Northoff Georg, Zilio Federico
Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics Research Unit, Institute of Mental Health Research, The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre and University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada; Centre for Cognition and Brain Disorders, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China; Mental Health Centre, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy.
Behav Brain Res. 2022 Apr 29;424:113788. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2022.113788. Epub 2022 Feb 8.
Consciousness and its neural mechanisms remain a mystery. Current neuroscientific theories focus predominantly on the external input/stimulus and the associated stimulus-related activity during conscious contents. Despite all progress, we encounter two gaps: (i) a gap between spontaneous and stimulus-related activity; (ii) a gap between neuronal and phenomenal features. A novel, different, and unique approach, Temporo-spatial Theory of Consciousness (TTC) aims to bridge both gaps. The TTC focuses on the brain's spontaneous activity and how its spatial topography and temporal dynamic shape stimulus-related activity and resurface in the corresponding spatial and temporal features of consciousness, i.e., 'common currency'. The TTC introduces four temporo-spatial mechanisms: expansion, globalization, alignment, and nestedness. These are associated with distinct dimensions of consciousness including phenomenal content, access, form/structure, and level/state, respectively. Following up on the first introduction of the TTC in 2017, we review updates, further develop these temporo-spatial mechanisms, and postulate specific neurophenomenal hypotheses. We conclude that the TTC offers a viable approach for (i) linking spontaneous and stimulus-related activity in conscious states; (ii) determining specific neuronal and neurophenomenal mechanisms for the distinct dimensions of consciousness; (iii) an integrative and unifying framework of different neuroscientific theories of consciousness; and (iv) offers novel empirically grounded conceptual assumptions about the biological and ontological nature of consciousness and its relation to the brain.
意识及其神经机制仍是一个谜。当前的神经科学理论主要关注外部输入/刺激以及意识内容期间与之相关的刺激相关活动。尽管取得了诸多进展，但我们仍面临两个差距：（i）自发活动与刺激相关活动之间的差距；（ii）神经元特征与现象特征之间的差距。一种新颖、不同且独特的方法——意识的时空理论（TTC）旨在弥合这两个差距。TTC关注大脑的自发活动，以及其空间拓扑结构和时间动态如何塑造刺激相关活动，并在意识的相应时空特征（即“通用货币”）中重新浮现。TTC引入了四种时空机制：扩展、全局化、对齐和嵌套。这些机制分别与意识的不同维度相关，包括现象内容、通达、形式/结构以及水平/状态。继2017年首次介绍TTC之后，我们回顾了相关进展，进一步发展了这些时空机制，并提出了具体的神经现象学假设。我们得出结论，TTC为以下方面提供了一种可行的方法：（i）在意识状态下将自发活动与刺激相关活动联系起来；（ii）确定意识不同维度的特定神经元和神经现象学机制；（iii）构建一个整合统一的不同意识神经科学理论框架；以及（iv）提供关于意识的生物学和本体论本质及其与大脑关系的新的基于实证的概念假设。
