Side effect of entropy? See the study on where consciousness is born

A partnership between researchers from France and Canada has resulted in a study that defines a new vision it has to do with where our consciousness is born and maybe it’s a side effect of entropy. The study was published in Physical Review E.

“I think therefore I am”, The famous phrase attributed to the French philosopher René Descartes summarizes a ceaseless search. The concept of consciousness is quite subjective and can be explained briefly. as the ability of a person to have knowledge about himself, his existence, emotions, sensations and actions..

This concept is as old as our existence, but when does the consciousness within us emerge? Many scientists have investigated this fundamental question of existence, but to date no definitive answer has been found.

chaos of existence

Faced with this challenge, researchers from Paris-Descartes Universities in Toronto, Canada, and now Paris Cité, developed a study establishing a relationship between consciousness and entropy.

Entropy is a concept in thermodynamics that examines the degree of disorder or randomness in a physical system. Extrapolating the concept and applying statistical mechanics to the analysis, the researchers decided to verify the effects of probable entropy on the human brain.

The study had nine participants. Seven of them had epilepsy, and the other two had no comorbidities related to the central nervous system.

Epilepsy is a health condition caused by hyperactivity of neuron cells. In moments of crisis, a real storm occurs in the brain, resulting in convulsions, disorientation, fainting, among other signs and symptoms. During a crisis, synapses in different regions fire randomly, causing a storm in the brain.

Neuron activities of all participants were scanned; Synchronizations, phase changes between sleep states, wakefulness, and epileptic seizures were observed.

The team observed that in the wakeful state, where the person is awake and conscious, there are a greater number of possible arrangements for the interaction between neural networks. This leads to a high degree of entropy in the system, and the system must learn to optimize the information received from different sensory stimuli..

Our consciousness would arise from this need for “better use” of the brain.

But the study is not a final answer, just another clue to follow. Some limitations in the study, such as the number of participants available, the analysis of communication between neuronal arrangements, and whether entropy is actually present rather than programmed dysregulation, necessitate further work in this area.

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