The virtues of chaos

Garfinkel, Alan

doi:10.1017/s0140525x00047403

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…These findings in EEG signals and other analogous facts in cardiology led some authors to claim that chaos was an indicator of healthy flexibility and pathology was associated with a loss of this chaotic flexibility (Pool, 1989). Garfinkel (1987) explained that a strictly periodic physiological behaviour could be very destructive. In analogy to the way a group of soldiers breaks step before crossing a bridge to avoid resonance and collapse, the brain and the body exhibit a mode of "active desynchronization" without leaving nothing to chance.…”

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confidence: 86%

On the existence and the role of chaotic processes in the nervous system

Doyon

1992

Acta Biotheor

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Chaos theory is a rapidly growing field. As a technical term, "chaos" refers to deterministic but unpredictable processes being sensitively dependent upon initial conditions. Neurobiological models and experimental results are very complicated and some research groups have tried to pursue the "neuronal chaos". Babloyantz's group has studied the fractal dimension (d) of electroencephalograms (EEG) in various physiological and pathological states. From deep sleep (d = 4) to full awakening (d > 8), a hierarchy of "strange" attractors paralles the hierarchy of states of consciousness. In epilepsy (petit mal), despite the turbulent aspect of a seizure, the attractor dimension was near to 2. In Creutzfeld-Jacob disease, the regular EEG activity corresponded to an attractor dimension less than the one measured in deep sleep. Is it healthy to be chaotic? An "active desynchronisation" could be favourable to a physiological system. Rapp's group reported variations of fractal dimension according to particular tasks. During a mental arithmetic task, this dimension increased. In another task, a P300 fractal index decreased when a target was identified. It is clear that the EEG is not representing noise. Its underlying dynamics depends on only a few degrees of freedom despite yet it is difficult to compute accurately the relevant parameters. What is the cognitive role of such a chaotic dynamics? Freeman has studied the olfactory bulb in rabbits and rats for 15 years. Multi-electrode recordings of a few mm2 showed a chaotic hierarchy from deep anaesthesia to alert state. When an animal identified a previously learned odour, the fractal dimension of the dynamics dropped off (near limit cycles).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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confidence: 86%

On the existence and the role of chaotic processes in the nervous system

Doyon

1992

Acta Biotheor

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“…Chaos is indistinguishable from random noise in appearance and in statistical properties but it is deterministic and not stochastic. Chaos theory has following attributes: (i) deterministic systems can display behavior that appears random, and (ii) chaos in these systems is controlled, bounded, and has a small number (4-7) of independent contributors, and has definite qualitative form [32]. Chaotic systems are not as predictable as the cause-and-effect based linear system.…”

Section: Chaos Theory For the Emergence Of Subjective Experiences Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our working definition of self is the subjective experience of subject, "which can operate in three levels hierarchically or in parallel depending of various conditions: (i) proto, bodily, or physical self is related to sensory processing in sensory cortical and subcortical activations, (ii) core, minimal, or mental self is related to self-referential processing in cortical midline structures via deactivation, and (iii) autobiographical, emotional, spatial, verbal, narrative, or spiritual self is related to higher order processing in lateral (ventrolateral PFC: VLPFC, dorsolateral PFC: DLPFC) cortical activations [62,63]. Cortical midline structures (CMS) include MOFC (medial orbital prefrontal cortex: Brodman areas or BA 11,12), VMPFC (ventromedial prefrontal cortex: BA 10, 11), PACC (pre-and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex: BA 24,25,32), SACC (supragenual anterior cingulate cortex: BA 24, 32), DMPFC (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex: BA 9), MPC (medial parietal cortex: BA 7, 31), PCC (posterior cingulate cortex: BA 23), and RSC (retrosplenial cortex: BA 26,29,30) [63]. This first-person-perspective is consistent with [59] that reported involvement of medial cortical and parietal areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self: An Adaptive Pressure Arising From Self-Organization, Chaotic Dynamics, and Neural Darwinism

Bruzzo

Vimal²

2007

J. Integr. Neurosci.

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In this article, we establish a model to delineate the emergence of "self" in the brain making recourse to the theory of chaos. Self is considered as the subjective experience of a subject. As essential ingredients of subjective experiences, our model includes wakefulness, re-entry, attention, memory, and proto-experiences. The stability as stated by chaos theory can potentially describe the non-linear function of "self" as sensitive to initial conditions and can characterize it as underlying order from apparently random signals. Self-similarity is discussed as a latent menace of a pathological confusion between "self" and "others". Our test hypothesis is that (1) consciousness might have emerged and evolved from a primordial potential or proto-experience in matter, such as the physical attractions and repulsions experienced by electrons, and (2) "self" arises from chaotic dynamics, self-organization and selective mechanisms during ontogenesis, while emerging post-ontogenically as an adaptive pressure driven by both volume and synaptic-neural transmission and influencing the functional connectivity of neural nets (structure).

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BILINEAR SYSTEMS AS THE STRONGLY NONLINEAR SYSTEMS**Supported by the Grant Agency of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences through the Grant No. 27 531

Čelikovský¹,

Vaněček²

1992

System Structure and Control 1992

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The virtues of chaos

Cited by 7 publications

References 91 publications

On the existence and the role of chaotic processes in the nervous system

On the existence and the role of chaotic processes in the nervous system

Self: An Adaptive Pressure Arising From Self-Organization, Chaotic Dynamics, and Neural Darwinism

BILINEAR SYSTEMS AS THE STRONGLY NONLINEAR SYSTEMS**Supported by the Grant Agency of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences through the Grant No. 27 531

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