Could Striate Cortex Microcolumns Serve as the Neural Correlates of Visual Consciousness?


" Neural circuit structure studies commonly focus on cell connectivity within circuits and not on the 3-D structure of the circuit itself. ... this approach may be missing valuable information related to the properties and activities of these circuits. A case in point being the well-known and studied striate cortex microcolumns found in several mammals. Within the Quantized Visual Awareness (QVA) hypothesis, the specific topology of these microcolumns is thought to be a key factor in determining the type of qualia produced by these neural circuits of the visual cortex." {Credits 1}

" Although we have focused solely on the structure of microcircuits, these microcircuits themselves are not the physical surrogate of qualia. QVA proposes the specifically shaped electromagnetic (EM) fields arising from active microcolumns are the physical aspect of qualia (Escobar 2013, 2016). This proposal is presented within the context of several others who have previously suggested EM fields serve as the surrogate of conscious experience (Pockett et al. 2009, John 2002, McFadden, 2002a, b, 2013). The topology of these small electromagnetic fields determines the unique type of quale that is produced. Moreover, given that these small fields arise in close proximity to each other, we can easily understand how these individual qualia integrate themselves into our larger visual experience. It is well known that nearby electric fields automatically integrate themselves into one larger field. Thus, individual qualia EM fields combine into one larger EM field that contains our visual subjective experience and more" {Credits 1}

{Credits 1} 🎪 Escobar, W. A., & Slemons, M. Could Striate Cortex Microcolumns Serve as the Neural Correlates of Visual Consciousness?. Athens Journal of Sciences 2020, 7, 1-15 © 2020 The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.


Last modified on 10-Jun-20

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