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Ph.D. in Neuroscience
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Thesis: Integrated Information Theory: Theoretical Developments & Empirical Applications
Advisor: Giulio Tononi
Sc.B. in Mathematics–Computer Science
Brown University
Employment
Researcher
Center for Sleep and Consciousness
University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Lead developer and maintainer of PyPhi, the standard open-source library for IIT research (paper)
- Developed a refinement of IIT's intrinsic information metric to measure the tradeoff between differentiation and specification (preprint)
- Extended IIT's formalism to offer an account of perception (preprint)
Associate Systems Programmer
Center for Sleep and Consciousness
University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Conceived and built PyPhi
- Designed and implemented evolutionary algorithms for simulating neural network-controlled agents, analyzing their emergent dynamics using information-theoretic measures
- Conducted theoretical research contributing to the formal foundations of IIT
Publications
Lead author
- Mayner, W. G. P., Marshall, W., Tononi, G. (2025, October 4). Intrinsic Cause-Effect Power: The Tradeoff between Differentiation and Specification. arXiv: 2510.03881 [q-bio]. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2510.03881
- Mayner, W. G. P., Juel, B. E., Tononi, G. (2024, December 31). Intrinsic Meaning, Perception, and Matching. arXiv: 2412.21111 [q-bio]. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2412.21111
- Albantakis, L., Barbosa, L., Findlay, G., Grasso, M., Haun, A. M., Marshall, W., Mayner, W. G. P., Zaeemzadeh, A., Boly, M., Juel, B. E., Sasai, S., Fujii, K., David, I., Hendren, J., Lang, J. P., Tononi, G. (2023). Integrated Information Theory (IIT) 4.0: Formulating the Properties of Phenomenal Existence in Physical Terms. PLOS Computational Biology, 19(10), e1011465. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011465
- Mayner, W. G. P., Marshall, W., Billeh, Y. N., Gandhi, S. R., Caldejon, S., Cho, A., Griffin, F., Hancock, N., Lambert, S., Lee, E. K., Luviano, J. A., Mace, K., Nayan, C., Nguyen, T. V., North, K., Seid, S., Williford, A., Cirelli, C., Groblewski, P. A., Lecoq, J., Tononi, G., Koch, C., Arkhipov, A. (2022). Measuring Stimulus-Evoked Neurophysiological Differentiation in Distinct Populations of Neurons in Mouse Visual Cortex. eNeuro, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0280-21.2021
- Mayner, W. G. P., Marshall, W., Albantakis, L., Findlay, G., Marchman, R., Tononi, G. (2018). PyPhi: A Toolbox for Integrated Information Theory. PLoS computational biology, 14(7), e1006343. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006343
Co-author
- Tononi, G., Albantakis, L., Barbosa, L., Boly, M., Cirelli, C., Comolatti, R., Ellia, F., Findlay, G., Casali, A. G., Grasso, M., Haun, A. M., Hendren, J., Hoel, E., Koch, C., Maier, A., Marshall, W., Massimini, M., Mayner, W. G., Oizumi, M., Szczotka, J., Tsuchiya, N., Zaeemzadeh, A. (2025). Consciousness or Pseudo-Consciousness? A Clash of Two Paradigms. Nat Neurosci, 28(4), 694–702. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-025-01880-y
- Findlay, G., Marshall, W., Albantakis, L., David, I., Mayner, W. G., Koch, C., Tononi, G. (2025, March 3). Dissociating Artificial Intelligence from Artificial Consciousness. arXiv: 2412.04571 [cs]. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2412.04571
- Bugnon, T., Mayner, W. G. P., Cirelli, C., Tononi, G. (2024). Sleep and Wake in a Model of the Thalamocortical System with Martinotti Cells. European Journal of Neuroscience, 59(4), 703–736. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15836
- Gandhi, S. R., Mayner, W. G. P., Marshall, W., Billeh, Y. N., Bennett, C., Gale, S. D., Mochizuki, C., Siegle, J. H., Olsen, S., Tononi, G., Koch, C., Arkhipov, A. (2023). A Survey of Neurophysiological Differentiation across Mouse Visual Brain Areas and Timescales. Front. Comput. Neurosci., 17. https://doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2023.1040629
- Marshall, W., Grasso, M., Mayner, W. G. P., Zaeemzadeh, A., Barbosa, L. S., Chastain, E., Findlay, G., Sasai, S., Albantakis, L., Tononi, G. (2023). System Integrated Information. Entropy, 25(2), 334. https://doi.org/10.3390/e25020334
- Tononi, G., Boly, M., Grasso, M., Hendren, J., Juel, B. E., Mayner, W. G., Marshall, W., Koch, C. (2022). IIT, Half Masked and Half Disfigured. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 45(e60), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X21001990
- Gomez, J. D., Mayner, W. G. P., Beheler-Amass, M., Tononi, G., Albantakis, L. (2021). Computing Integrated Information (Φ) in Discrete Dynamical Systems with Multi-Valued Elements. Entropy, 23(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/e23010006
- Findlay, G., Marshall, W., Albantakis, L., Mayner, W. G. P., Koch, C., Tononi, G. (2019). Dissociating Intelligence from Consciousness in Artificial Systems – Implications of Integrated Information Theory. Proceedings of the 2019 towards Conscious AI Systems Symposium, AAAI SSS19. https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2287/short7.pdf
Presentations
28th Meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (Heraklion, Greece)
Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research, Johns Hopkins University (virtual)
Neuroscience School of Advanced Studies (Venice, Italy)
Neuroscience Training Program, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Neuroscience Training Program, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Wisconsin Institute for Sleep and Consciousness
NEST Conference 2020 (virtual)
23rd Meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (London, Ontario, Canada)
22nd Meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (Krakow, Poland)
PhiFest, Wisconsin Institute for Sleep and Consciousness
Awards
Morgridge Institute for Research
23rd Meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (London, Ontario, Canada)
Teaching
Teaching Assistant
Neuroscience School of Advanced Studies (Venice, Italy)
Teaching Assistant (graduate seminar)
Neuroscience Training Program, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Service
Neuroscience Instructor
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Developed and taught a curriculum on neuroscience topics to precollege students from underprivileged backgrounds
Guest Lecturer
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Invited lecture for high school students in the Advanced Learners Program: "What Is Consciousness?"