An Essay on Understanding the Mind

Abstract

Several conjectures by A. S. Iberall on life and mind are used as a backdrop to sketch a theory of mental activity that respects both the contents of thought and the dynamics of thinking. The dynamics, in this case, refers fundamentally to animated, meaningfully coupled self-organizing processes (coordination dynamics) and exhibit multistability, switching, and, because of symmetry breaking, metastability. The interplay of 2 simultaneously acting forces underlies the metastable mind: the tendency for the coordinating elements to couple together (integration) and the tendency for the elements to express their individual autonomy (segregation). Metrics for metastability are introduced that enable these cooperative and competitive tendencies to be quantified. Whereas bistability is the basis for polarized, either/or thinking, the metastable régime-which contains neither stable nor unstable states, no states at all, in fact-gives rise to a far more fluid, complementary mode of operation in which it is possible for apparent contraries to coexist in the mind at the same time.

Information gain in the brain's resting state: A new perspective on autism

“…If, as Heinz von Foerster declared, “information is a relative concept that assumes meaning only when related to the cognitive structure of the observer (the recipient)” (Von Foerster, 2003 ), and the activity of the brain cellular circuits is roughly considered as the production of “novel” associations between stimuli (external or internal), then perhaps an increase in the difference between the stochastic input and output, as found in our work, could conceivably be associated with a more pronounced “mental inner life” that, roughly speaking, may result in the common detachment of individuals with ASD from their environment. Perhaps a bit more specifically, following Davies' recent postulate of two types of information in biological systems (Davies et al, 2013 ), structural and functional, it could be reasoned that in the nervous system the structural information derived from direct anatomical connections between cells is responsible for the maintenance of memory and other specific aspects that need to be maintained in an stable manner, whereas functional information, which is what we measured in our studies, could be related to the rate of cell assembly formation, to the transient establishment of coordinated activity amongst brain cell networks which is the basis of cognition (Bressler and Kelso, 2001 ; Kelso, 2008 ; Pérez Velázquez and Frantseva, 2011 ). As a predecessor of the current conceptualization, Hans Flohr already proposed almost two decades ago that the rate of cell assembly formation determines cognition (Flohr, 1995 ).…”

Information gain in the brain's resting state: A new perspective on autism

“…If, as Heinz von Foerster declared, “information is a relative concept that assumes meaning only when related to the cognitive structure of the observer (the recipient)” (Von Foerster, 2003 ), and the activity of the brain cellular circuits is roughly considered as the production of “novel” associations between stimuli (external or internal), then perhaps an increase in the difference between the stochastic input and output, as found in our work, could conceivably be associated with a more pronounced “mental inner life” that, roughly speaking, may result in the common detachment of individuals with ASD from their environment. Perhaps a bit more specifically, following Davies' recent postulate of two types of information in biological systems (Davies et al, 2013 ), structural and functional, it could be reasoned that in the nervous system the structural information derived from direct anatomical connections between cells is responsible for the maintenance of memory and other specific aspects that need to be maintained in an stable manner, whereas functional information, which is what we measured in our studies, could be related to the rate of cell assembly formation, to the transient establishment of coordinated activity amongst brain cell networks which is the basis of cognition (Bressler and Kelso, 2001 ; Kelso, 2008 ; Pérez Velázquez and Frantseva, 2011 ). As a predecessor of the current conceptualization, Hans Flohr already proposed almost two decades ago that the rate of cell assembly formation determines cognition (Flohr, 1995 ).…”

Metastability as a candidate neuromechanistic biomarker of schizophrenia pathology

“…Metastable dynamics reflect the competitive tension between global integration and functional segregation [ 77 ]. Therefore, any metric or signature of metastability should be correlated with measures of integration and segregation.…”

“…For Cobre, a statistically significant difference was also found for GINT t (127) = 2.96, p = 0.0032, and for FSEG t (116) = -3.10, p = 0.0026 (see Fig 8 ). Additionally, we calculated a Metastability index K, as segmentation/integration, in the spirit of [ 77 ]. We performed linear regression of the metrics for global integration, functional segregation, and Metastability Index on META and VAR in HCPEP RUN2 and Cobre.…”

Power law scaling in synchronization of brain signals depends on cognitive load

“…Nevertheless our study is not intended to present evidence for self-organized critical dynamics in brain synchronization, rather to inspect certain properties of the distributions of our synchrony index associated with performance of executive function tasks in two groups of individuals. In instances where power law regimes co-exist with others (e.g., exponential) in the distributions of synchrony magnitudes, it could be hypothesized that this is a sign of the metastability of brain dynamics, a notion proposed by several authors (Bressler and Kelso, 2001 ; Fingelkurts and Fingelkurts, 2004 ; Kelso, 2008 ; Pérez Velázquez and Frantseva, 2011 ; Deco and Jirsa, 2012 ; Kelso et al, 2013 ). Incidentally, one of the first early proposals of the brain as “organ whose natural state is one of unstable equilibrium” is due to William James in his 1879 essay “Are we automata?” published in Mind , 4, 1–22.…”

