Viewing brain processes as Critical State Transitions across levels of organization: Neural events in Cognition and Consciousness, and general principles
There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
In this theoretical and speculative essay, I propose that insights into certain aspects
of neural system functions can be gained from viewing brain function in terms of the
branch of Statistical Mechanics currently referred to as "Modern Critical Theory"
[Stanley, H.E., 1987. Introduction to Phase Transitions and Critical Phenomena. Oxford
University Press; Marro, J., Dickman, R., 1999. Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions in
Lattice Models. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK]. The application of this
framework is here explored in two stages: in the first place, its principles are applied
to state transitions in global brain dynamics, with benchmarks of Cognitive Neuroscience
providing the relevant empirical reference points. The second stage generalizes to
suggest in more detail how the same principles could also apply to the relation between
other levels of the structural-functional hierarchy of the nervous system and between
neural assemblies. In this view, state transitions resulting from the processing at
one level are the input to the next, in the image of a 'bucket brigade', with the
content of each bucket being passed on along the chain, after having undergone a state
transition. The unique features of a process of this kind will be discussed and illustrated.