Consciousness and Energy Processing in Neural Systems

Background: Our understanding of the relationship between neural activity and psychological states has advanced greatly in recent decades. But we are still unable to explain conscious experience in terms of physical processes occurring in our brains. Methods: This paper introduces a conceptual framework that may contribute to an explanation. All physical processes entail the transfer, transduction, and transformation of energy between portions of matter as work is performed in material systems. If the production of consciousness in nervous systems is a physical process, then it must entail the same. Here the nervous system, and the brain in particular, is considered as a material system that transfers, transduces, and transforms energy as it performs biophysical work. Conclusions: Evidence from neuroscience suggests that conscious experience is produced in the organic matter of nervous systems when they perform biophysical work at classical and quantum scales with a certain level of dynamic complexity or organization. An empirically grounded, falsifiable, and testable hypothesis is offered to explain how energy processing in nervous systems may produce conscious experience at a fundamental physical level.