The first thing to know in the debate about consciousness is that consciousness, defined as subjective experience or anything else is a label. What is called consciousness is a term not a mechanism or component in the brain.
Simply, just the same way that delusion is defined as false beliefs or hallucinations is defined as seeing or hearing what is not there, consciousness or subjective experience is a label defined for descriptions.
So, whether it is delusion, hallucinations, memory, feelings, emotions, consciousness or regulation of internal signals, they are all labels.
And as far as July, 2026 psychiatry is concerned, none of these are considered solved, at least in terms of matching them to components in the brain and mechanisms.
This means that someone can say consciousness is a difficult problem in science, well, delusion too is, so is addiction, and human intelligence in the brain. Consciousness is not some difficult problem in isolation that indicates that all other problems are solved.
There are several comments like no one knows what the human mind is, or how it works and so forth. But there is something obvious, at least with psychiatric interventions: antidepressants, antipsychotics and anxiolytics [target for] chemical signals. Electrical, magnetic and ultrasound stimulations [target for] electrical signals.
So, while the components and mechanisms of delusions and hallucinations are unknown, but inducing or inhibition of electrical and chemical signals can be pivotal towards care, in direct and evident ways. It would not be wrong to hypothesize that electrical and chemical signals are the major components that mechanize delusions and hallucinations. Also, that their mechanisms are also responsible.
This means that to begin to understand or solve what the human mind is, in the cranium, the most important candidates are electrical and chemical signals of neurons.
The theoretical leap is not to start seeking for predictions, or what to test or whatever, therapies already provided that evidence. The objective is to define how they do so, away from simply the general knowledge of ion channels or synapses.
It is possible to define mental health, conceptually, as the zone — within certain averages, per moment of the collection of all the electrical and chemical signals, with their interactions and attributes, in sets, in clusters of neurons, across the central and peripheral nervous systems — with a functional balance of mind and experiences, for social and occupational objectives.
This can be extended to define human consciousness and the human mind.
Human consciousness can be defined, conceptually, as the interaction of the electrical and chemical signals, in sets—in clusters of neurons—with their attributes, grading those interactions into functions and experiences.
Conceptually, the human mind is the collection of all the electrical and chemical signals, with their interactions and attributes, in sets, in clusters of neurons, across the central and peripheral nervous systems. Simply, the human mind is the sets of signals.
In conceptual brain science, there are at least four divisions of the human mind: memory, emotions, feelings and regulations of internal senses.
A memory is a specific configuration or formation of electrical and chemical signals in a set. The same applies to an emotion, a feeling and the regulation of an internal signal.
Simply, functions like these are a result of interactions of signals, as specificity in configurations.
Also, there are states that electrical and chemical signals often are, in sets, at the time of the interaction, becoming how those interactions are graded.
Attributes are states of signals at the time of interaction determining the extents of those interactions. Attributes [or qualifiers] make the functions conscious, in an instance, they can be distilled into: attention, awareness, intent and subjectivity.
So, subjectivity can be assumed to the side-to-side volume variations of chemical signals, during interactions. Attention is the most prioritized set of signals, with the highest intensity of electrical signals or the most volume of chemical signals. Awareness sets other than the one in prioritization. Intent is the set with a space of constant diameter, among others, conceptuallyb. [Conceptual Biomarkers and Theoretical Biological Factors for Psychiatric and Intelligence Nosology]
This is not some random consciousness assumption about what makes up consciousness but about components [electrical and chemical signals] and their mechanisms.
There can be continuous debates about what consciousness is or is not, but whether consciousness happens in the cortex, thalamus or brainstem, electrical and chemical signals are responsible. Even where it is said that there is no consciousness, the cerebellum, electrical and chemical signals are still in charge.
So the goal is to explore them in sophisticated postulates.
This will also be useful in defining what human intelligence is in the brain. As well as, exploring AI sentience, with language, even as arguments soar over possibilities that AI may or may never become conscious.
[The World Federation of Neurology has declared July 22, 2026 as the World Brain Day for this year.]
[The Global Congress on Neuroscience and Psychiatry (NeuroCon) will take place August 20–21, 2026 in Paris, France.]
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