Neurobiology as Information Physics

Street, Sterling

doi:10.3389/fnsys.2016.00090

Cited by 30 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 91 publications

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“…The question of how brain free energy changes with healthy or pathological brain states can be inspected from another perspective. It has been proposed that brain dissipates energy in order to process information (Street, 2016; Pepperell, 2018). As a dissipative structure, the nervous system should then dissipate energy efficiently to function properly, and the question becomes whether there is a relation of dissipation with healthy and pathological conditions.…”

Section: The Neurophysiology Of Dissipationmentioning

confidence: 99%

On a Simple General Principle of Brain Organization

2019

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A possible framework to characterize nervous system dynamics and its organization in conscious and unconscious states is introduced, derived from a high level perspective on the coordinated activity of brain cell ensembles. Some questions are best addressable in a global framework and here we build on past observations about the structure of configurations of brain networks in conscious and unconscious states and about neurophysiological results. Aiming to bind some results together into some sort of coherence with a central theme, the scenario that emerges underscores the crucial importance of the creation and dissipation of energy gradients in brain cellular ensembles resulting in maximization of the configurations in the functional connectivity among those networks that favor conscious awareness and healthy conditions. These considerations are then applied to indicate approaches that can be used to improve neuropathological syndromes.

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Section: The Neurophysiology Of Dissipationmentioning

confidence: 99%

On a Simple General Principle of Brain Organization

2019

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“…This lack of attention is all the more surprising given that some of the pioneers of neurobiology, psychology, and physiology found a central place for energy in their theories, including Hermann von Helmholtz (in Cahan, 1995 ), Gustav Fechner (1905) , Sigmund Freud ( Gay, 1988 ), William James ( James, 1907 ), and Charles Sherrington (1940) 2 . There are, however, signs that attention is turning again to energetic or thermodynamic-related theories of consciousness in various branches of science ( Deacon, 2013 ; Collell and Fauquet, 2015 ; Annila, 2016 ; Street, 2016 ; Tozzi et al, 2016 ; Marchetti, 2018 ) and in philosophy of mind ( Strawson, 2008 , 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consciousness as a Physical Process Caused by the Organization of Energy in the Brain

Pepperell

2018

Front. Psychol.

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To explain consciousness as a physical process we must acknowledge the role of energy in the brain. Energetic activity is fundamental to all physical processes and causally drives biological behavior. Recent neuroscientific evidence can be interpreted in a way that suggests consciousness is a product of the organization of energetic activity in the brain. The nature of energy itself, though, remains largely mysterious, and we do not fully understand how it contributes to brain function or consciousness. According to the principle outlined here, energy, along with forces and work, can be described as actualized differences of motion and tension. By observing physical systems, we can infer there is something it is like to undergo actualized difference from the intrinsic perspective of the system. Consciousness occurs because there is something it is like, intrinsically, to undergo a certain organization of actualized differences in the brain.

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“…This argues for its interpretation as reflecting an actual, physical property of the brain, rather than a useful computational descriptor of the brain’s dynamics. The viewpoint espoused here is that brain free energy does not directly correspond to the brain’s energetic capacity to perform work, but does reflect information states of the brain that are in fact physical (Street, 2016). Specifically, free energy is an information-theoretic system property that reflects neurocognitive information processing among the widespread brain networks representing the brain’s perceptual and conceptual states.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental Effort and Information-Processing Costs Are Inversely Related to Global Brain Free Energy During Visual Categorization

Trujillo

2019

Front. Neurosci.

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Mental effort is a neurocognitive process that reflects the controlled expenditure of psychological information-processing resources during perception, cognition, and action. There is a practical need to operationalize and measure mental effort in order to minimize detrimental effects of mental fatigue on real-world human performance. Previous research has identified several neurocognitive indices of mental effort, but these indices are indirect measures that are also sensitive to experimental demands or general factors such as sympathetic arousal. The present study investigated a potential direct neurocognitive index of mental effort based in theories where bounded rational decision makers (realized as embodied brains) are modeled as generalized thermodynamic systems. This index is called free energy, an information-theoretic system property of the brain that reflects the difference between the brain’s current and predicted states. Theory predicts that task-related differences in a decision makers’ free energy are inversely related to information-processing costs related to task decisions. The present study tested this prediction by quantifying global brain free energy from electroencephalographic (EEG) measures of human brain function. EEG signals were recorded while participants engaged in two visual categorization tasks in which categorization decisions resulted from the allocation of different levels of mental information processing resources. A novel method was developed to quantify brain free energy from machine learning classification of EEG trials. Participant information-processing resource costs were estimated via computational analysis of behavior, whereas the subjective expression of mental effort was estimated via participant ratings of mental workload. Following theoretical predictions, task-related differences in brain free energy negatively correlated with increased allocation of information-processing resource costs. These brain free energy differences were smaller for the visual categorization task that required a greater versus lesser allocation of information-processing resources. Ratings of mental workload were positively correlated with information-processing resource costs, and negatively correlated with global brain free energy differences, only for the categorization task requiring the larger amount of information-processing resource costs. These findings support theoretical thermodynamic approaches to decision making and provide the first empirical evidence of a relationship between mental effort, brain free energy, and neurocognitive information-processing.

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Neurobiology as Information Physics

Cited by 30 publications

References 91 publications

On a Simple General Principle of Brain Organization

On a Simple General Principle of Brain Organization

Consciousness as a Physical Process Caused by the Organization of Energy in the Brain

Mental Effort and Information-Processing Costs Are Inversely Related to Global Brain Free Energy During Visual Categorization

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