{"schemaVersion":"2026-09-11-rith-v0.1","canonicalUrl":"https://www.mymindmine.com/research/rith","machineUrl":"https://www.mymindmine.com/rith.json","author":"John Brajer","publishedAt":"2026-09-11","status":"research_hypothesis_v0.1","name":"Receiver–Integration Threshold Hypothesis","acronym":"RITH","coreQuestion":"Does a measurable developmental transition in receiver–integration architecture predict candidate markers of conscious access better than sensory maturity or generic neural complexity alone?","coreHypothesis":"Conditional on adequate physiological arousal and usable information reception, candidate conscious-access responses should increase as developing neural dynamics move from predominantly local or redundant processing toward context-sensitive gating, distributed integration, and higher-order synergy. Synergy should add predictive information after relevant developmental, sensory, state, connectivity, signal-quality, and generic-complexity controls.","claimLevels":{"developmentalRith":"Tests whether development contains a measurable transition toward distributed, synergistic, context-sensitive processing.","accessRith":"Tests whether that regime contributes unique predictive information about candidate conscious-access signatures.","strongOntologicalRith":"Would identify the transition itself with phenomenal consciousness. This is not asserted in v0.1."},"noveltyBoundary":{"notClaimed":["Synergy relates to consciousness.","Infant brains become more synergistic with age.","A single information-theoretic scalar measures consciousness.","A specific gestational week is the proven onset of subjective experience."],"proposedContribution":"The developmental conjunction of usable reception, context-sensitive gating, distributed integration, higher-order synergy, a potentially nonlinear access regime, and incremental prediction beyond simpler maturation/complexity accounts."},"falsifiers":["Reliable access-related signatures repeatedly appear while the proposed receiver–integration regime remains low.","Synergy adds no out-of-sample prediction after age, arousal, signal quality, sensory response, conventional connectivity, and generic complexity are controlled.","The apparent developmental threshold disappears under estimator-bias correction, dimensionality matching, or surrogate controls.","A state change alters access proxies without the predicted change in receiver–integration measures.","A simpler competing account explains the observations at least as well with fewer assumptions."],"researchSequence":["reproduce_published_infant_o_information_results","test_estimator_robustness_and_nonlinear_change_points","compare_prenatal_and_postnatal_development_at_matched_pma","preregister_primary_analysis_and_held_out_validation","run_prospective_longitudinal_eeg_protocol"],"selectedPriorArt":[{"title":"Emergence of a synergistic scaffold in the brains of human infants","year":2025,"doi":"10.1038/s42003-025-08082-z","role":"developmental synergy prior art"},{"title":"Brain complexity in response to auditory stimulation improves evaluation of cerebral maturation in premature newborns","year":2026,"pubmed":"42070007","role":"sensory-evoked complexity / reception prior art"},{"title":"Maturational networks of human fetal brain activity reveal emerging connectivity patterns prior to ex-utero exposure","year":2023,"doi":"10.1038/s42003-023-04969-x","role":"prenatal distributed-network maturation prior art"},{"title":"A synergistic workspace for human consciousness revealed by Integrated Information Decomposition","year":2024,"doi":"10.7554/eLife.88173","role":"adult synergy/conscious-state prior art boundary"},{"title":"Adversarial testing of global neuronal workspace and integrated information theories of consciousness","year":2025,"doi":"10.1038/s41586-025-08888-1","role":"theory-testing precedent and competing-model context"}],"ethicsGuard":"The framework does not justify sedating infants for research-only reduced-consciousness comparisons. Clinical-state data should only be used where treatment is independently indicated and research protections are satisfied.","provenance":{"humanOriginated":"Receiver–Integration Threshold Hypothesis and its core conceptual propositions, authored by John Brajer.","aiAssisted":"Literature discovery, terminology comparison, formalization, source synthesis, experimental-design critique, and publication-language support.","versionRule":"Preserve originating hypothesis, external evidence, later interpretation, and future revisions as distinguishable provenance layers."}}