A Dopamine-Serotonin Theory of Consciousness
arXiv Preprint Archive July 3, 2025 Diogo Sousa
Consciousness is a continuous, non-monotonic function across a high-dimensional neurochemical space, with dopamine as the primary intensity regulator and serotonin (5-HT2A) as the complexity modulator. This framework explains states from deep sleep to psychosis and neural death, including prefrontal cortex hypoactivity during seizures and the evolutionary persistence of psychosis-prone individuals. Controlled 5-HT2A agonists show low serious medical event incidence (< 0.01 %), while dopaminergic excess is rapidly lethal. Analysis of 70,290 sleep nights from 242 Parkinson's disease patients, using disease severity (UPDRS) and medication (LEDD), reveals a significant LEDD x UPDRS interaction (beta=-1.7, p<.0001), confirming state-dependent, non-linear dynamics.