Giulio Tononi
Adversary - Integrated Information Theory (IIT)
Professor of Psychiatry @ University of Wisconsin-Madison
Dr. Tononi’s main contribution in the study of consciousness has been the development of the integrated information theory. This is a comprehensive theory of what consciousness is, what determines its quantity and quality, and how it emerges from causal structures such as neural networks. The theory provides a parsimonious account of many neuropsychological observations, among them why certain parts of the brain give rise to experience and others do not, why consciousness vanishes during slow wave sleep and seizures despite continuing neural activity, and how unconscious processes interact with conscious ones. The theory has implications for the unfolding of consciousness across development and phylogeny, and predicts which ingredients are necessary and sufficient to construct sentient machines.
Key publications:
Masafumi Oizumi, Larissa Albantakis, Giulio Tononi, “From the Phenomenology to the Mechanisms of Consciousness: Integrated Information Theory 3.0”, PLOS Computational Biology, journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003588
Giulio Tononi, Melanie Boly, Marcello Massimini, Christof Koch, “Integrated information theory: from consciousness to its physical substrate”, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27225071
Christof Koch, Marcello Massimini, Melanie Boly, Giulio Tononi, “Neural correlates of consciousness: progress and problems”, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27094080
Giulio Tononi, Christof Koch, “Consciousness: here, there and everywhere?”, Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25823865