The Brain Maps Out Ideas and Memories Like Spaces | Quanta Magazine

In 1964, neuropsychologist Roger Sperry drew an analogy between neurons and ideas:

Ideas cause ideas and help evolve new ideas. They interact with each other and with other mental forces in the same brain, in neighboring brains, and thanks to global communication, in far distant, foreign brains.

Consciousness exists on a spectrum from pure abstraction (map) to pure engagement (territory).