Climbing Brain Levels of Organisation from Genes to Consciousness.
Given the tremendous complexity of brain organisation, here I propose a strategy that dynamically links stages of brain organisation from genes to consciousness, at four privileged structural levels: genes; transcription factors (TFs)-gene networks; synaptic epigenesis; and long-range connectivity. These structures are viewed as nested and reciprocally inter-regulated, with a hierarchical organisation that proceeds on different timescales during the course of evolution and development. Interlevel bridging mechanisms include intrinsic variation-selection mechanisms, which offer a community of bottom-up and top-down models linking genes to consciousness in a stepwise manner.
Collège de France and CNRS UMR 3571, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. Electronic address: changeux@noos.fr.
Jean-Pierre
JP
Changeux
D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D003243:Consciousness; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
D014157:Transcription Factors