromagnetic field dynamics as the primary computational substrate, with neurotransmitter systems acting as field-controlled energy modulation networks. This hierarchical framework places ephaptic field effects at the nanosecond timescale as the primary layer, neuromodulation at millisecond-to-second timescales as energy distribution, and myelination architecture at evolutionary timescales as the structural substrate. Pain systems maintain baseline criticality, with acute pain representing adaptive supercritical shifts and chronic pain reflecting maladaptive critical states.
Preprints.org
September 15, 2025
Tam Hunt
preprint
The brain's electromagnetic fields, not just synaptic firing, may be the primary medium for computation, cognition, and consciousness. Neural avalanches—activity cascades following power-law distributions that mark critical brain dynamics—propagate too rapidly to be explained by synaptic transmission alone. The authors propose that these avalanches spread through resonance cascades in the brain's EM fields, which form a nested hierarchy of oscillations. The neural substrate and its firing provide the energetic foundation, while neurotransmitter systems act as field-controlled energy distribution networks, tuning brain regions toward or away from a baseline critical state. This framework explains how 1/f noise emerges naturally from multi-scale field interactions at criticality, and suggests normal waking consciousness corresponds to an optimal balance of local and global field dynamics.
Frontiers in computational neuroscience
January 1, 2026
Tam Hunt
The binding problem—how distributed neural processes create unified conscious experience—and the criticality problem—how the brain maintains optimal information processing at the boundary between order and chaos—can both be resolved by shifting from a discrete, computational view of the brain to an electromagnetic field perspective. Drawing on Alan Watts' distinction between "prickles" (particles) and "goo" (continuous waves), the paper argues that electromagnetic field interactions naturally account for spatial and temporal binding through cross-frequency coupling and explain neural criticality through volumetric field propagation. Evidence shows electromagnetic fields entrain neural spike timing at thresholds as low as 0.
Frontiers in human neuroscience
January 1, 2019
Tam Hunt, Jonathan W Schooler
Resonance—synchronization, harmonization, or vibrations in a general sense—appears to be integrally related to consciousness. In mammalian brains, a specific combination of gamma, beta, and theta electrical synchrony is a possible neural correlate of consciousness. Similar resonance patterns occur in many living and non-living structures. This paper reviews resonating structures across neuroscience, biology, and physics and proposes a solution to the 'combination problem' of consciousness: how micro-conscious entities combine into macro-consciousness.