The emergence of integrated information, complexity, and consciousness at criticality
bioRxiv Preprint Server January 15, 2019 Sina Khajehabdollahi, Pubuditha M. Abeyasinghe, Adrian M. Owen et al. preprint
Using the critical Ising model of the brain, integrated information—a measure of consciousness—was measured in toy models of generic neural networks. Monte Carlo simulations were run on 159 random weighted networks analogous to small 5-node neural network motifs. Integrated information, as a type of order parameter like magnetism, undergoes a phase transition at the model's critical point, where the system's 'consciousness' is maximally susceptible to perturbations and on the boundary between ordered and disordered forms. This adds evidence that the emergence of consciousness coincides with self-organized criticality, evolution, the emergence of complexity, and the integration of complex systems.