Our conscious experience is somehow linked to activity in our brains. Although the secrets of the brain are being unveiled at record pace, consciousness remains an elusive subject of study. Why do we perceive some stimuli clearly and others not? How does the brain generate an experience of space? Why can brain activity vary so much between moments while seemingly providing a very similar conscious experience? How can a physical network of cells and sparks generate our entire conscious reality?

The INTREPID project aims to take a step into addressing these questions through an adversarial, open collaboration between three important neuroscientific theories of consciousness. We will test the Integrated Information Theory (IIT, Giulio Tononi) and two account in the Predictive Processing (PP) framework; Active Inference (AI, Karl Friston) and Neurorepresentationalism (NREP, Cyriel Pennartz) against each other in a cross-continental collaboration.

Three experiments have been devised to test the specific predictions of these three theories. We will combine behavioural experiments with state-of-the-art methods such as electrophysiology, optogenetics and neuroimaging.