On the emergence of cognition: from catalytic closure to neuroglial closure

An alternative View on Entropic Measures Applied to the Nervous System

“…The emergence of cognition due to nervous systems maximising energy distribution through connectivity patterns is probably a feature not only of humans but also of most animals. Although there have not been observations directly related to this proposal in experiments in other animals as those reported above in the case of human recordings during various conscious states, but considering the continuum in the development of cognition, we propose that this key feature is present in most living organisms [74,75] The intricate web of neuronal assemblies giving rise to a myriad of energy gradients may result from the recently proposed "neuroglial closure" in brain cell circuits [76]; when this closure, this wide interconnectedness, disappears transiently, for instance during epileptic seizures, the consequence is loss of conscious awareness. And generally speaking this is maximisation of energy distribution is a natural tendency, just like gas molecules tend to occupy the maximal volume available, energy will redistribute in the widest manner for no particular reason but because that is the most probable outcome.…”

An Integrative View on Entropic Measures Applied to the Nervous System

“…In other words, the embodied brains that are immersed in an environment seem to attempt to reach equilibrium, which is not possible due to the exchange of energy (information) with the environs. The intricate web of neuronal assemblies giving rise to a myriad of energy gradients results from the "neuroglial closure" in brain cell circuits [51]; when this closure, this wide interconnectedness, disappears transiently, for instance during epileptic seizures, the consequence is loss of conscious awareness. And generally speaking this is a natural tendency, just like gas molecules tend to occupy the maximal volume available, energy will redistribute in the widest manner for no particular reason but because that is the most probable outcome.…”

“…It depends on the viewpoint. Having said this, the fact that surrogate signals provide similar synchrony as those during waking consciousness is a consequence of the signals measured, which at the mesoscale level reflect the activity of large cellular populations, and considering that the brain has to integrate and segregate a myriad of sensorimotor transformations simultaneously in order to adequately perceive and respond to incoming stimuli [25,51], then this neuronal activity at the microscale level is observed at higher levels as stochastic. It does not mean a healthy brain displays random activity, rather it needs to support so many different configurations of micro-level connections (the aforesaid large entropy during conscious states) that depending on the measurement it will appear as organised or as purely stochastic; if we were to follow the activity in specific microcircuits we would see organised activity, but when the recordings sample thousands of these organised microcircuits the result is a noisy, random-like time series.…”

Consciousness as an Emergent Phenomenon: A Tale of Different Levels of Description

“…Of course these perspectives depend on the definition of consciousness one adopts, but we have to admit there is no single definition that satisfies all, and we will not delve into this point here, rather only will mention that, as commented above, there are advantages if less strict definitions of consciousness are adopted [ 5 ]. To wit, just like the notion of life, consciousness can be defined by enumerating characteristics: features like self-reproduction, compartmentalization, etc.…”

“…One reason that makes this question hard to answer is that, as with other primordial questions in science, there is not a precise definition of consciousness, one that is accepted by all the scientific community [ 4 ] (but see some proposals about the advantages of a less strict definition of consciousness in [ 5 ]). Similar conundrums can be found all across biological sciences.…”