On critical State Transitions between different levels in Neural Systems

摘要

The framework of Modern Theory of Critical State Transitions considers therelation between different levels of organization in complex systems in termsof Critical State Transitions. A State Transition between levels entailschanges of scale of observables and, concurrently, new formats of descriptionat reduced dimensionality. It is here suggested that this principle can beapplied to the hierarchic structure of the Nervous system, whereby therelations between different levels of its functional organization can be viewedas successions of State Transitions. Upon State Transition, the lower levelpresents to the higher level an abstraction of itself, at reduceddimensionality and at a coarser scale. The re-scaling in the State Transitionsis associated with new objects of description, displays new properties andobeys new laws, commensurate to the new scale. To illustrate this process, someaspects of the neural events thought to be associated with Cognition andConsciousness are discussed. However, the intent is here also more general inthat State Transitions between all levels of organization are proposed as themechanisms by which successively higher levels of organization emerge fromlower levels.