Sergio Ponce de Leon
University of California, Merced
Integrated information Consciousness is intrinsic causal power, measured as integrated information
Sergio Ponce de Leon is a philosopher of science working at the University of California, Merced, whose research centres on the methodological foundations of consciousness science and the formal criteria by which competing theories can be empirically evaluated.
In a 2026 paper co-authored with Jeff Yoshimi in Neuroscience of Consciousness (Oxford University Press, DOI: 10.1093/nc/niag037), Ponce de Leon addressed one of the most contested predictions in Integrated Information Theory: that a brain in which all neurons of the main complex have fallen silent can remain conscious, because consciousness is constituted by the dispositional cause-effect structure of the system rather than by its momentary firing activity. The paper resolved a methodological objection raised by Bartlett in 2022 by showing that circuits outside the main complex can generate behavioral reports while the main complex remains quiescent, and by applying Lakatosian philosophy of science to distinguish progressive auxiliary hypotheses from degenerative ad hoc amendments in consciousness research.
Ponce de Leon’s contribution to the field is primarily methodological. He has argued that the Silent Brain and Disabled Neuron predictions of IIT are not untestable by design but have lacked the experimental architecture to test them. His work on Lakatosian demarcation provides a criterion for judging whether a consciousness theory is engaged in a progressive research programme or is shielding its core from genuine refutation.
Known for. Testability of IIT silent neuron predictions, Lakatosian philosophy of science applied to consciousness research, cause-effect power in quiescent neural states
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Related researchers
- Jeff YoshimiUniversity of California, MercedPhilosophy of mind and phenomenology, computational neuroscience of consciousness, IIT testability, neural field theories
- 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)
Sergio Ponce de Leon 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.