Jeff Yoshimi
University of California, Merced
Integrated information Consciousness is intrinsic causal power, measured as integrated information
Jeff Yoshimi is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Merced, working at the intersection of phenomenological philosophy and computational neuroscience. His research addresses how theories of consciousness can be grounded in both the mathematical structure of neural dynamics and the first-person structure of experience, with particular interest in how neural field theories relate to the temporal flow of conscious states.
In collaboration with Sergio Ponce de Leon, Yoshimi published a 2026 paper in Neuroscience of Consciousness (DOI: 10.1093/nc/niag037) defending the testability of Integrated Information Theory’s most counterintuitive predictions regarding quiescent neurons. The paper demonstrated that the Silent Brain and Disabled Neuron predictions, which hold that consciousness persists through complete neural silence and that disabling already-silent neurons alters qualia, follow directly from IIT’s core commitments about dispositional cause-effect power. By applying Lakatosian criteria for progressive versus degenerating research programmes, the paper argued that these predictions constitute genuine empirical targets rather than unfalsifiable consequences.
Yoshimi’s earlier work on neural field theories and the continuity of conscious experience provides the background for his engagement with IIT’s claim that cause-effect structure, rather than instantaneous neural activity, is the physical basis of consciousness. His research bridges analytic philosophy of mind, phenomenological analysis in the tradition of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, and quantitative computational models of large-scale neural dynamics.
Known for. Philosophy of mind and phenomenology, computational neuroscience of consciousness, IIT testability, neural field theories
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Related researchers
- Sergio Ponce de LeonUniversity of California, MercedTestability of IIT silent neuron predictions, Lakatosian philosophy of science applied to consciousness research, cause-effect power in quiescent neural states
- Larissa AlbantakisUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison, Center for Sleep and ConsciousnessIntegrated Information Theory 4.0 and dissociating intelligence from consciousness in artificial systems
- Costas AnastassiouAllen InstituteEphaptic coupling of cortical neurons, endogenous electric fields as causal participants in neural activity, extracellular field biophysics
- Anton ArkhipovAllen Institute for Brain ScienceLarge-scale neural simulation, biophysically detailed cortical models, AIBRAIN program, State of Brain Emulation Report 2025
- Nihat AyHamburg University of Technology; external professor, Santa Fe Institute; honorary professor, Leipzig UniversityInformation geometry and information-theoretic measures of complexity and causal integration
- Bernard J. BaarsThe Neurosciences InstituteGlobal Workspace Theory (GWT), cognitive architecture of conscious access, A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness (1988), In the Theater of Consciousness (1997)
Jeff Yoshimi is listed with the other integrated information theorists, who hold that consciousness is intrinsic causal power, measured as integrated information. The theory family behind that position is set out in the index of consciousness theories. Every researcher covered on this site is indexed in the directory of consciousness researchers.