Neuron are very complex, so you need to think in terms of simplicity to avoid losing track of the forest because of the trees. The neuron, like all cells, expend a lot of energy creating potential energy in the membrane via the segregation of cations.
The segregation of cations also reflects loss of cationic entropy. What the neuron has induced is a dual potential.
What this does is set up a membrane situation that opposes the direction of the universe, which is lower energy and higher entropy. The result is inevitable firing since the firing will follow the direction of the universal potentials of lower energy and higher entropy.
Since neurons are not isolated entities, but are wired into other neurons, through axon and dendrites, their initial energy intensive segregation of cations to set the dual potential, it not done in isolation but in a community way. While the push by the universe to lower community energy and increase community entropy is also not done in isolation; cluster firing.
If you look at an isolated neuron, no matter how many times it fires, it continually restores the dual potential. The same is true of the community, with our fixed memories due to community connections restored. But since the universe wishes the community to increase entropy, modifications of thought are inevitable.
All the sensory systems turn environmental stimulus into signals which will fire neurons. The sensory systems help the direction of the universe. There will be a natural potential to use the diversity of the universe to fire neurons, simply because neurons use their energy to go the other way. Exploring the universe is natural due to the way neuron resist and sensory systems fire.
The analogy is creating an accident that is waiting to happen because the situation is unstable with respect to environmental potentials. We do this on purpose because the accident will create something new. This will modify the situation slightly altering the next accident waiting to happen. It is semi predictable but always surprising. This is the nature of consciousness.
Everyone seems to be looking in the details for consciousness, like it is a ghost in the machine. But it is simply a consequence of setting up an accident waiting to happen so it has to happen. this is life.
Say with AI we use any system of logic but modify the memory so it is less stable. It no longer has to follow the logic all the time since we have built in an accident waiting to happen. The difference with neurons is it can restore the original state after the accident. This could be simulated with unstable memory that can pertubate, followed by a memory swipe machine that will restore the original unstable memory after each accident.