Dendritic Integration Theory as a Cellular Bridge for the Current Major Consciousness Theories

Abstract

Consciousness is often described as the final frontier in science, tackled from multiple disciplines including philosophy, neuroscience, and computer science. Consciousness is most commonly defined as what exists from afirst-person perspective, as the feeling of what it is like to be something, as well as through neuronal mechanisms that generate and support this phenomenology. Countless theories on consciousness have emerged to try to elucidate this complicated phenomenon. In our review, we aim to examine the three dominant theories of consciousness - Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT), Recurrent Processing Theory (RPT), Higher-order Theory (HOT) - and the Dendritic Integration Theory (DIT) as a newer, less prominent, theory that focuses on the cellular basis of consciousness. We propose that DIT may complement the postulations of the other three theories through its cellular approach that bridges state and content consciousness. Finally, we discuss the future of consciousness research more generally.