Information gain in the brain's resting state: A new perspective on autism

“…If, as Heinz von Foerster declared, “information is a relative concept that assumes meaning only when related to the cognitive structure of the observer (the recipient)” (Von Foerster, 2003 ), and the activity of the brain cellular circuits is roughly considered as the production of “novel” associations between stimuli (external or internal), then perhaps an increase in the difference between the stochastic input and output, as found in our work, could conceivably be associated with a more pronounced “mental inner life” that, roughly speaking, may result in the common detachment of individuals with ASD from their environment. Perhaps a bit more specifically, following Davies' recent postulate of two types of information in biological systems (Davies et al, 2013 ), structural and functional, it could be reasoned that in the nervous system the structural information derived from direct anatomical connections between cells is responsible for the maintenance of memory and other specific aspects that need to be maintained in an stable manner, whereas functional information, which is what we measured in our studies, could be related to the rate of cell assembly formation, to the transient establishment of coordinated activity amongst brain cell networks which is the basis of cognition (Bressler and Kelso, 2001 ; Kelso, 2008 ; Pérez Velázquez and Frantseva, 2011 ). As a predecessor of the current conceptualization, Hans Flohr already proposed almost two decades ago that the rate of cell assembly formation determines cognition (Flohr, 1995 ).…”

Metastability as a candidate neuromechanistic biomarker of schizophrenia pathology

“…Metastable dynamics reflect the competitive tension between global integration and functional segregation [ 77 ]. Therefore, any metric or signature of metastability should be correlated with measures of integration and segregation.…”

“…For Cobre, a statistically significant difference was also found for GINT t (127) = 2.96, p = 0.0032, and for FSEG t (116) = -3.10, p = 0.0026 (see Fig 8 ). Additionally, we calculated a Metastability index K, as segmentation/integration, in the spirit of [ 77 ]. We performed linear regression of the metrics for global integration, functional segregation, and Metastability Index on META and VAR in HCPEP RUN2 and Cobre.…”

Power law scaling in synchronization of brain signals depends on cognitive load

“…Nevertheless our study is not intended to present evidence for self-organized critical dynamics in brain synchronization, rather to inspect certain properties of the distributions of our synchrony index associated with performance of executive function tasks in two groups of individuals. In instances where power law regimes co-exist with others (e.g., exponential) in the distributions of synchrony magnitudes, it could be hypothesized that this is a sign of the metastability of brain dynamics, a notion proposed by several authors (Bressler and Kelso, 2001 ; Fingelkurts and Fingelkurts, 2004 ; Kelso, 2008 ; Pérez Velázquez and Frantseva, 2011 ; Deco and Jirsa, 2012 ; Kelso et al, 2013 ). Incidentally, one of the first early proposals of the brain as “organ whose natural state is one of unstable equilibrium” is due to William James in his 1879 essay “Are we automata?” published in Mind , 4, 1–22.…”

Information gain in the brain's resting state: A new perspective on autism

“…If, as Heinz von Foerster declared, “information is a relative concept that assumes meaning only when related to the cognitive structure of the observer (the recipient)” (Von Foerster, 2003 ), and the activity of the brain cellular circuits is roughly considered as the production of “novel” associations between stimuli (external or internal), then perhaps an increase in the difference between the stochastic input and output, as found in our work, could conceivably be associated with a more pronounced “mental inner life” that, roughly speaking, may result in the common detachment of individuals with ASD from their environment. Perhaps a bit more specifically, following Davies' recent postulate of two types of information in biological systems (Davies et al, 2013 ), structural and functional, it could be reasoned that in the nervous system the structural information derived from direct anatomical connections between cells is responsible for the maintenance of memory and other specific aspects that need to be maintained in an stable manner, whereas functional information, which is what we measured in our studies, could be related to the rate of cell assembly formation, to the transient establishment of coordinated activity amongst brain cell networks which is the basis of cognition (Bressler and Kelso, 2001 ; Kelso, 2008 ; Pérez Velázquez and Frantseva, 2011 ). As a predecessor of the current conceptualization, Hans Flohr already proposed almost two decades ago that the rate of cell assembly formation determines cognition (Flohr, 1995 ).…”

Metastability as a candidate neuromechanistic biomarker of schizophrenia pathology

“…Metastable dynamics reflect the competitive tension between global integration and functional segregation [ 77 ]. Therefore, any metric or signature of metastability should be correlated with measures of integration and segregation.…”

“…For Cobre, a statistically significant difference was also found for GINT t (127) = 2.96, p = 0.0032, and for FSEG t (116) = -3.10, p = 0.0026 (see Fig 8 ). Additionally, we calculated a Metastability index K, as segmentation/integration, in the spirit of [ 77 ]. We performed linear regression of the metrics for global integration, functional segregation, and Metastability Index on META and VAR in HCPEP RUN2 and Cobre.…”

Power law scaling in synchronization of brain signals depends on cognitive load

“…Nevertheless our study is not intended to present evidence for self-organized critical dynamics in brain synchronization, rather to inspect certain properties of the distributions of our synchrony index associated with performance of executive function tasks in two groups of individuals. In instances where power law regimes co-exist with others (e.g., exponential) in the distributions of synchrony magnitudes, it could be hypothesized that this is a sign of the metastability of brain dynamics, a notion proposed by several authors (Bressler and Kelso, 2001 ; Fingelkurts and Fingelkurts, 2004 ; Kelso, 2008 ; Pérez Velázquez and Frantseva, 2011 ; Deco and Jirsa, 2012 ; Kelso et al, 2013 ). Incidentally, one of the first early proposals of the brain as “organ whose natural state is one of unstable equilibrium” is due to William James in his 1879 essay “Are we automata?” published in Mind , 4, 1–22.…”