Do inactive (and inactivated) neurons contribute to visual perception?

Abstract: The INTREPID project is an adversarial collaboration aiming to advance the field of consciousness by testing incompatible predictions of the Integrated Information Theory and of two theoretical frameworks based on predictive processing: Neurorepresentationalism and Active Inference. In my talk I will present an overview of the whole project and will then focus on the experiments that we have been doing to test if and how non-responsive, silent and inactivated portions of the visual system contribute to perception. The results that we have obtained provide a new picture of how the visual system operates and demonstrate the importance of establishing a division of labor in consciousness research, between theoreticians and experimentalists.

Umberto Olcese

University of Amsterdam