Testing the Brain Wave Hypothesis

TL;DR

This paper reviews the brain wave hypothesis suggesting a wave in animal brains encodes spatial memory and explores various methods to test its existence, potentially linking it to consciousness and advancing neuroscience.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive survey of evidence and proposes multiple approaches to empirically and theoretically test the wave excitation hypothesis.

Findings

Survey of supporting evidence for the wave hypothesis

Proposed experimental and computational methods for testing

Implications for understanding consciousness

Abstract

It has been proposed that there is a wave excitation in animal brains, whose function is to represent three-dimensional space around the animal as a working spatial memory. After surveying the evidence supporting the hypothesis, I discuss ways in which it can be tested. There are many ways to investigate it, theoretically and experimentally. They include connectome studies, computational modelling, experimental neuroscience, genomics and proteomics, studies of animal behaviour, and biophysics. If the wave exists, there is a compelling case to identify it as the source of consciousness. This would advance our understanding of one of the greatest scientific challenges of all time, while changing our view of the human mind.