Skip to content
Dimensional Emergence Framework

Neuroscience & Consciousness

This domain connects the structural Core of the Dimensional Emergence Framework (DEF) to neuroscience and the study of consciousness.

DEF does not treat consciousness as a primitive substance.
Instead, it treats conscious access as a regime-level phenomenon that depends on:

  • closure-stable integration,
  • bounded self-reference,
  • constraint satisfaction,
  • and ordered traversal of states (Entry → Crisis → Resolution).

Scope

Section titled “Scope”

This domain focuses on three questions:

  1. What structural conditions must hold for conscious access to be possible at all?
  2. How can neural signatures be interpreted as indicators of closure, self-reference, and phase ordering?
  3. How do perturbations (sleep, anesthesia, psychedelics, seizures) map to regime transitions and constraint tension?

Relation to the DEF Core

Section titled “Relation to the DEF Core”

The Core defines:

  • two coupled aspects (often written as Existence and Happening),
  • four operative modes (S, R, D, X̂),
  • seven self-references,
  • five constraints,
  • and three phases.

In neuroscience terms, this domain treats these as structural prerequisites for:

  • stable perceptual integration,
  • reportable access,
  • and recoverability after perturbation.

No domain content introduces new primitives beyond the Core.

What this domain provides

Section titled “What this domain provides”
  • a DEF-compatible vocabulary for discussing neural integration without committing to a single theory of consciousness,
  • a mapping from closure/constraint tension to common experimental paradigms,
  • and interpretative hypotheses (not proofs) for well-known markers such as:
    • mismatch responses,
    • P3-family components,
    • ignition/global workspace-like transitions,
    • and state-dependent connectivity changes.

What this domain does not provide

Section titled “What this domain does not provide”
  • a complete neuroscientific theory,
  • clinical claims or medical guidance,
  • or definitive identifications of DEF terms with specific brain regions.

All mappings remain structural and are meant to be tested, refined, or rejected.

Section titled “Recommended reading order”
  1. Consciousness in DEF — conceptual mapping from Core structures to conscious access
  2. Neuroscience Correlates — candidate neural signatures and how DEF would interpret them
  3. Perturbations & State Changes — regime shifts under perturbation, anesthesia, sleep, psychedelics

This domain provides a structural bridge: from kernel closure to observable neural dynamics and state transitions.