A new theory of consciousness, the Temporally-Integrated Causality Landscape (TICL), proposes that the neural correlate of consciousness is a structure of temporally integrated causality spanning a large portion of the thalamocortical system. This structure contains subsystems with higher levels of temporally-integrated causality than the whole, each existing as meaningful content from the system's point of view. The theory is compared with five major neuroscientific theories of consciousness using five characteristics of phenomenal consciousness. Although the theories emphasize different evidence, they share fundamental agreements, suggesting possible convergence. A key dividing feature is spatial and temporal nesting, which does not align with whether theories explicitly invoke EM fields.
A new theoretical framework called the Temporally-Integrated Causality Landscape (TICL) proposes that consciousness emerges from the functional integration of the thalamocortical system. Unlike other frameworks such as Integrated Information Theory (IIT), TICL emphasizes that conscious experiences are temporally continuous rather than discrete. It establishes a thalamocortical basis for the point-of-view, arguing that consciousness consists of contents arising from neuronal subsystems that derive meaning from their relationship to the larger integrated system. These meaningful contents emerge because subsystems exhibit a level of temporally-integrated causality distinguishable from the larger system.