Using Physics and Complexity Theory to 'Measure Consciousness'

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-use-...ssion=true


I swear there's been a study like this done before, but I can't quite remember the details of it besides it also involving flies. 


The title of this article seems somewhat sensationalist. When most people, I imagine, think of 'the mystery of consciousness', they're probably thinking of the hard problem, the mind-brain relation and consciousness pertaining to 'the self'. This study once again is quite clear that it's dealing with conscious states...I think. The actual paper references Integrated Information Theory: 


So I'm confused as to whether this is relevant to the mind-brain relationship and supports a materialist explanation of consciousness. Thoughts?

This science news article as usual has a lot of invalid hype as its operative wording. This research doesn't advance the real understanding of consciousness or of the Hard Problem. It's mainly advancing new very sophisticated ways of measuring neural correlates of consciousness, hoping for clinical hospital applications in areas like shut-in syndrome and anesthetic awareness.   

We have known for a long time that measurable, detectable brain states, whether global like electroencephalography and FMRI scans, or measurements of individual neural cell activity, correlate with various aspects of consciousness, willed motor activity, awareness of sensory stimulation, even the subjects of willed thoughts, etc. And it has been obvious for a long time that biochemically affecting brain cells affects consciousness in various ways, as with the effects of alcohol. 

All of these well observed phenomena basically amount to correlation not causation. The key is that causation is not logically entailed by any of these observations.  And there is a large body of empirical evidence from various paranormal phenomena that the mind is not a function of the physical brain, veridical NDEs being one of the most prominent areas. And it is a fact that materialist neuroscience is no closer to unlocking the mysteries of consciousness and the Hard Problem than it was 50 years ago, despite vast advancements in understanding of neural mechanisms. These factors sort of indicate that materialist neuroscience must be barking up the wrong tree.

The closest operative concepts are most likely the filter or transceiver theories as exemplified by the TV set analogy.