Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34659799›Full record

ReviewNeuroscience of consciousness2021

A relational approach to consciousness: categories of level and contents of consciousness.

Naotsugu Tsuchiya, Hayato Saigo

Open access · goldAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Neuroscience of consciousness, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
21citing papers in PubMed
4.1field-weighted citation impact, top 5% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

21 citing papers in PubMed, 52 citations in OpenAlex.

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  9. Comparing color qualia structures through a similarity task in young children versus adults.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Naotsugu TsuchiyaSchool of Psychological Sciences and Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4216-8701
Hayato SaigoNagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology, 1266 Tamura-cho, Nagahama, Shiga 526-0829, Japan.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4209-352X
Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International · JPNagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology · JP

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Characterizing consciousness in and of itself is notoriously difficult. Here, we propose an alternative approach to characterize, and eventually define, consciousness through exhaustive descriptions of consciousness' relationships to all other consciousness. This approach is founded in category theory. Indeed, category theory can prove that two objects A and B in a category can be equivalent if and only if all the relationships that A holds with others in the category are the same as those of B; this proof is called the Yoneda lemma. To introduce the Yoneda lemma, we gradually introduce key concepts of category theory to consciousness researchers. Along the way, we propose several possible definitions of categories of consciousness, both in terms of level and contents, through the usage of simple examples. We propose to use the categorical structure of consciousness as a gold standard to formalize empirical research (e.g. color qualia structure at fovea and periphery) and, especially, the empirical testing of theories of consciousness.

Indexed as

category theoryconsciousnesscontents of consciousnessfunctorlevel of consciousnessnatural transformationqualiayoneda lemma

Identifiers

PMID34659799
PMCPMC8517618
OpenAlexW3206642266

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.