Physical Requirements for Models of Consciousness

Consciousness presents a series of characteristics that have been observed throughout the years: unity, continuity, richness and robustness are some of them. It manifests itself in regions of the brain capable of processing a huge quantity of integrated information at a level of neural activity close to criticality. We argue that the physical correlates of consciousness cannot be exclusively based on classical physics. The unity of consciousness cannot be explained classically as classical properties are always Humean like a mosaic. One needs an entangled quantum system that can at least satisfy part of the functions of a quantum computer to generate an inner experience with the unity of consciousness. At the same time this system should be able to interact with a classical system that gives simultaneous access to preprocessed information at the neural level and to produce events that generate neural firings.