Integrated information structure collapses with anesthetic loss of conscious arousal in Drosophila melanogaster.

ABSTRACT: The physical basis of consciousness remains one of the most elusive concepts in current science. One influential conjecture is that consciousness is to do with some form of causality, measurable through information. The integrated information theory of consciousness (IIT) proposes that conscious experience, filled with rich and specific content, corresponds directly to a hierarchically organised, irreducible pattern of causal interactions; i.e. an integrated informational structure among elements of a system. Here, we tested this conjecture in a simple biological system (fruit flies), estimating the information structure of the system during wakefulness and general anesthesia. Consistent with this conjecture, we found that integrated interactions among populations of neurons during wakeful

SUBMITTER: Leung A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7946294 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature