While most theories of consciousness posit some kind of dependence on global network activities, I consider here an alternative, localist perspective—in which localized cortical regions each underlie the emergence of a unique category of conscious experience. Under this perspective, the large-scale activation often found in the cortex is a consequence of the complexity of typical conscious experiences rather than an obligatory condition for the emergence of conscious awareness—which can flexibly shift, depending on the richness of its contents, from local to more global activation patterns. This perspective fits a massive body of human imaging, recordings, lesions and stimulation data but opens a fundamental problem: how can the information, defining each content, be derived locally in each cortical region. Here, I will discuss a solution echoing pioneering structuralist ideas in which the content of a conscious experience is defined by its relationship to all other contents within an experiential category. In neuronal terms, this relationship structure between contents is embodied by the local geometry of similarity distances between cortical activation patterns generated during each conscious experience, likely mediated via networks of local neuronal connections. Thus, in order for any conscious experience to appear in an individual’s mind, two central conditions must be met. First, a specific configural pattern (“bar-code”) of neuronal activity must appear within a local relational geometry, i.e. a cortical area. Second, the individual neurons underlying the activated pattern must be bound into a unified functional ensemble through a burst of recurrent neuronal firing: local “ignitions”.

中文翻译：

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人类意识体验内容背后的局部神经元关系结构


虽然大多数意识理论都假定对全球网络活动有某种依赖性，但我在这里考虑另一种局部主义观点——其中每个局部皮层区域都构成了一种独特的意识体验类别的出现。从这个角度来看，皮层中经常发现的大规模激活是典型意识体验复杂性的结果，而不是意识意识出现的必然条件——意识意识可以根据其内容的丰富程度灵活地从局部到更全局的激活模式。这种观点适合大量的人体成像、记录、病变和刺激数据，但提出了一个基本问题：如何在每个皮质区域本地导出定义每个内容的信息。在这里，我将讨论一个呼应先锋结构主义思想的解决方案，其中意识体验的内容是根据其与体验类别内所有其他内容的关系来定义的。用神经元术语来说，内容之间的这种关系结构是通过每次意识体验期间生成的皮层激活模式之间的相似距离的局部几何来体现的，可能是通过局部神经元连接网络介导的。因此，为了使任何有意识的体验出现在个人的头脑中，必须满足两个核心条件。首先，神经元活动的特定配置模式（“条形码”）必须出现在局部关系几何结构（即皮质区域）内。其次，激活模式下的各个神经元必须通过周期性神经元放电的爆发（局部“点火”）绑定到一个统一的功能整体中。