**4. Conclusion**

*Connectivity and Functional Specialization in the Brain*

3.The nFMC divides global neural activity into three large systems, or functional loops, that are morphologically differentiated (although they share overlapped areas) and have semi-independent neurophysiological processes: the B-T neu-

*Consciousness is the phenomenological quality of human existence that arises from a hierarchical, parallel, and serial activation of long-distance brain networks [7], which operate as neural loops that "inform" upper and lower levels about their own operations [29, 30]. These loops receive input from lower levels (which contains new information/predictions) and input from upper levels (error predictions). The loop will integrate all of this new information, updating its own functional state and, consequently, also the functional state of the rest of the loops and the brain [29–32, 191]. ARAS: Ascending reticular activating system; TNN: Task-negative* 

4.Cognitive, behavioral, and emotional expression due to brain damage will depend on the location and extension of the lesion within the neural loop, thus leading to clinical outcomes that they may vary from a mild cognitive impairment to a disorder of consciousness, such as a coma, minimally conscious

5.Each neural loop is activated hierarchically and sequentially by its preceding level, thus extending a representation of the neural processes that took place in the lower level, as well as integrating and transforming this neural representa-

6.The nFMC is in accordance with predictive coding models that present brain activity as a system in which lower brain structures project predictions/signals

ral loop, T-C neural loop, and C-C neural loop (see **Figure 1**).

state, or unresponsive wakefulness state.

tion into new information.

*networks; TPN: Task-positive networks.*

**124**

**Figure 1.**

Human behavior has to be understood as a global brain activity dominated by complex and hierarchical neural processes that cannot be divided and explained by isolated functional units. Consciousness is the "operating system" running underneath the "interface" of overt and covert human behavior, and it is dominated by the interactions of various neural levels composed of differentiated and semi-independent neural networks. Thence, the nFMC gathers reliable knowledge generated in the study on neural correlates of consciousness, providing a novel theoretical and referential framework that will help clinicians, researchers, and even students to localize the neural processes of interest within a global brain activity model. A further proposal should extend the structures and connectivity involved within and between each neural loop introduced in the nFMC.
