A synergistic workspace for human consciousness revealed by Integrated Information Decomposition.

ABSTRACT: How is the information-processing architecture of the human brain organised, and how does its organisation support consciousness? Here, we combine network science and a rigorous information-theoretic notion of synergy to delineate a 'synergistic global workspace', comprising gateway regions that gather synergistic information from specialised modules across the human brain. This information is then integrated within the workspace and widely distributed via broadcaster regions. Through functional MRI analysis, we show that gateway regions of the synergistic workspace correspond to the human brain's default mode network, whereas broadcasters coincide with the executive control network. We find that loss of consciousness due to general anaesthesia or disorders of consciousness corresponds to

SUBMITTER: Luppi AI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11257694 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature