Whole-Brain Models to Explore Altered States of Consciousness from the Bottom Up
MDPI (MDPI AG) September 10, 2020 Rodrigo Cofré 7 citations
Altered states of consciousness, which differ from ordinary wakefulness, offer a valuable opportunity to understand how global changes in brain activity relate to different subjective experiences. This paper advocates for a research program that bridges bottom-up generative models of whole-brain activity with top-down signatures proposed by theories of consciousness. It defines altered states, discusses relevant brain-activity signatures, and introduces whole-brain models to explore the biophysics of altered consciousness from the bottom-up. The authors argue that systematically investigating altered states via such modeling can illuminate the biophysical, informational, and dynamical foundations of consciousness.