Abstract：
A newly discovered physical mechanism involving incoherent electron tunneling in layers of the protein ferritin that are found in catecholaminergic neurons (catecholaminergic neuron electron transport or CNET) is hypothesized to support communication between neurons. Recent tests further confirm that these ferritin layers can also perform a switching function (in addition to providing an electron tunneling mechanism) that could be associated with action selection in those neurons, consistent with earlier predictions based on CNET. While further testing would be needed to confirm the hypothesis that CNET allows groups of neurons to communicate and act as a switch for selecting one of the neurons in the group to assist in reaching action potential, this paper explains how that hypothesized behavior would be consistent with Integrated Information Theory (IIT), one of a number of consciousness theories (CTs). While the sheer number of CTs suggest that any one of them alone is not sufficient to explain consciousness, this paper demonstrates that CNET can provide a physical substrate and action selection mechanism that is consistent with IIT and which can also be applied to other CTs, such as to conform them into a single explanation of consciousness.
摘要：
新发现的物理机制涉及在儿茶酚胺能神经元（儿茶酚胺能神经元电子传输或CNET）中发现的蛋白质铁蛋白层中的不相干电子隧穿，以支持神经元之间的通信。最近的测试进一步证实，这些铁蛋白层还可以执行开关功能（除了提供电子隧穿机制之外），这可能与这些神经元中的动作选择有关，与早期基于CNET的预测一致。虽然需要进一步的测试来确认以下假设：CNET允许神经元群进行通信并充当开关，以选择组中的一个神经元来帮助达到动作电位，本文解释了假设的行为如何与综合信息理论(IIT)相一致，许多意识理论（CT）之一。虽然CT的绝对数量表明，它们中的任何一个都不足以解释意识，本文证明，CNET可以提供与IIT一致的物理底物和作用选择机制，也可以应用于其他CT，例如使它们符合意识的单一解释。
