Do psychic cells generate consciousness?

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent progress in understanding how cortical pyramidal neurons, or 'psychic cells', may generate consciousness through specific cellular mechanisms involving metabotropic receptors, especially in relation to anesthetic-induced loss of consciousness.

Contribution

It highlights the role of metabotropic receptors in pyramidal neurons as a cellular mechanism potentially responsible for conscious processing, connecting historical insights with modern neuroscience.

Findings

Metabotropic receptors on pyramidal neurons are key to conscious processing.

Disruption of feedback signaling correlates with loss of consciousness.

Historical concept of 'psychic cells' is supported by recent cellular mechanisms.

Abstract

Technological advances in the past decades have begun to enable neuroscientists to address fundamental questions about consciousness in an unprecedented way. Here we review remarkable recent progress in our understanding of cellular-level mechanisms of conscious processing in the brain. Of particular interest are the cortical pyramidal neurons -- or "psychic cells" called by Ram\'on y Cajal more than 100 years ago -- which have an intriguing cellular mechanism that accounts for selective disruption of feedback signaling in the brain upon anesthetic-induced loss of consciousness. Importantly, a particular class of metabotropic receptors distributed over the dendrites of pyramidal cells are highlighted as the key cellular mechanism. After all, Cajal's instinct over a century ago may turn out to be correct -- we may have just begun to understand whether and how psychic cells indeed generate and control our consciousness.