Nonlinear brain dynamics as macroscopic manifestation of underlying many-body field dynamics

Abstract

Neural activity patterns related to behavior occur at many scales in time and space from the atomic and molecular to the whole brain. Patterns form through interactions in both directions, so that the impact of transmitter molecule release can be analyzed upwardly through synapses, dendrites, neurons, populations and brain systems to behavior, and control of that release can be described step-wise through top-down transformations. Here we explore the feasibility of interpreting neurophysiological data in the context of many-body physics by using tools that physicists have devised to analyze comparable hierarchies in other fields of science. We focus on a mesoscopic level that offers a multi-step pathway between the microscopic functions of neurons and the macroscopic functions of brain systems revealed by hemodynamic imaging. We use electroencephalographic (EEG) records collected from high-density electrode arrays fixed on the epidural surfaces of primary sensory and limbic areas in rabbits and cats trained to discriminate conditioned stimuli (CS) in the various modalities. High temporal resolution of EEG signals with the Hilbert transform gives evidence for diverse intermittent spatial patterns of amplitude (AM) and phase modulations (PM) of carrier waves that repeatedly re-synchronize in the beta and gamma ranges at near zero time lags over long distances. The dominant mechanism for neural interactions by axodendritic synaptic transmission should impose distance-dependent delays on the EEG oscillations owing to finite propagation velocities. It does not. EEGs instead show evidence for anomalous dispersion: the existence in neural populations of a low velocity range of information and energy transfers, and a high velocity range of the spread of phase transitions. This distinction labels the phenomenon but does not explain it. In this report we explore the analysis of these phenomena using concepts of energy dissipation, the maintenance by cortex of multiple ground states corresponding to AM patterns, and the exclusive selection by spontaneous breakdown of symmetry (SBS) of single states in sequences.

Quantum Wave Information of Life Revealed: An Algorithm for Electromagnetic Frequencies that Create Stability of Biological Order, With Implications for Brain Function and Consciousness

“…Yet, our model, in higher-order levels, requires an integrating modality in which the firing patterns of millions of neuronal networks are translated in a meaningful overall coherent brain response. Sensory processing involves the formation of wave packets affecting large populations of neurons, instrumental in the reciprocal broadcasting of excitatory patterns located at several brain regions (Freeman and Vitiello, 2006), and inducing neuronal assembly. Interestingly, in this process calcium waves along the astroglial syncitium may play a role, contributing to collective oscillations and synchrony and thereby to efficient binding of distributed neuronal activity.…”

Natural world physical, brain operational, and mind phenomenal space–time

“…Such projections may not only serve to organize local dynamics within cortical areas such as synchronization of local rhythms, but also contribute to the macroscopic organization of neural activity or global EEG dynamics [3,78,89,[189][190][191][192][193].…”

“…Since they reflect extracellular currents caused by synchronized neural activity within the local brain volume [26,265], they are expressed within local EEG signals in the form of quasi-stationary 63 segments, each of which representing the envelope of the amplitude modulation (so-called a "common mode" or a "wave packet" [193]) in the neuronal masses under the recording electrodes (Fig. 8).…”

“…8), and thus imposes a discontinuity in local cortical dynamics [226,258]. The transition from one segment to another directly reflects the change in the activity of neuronal assemblies [193,434,475]. 67 Trehub calls it the 3D retinoid [367].…”

“…We believe that this is so because the higher level spatial-temporal patterns (OMs in our interpretations) that comprise the OST level were still present in the brain. 69 Empirical observations on the relation between the amplitude modulation of the EEG signal and the analytic phase of that signal indicated that a rapid change in phase tended to occur at a minimum in amplitude [26,193], thus indicating that phase modulation of the EEG signal is also involved in the construction of neurophysiological patterns which accompany phenomenal patterns. Additionally, it has been shown that frequency modulation (indexed by the synchronized abrupt changes of spatially distributed oscillations) is also important for described processes [242,243,246].…”