Measure coordination
Track interactions among biological processes, across cells, tissues, neural networks, and the organism.
Independent research · NAME 2026 · P169
Taphonomy
of Sentience
Toward an empirical definition of consciousness
Can we measure how biological coordination comes apart—and use that knowledge to identify the loss of the capacity for sentience?
A living body works through the coordination of its parts. Taphonomy of Sentience (ToS) investigates how that coordination fails, what persists during the postmortem interval, and whether its changing organization can support an empirical definition and mathematical model of consciousness.
Explore the researchView the NAME poster
01 · The question
What changes when coordinated life comes apart?
Circulation, metabolism, neural activity, and cellular regulation depend on one another. When integrated regulation fails, these processes change at different rates. Their sequence leaves a postmortem record that can help reconstruct the loss of coordinated function.
ToS asks whether that sequence also reveals when a system loses the organization required to support sentience. The research begins with measurable biological change and tests its relationship to consciousness-related capacity.
Model its loss
Describe the timing, rate, and sequence of decoupling, including the conditions under which recovery remains possible.
Test the connection
Determine whether these measurements predict independently assessed conscious states and recovery beyond simpler measures of deterioration.
02 · The framework
The Sentience Index
The proposed Sentience Index (Ψ) expresses the relationship between integrated, recoverable biological organization and the capacity for sentience. Its development connects structural definitions, models of change, and a statistical strategy for testing predictions against independent observations.
Sentience
The capacity for subjective experience. ToS seeks a measurable biological account of the organization that supports this capacity.
Coherence
Coordinated relationships among biological processes. Each measurement must specify the processes, scale, and interaction being assessed.
Collapse-capable coherence
The proposed capacity to maintain integrated organization and recover after disturbance, up to a structural failure boundary.
The postmortem interregnum
The proposed interval after organism-level regulation ceases while residual organization persists across subordinate biological scales.
Uppercase Ψ(t) denotes a system-level index; lowercase ψ(x,t) denotes a local coherence field. Different historical formulations are documented in the mathematical development, with their assumptions and measurement requirements stated explicitly.
Explore the equations, components, and recovery boundaries
The technical account defines coherence, integration, internal-reference fidelity, and collapse-capacitance; traces the configuration-space and multiscale formulations; and explains the separate probabilistic estimator. Read the mathematical development →
03 · Evidence and tests
From biological traces to testable predictions
Algor mortis (cooling), livor mortis (blood settling), rigor mortis (muscle stiffening), metabolic failure, and autolysis (cellular self-digestion) offer observations of postmortem change. ToS examines their timing alongside measurements of regulation and integration.
Published work on BrainEx and OrganEx demonstrates selected cellular recovery after interrupted circulation. These studies help distinguish recovery at the cellular, tissue, and organism levels. Consciousness research supplies independently characterized states and perturbational measurements against which a candidate index can be tested.
- Coordination should change reproducibly after integrated regulation ceases.
- Different biological scales should show distinguishable transition times.
- The index should improve prediction of independently assessed consciousness-related outcomes beyond elapsed time, metabolic failure, or tissue deterioration alone.
- Recovery predictions should generalize to observations held apart from model development.
These predictions make the central claim answerable. Comparable prediction by simpler deterioration models, or repeated recovery beyond an estimated nonreturn boundary under the specified conditions, would challenge the model.
The present contribution is a proposed framework and empirical testing program. Calibration, thresholds, and the index’s relationship to conscious experience require independent validation. The poster’s imagery illustrates the conceptual trajectory.
Choose your depth
Follow the research from your field.
One vocabulary connects the introductory explanation and the technical account. These routes lead to the questions most relevant to each reader.
The original conference record · P169
Toward a Taphonomy of Sentience: Collapse Dynamics During the Postmortem Interval
Alison McCrea · Bachelor’s (Anthropology)
National Association of Medical Examiners · 60th Annual Meeting
Kansas City, Missouri · October 16–20, 2026
Original abstract reproduced from NAME’s published abstract book, PDF page 146. Paragraph breaks and line-wrap hyphenation are normalized for screen reading.
Forensic and postmortem analyses document the transition from coordinated biological activity to irreversible collapse. Although clinical criteria define death operationally, the biological properties sustaining coherence immediately prior to collapse remain without formal characterization. The Taphonomy of Sentience provides an empirical framework for analysis of collapse dynamics during the postmortem interval and for characterization of the sequential loss of coordinated biological function following cessation of physiological regulation.
Sentience, operationalized as collapse-capable coherence across interacting biological scales, is quantified by a Sentience Index (Ψ). Following cessation of physiological regulation, collapse proceeds through progressive loss of coordinated biological function. Algor mortis, livor mortis, rigor mortis, metabolic arrest, and tissue autolysis serve as observable markers of decoupling, providing measurable evidence of the transition from integrated physiological regulation to irreversible collapse. In the absence of continuous clinical observation, postmortem change permits direct examination of collapse progression.
Forensic investigation frequently addresses deaths occurring outside clinical observation, particularly among vulnerable populations affected by overdose, environmental exposure, chronic illness without access to care, and social isolation. Documentation of postmortem change provides the primary empirical record of collapse progression after loss of physiological regulation. Reconstruction of the terminal interval in unattended death depends on interpretation of postmortem findings as sequential markers of decoupling. Clinical practice routinely suppresses, alters, and restores states associated with sentience despite the absence of formal definition of the underlying property. A forensic framework for collapse-capable coherence therefore addresses a biological problem already encountered in medicine at the point where recovery is no longer possible.
Read P169 in the official NAME abstract book →
Publication record and author affiliation
The abstract book lists “University of Arizona — Bioarchaeology Laboratory, Tucson, AZ, USA.” That line is retained here as part of the historical publication record. The current website and submitted poster identify Alison McCrea’s work as independent research.
The abstract presents the original formulation. The current research account specifies the proposed models, measurement requirements, and validation program in greater detail.
Research provenance
A sustained line of investigation
The project builds on published taphonomic research and subsequent development of a formal account of sentience-supporting organization.
2014 · Taphonomic foundation
Brooks Garcia, Beckett, and Watson examined environmental conditions and decomposition delay in a Chiribaya-style tomb holding swine remains. The study supplies a methodological foundation for reconstructing biological change.
2025 · Conceptual development
The public preprint introduced structural signatures, collapse-capable coherence, and the proposed Sentience Index. Working manuscripts developed the components and recovery-boundary concepts.
2026 · Formalization and testing
Multiscale models, differential formulations, empirical predictors, and falsifiable comparisons culminate in the NAME abstract, submitted poster, and this research synthesis.
Acoustic reverberation, including Canterbury Cathedral recordings, provides a comparison for signal persistence after excitation ends. The Chocolate Bunny Systems Paradox examines acute affective response and longer-term regulation. Each comparison has its own assumptions and evidentiary role.
Full development history → · Comparisons and their provenance → · Bibliography →
Research materials
Read the work
Technical research account
Definitions, equations, evidence, comparisons, predictions, development history, and references.
Read the full account →NAME 2026 poster
The submitted P169 poster presents the research visually and connects to the original conference abstract.
Open the poster PDF →August 2025 preprint
Taphonomy of Sentience: Structural Signatures and the Postmortem Loss of Collapse-Capable Coherence.
Read the public preprint →Research updates
Follow the work.
Updates record additions to the research account, bibliography, and presentation materials.
October 11, 2026 · Website synthesis prepared for NAME 2026, linking the original abstract, submitted poster, mathematical development, and source provenance.
Subscribe to research updates via RSS →Copy the RSS link into your preferred feed reader to follow future published updates.