Coordinated electrical waves across neuronal populations organize, carry, combine, and transform information, forming dynamic patterns across the brain. These waves influence local neuronal firing and propagate structured activity that supports integrated processing. Chemically distinct anesthetics can produce similar alterations in brain wave patterns that converge on unconsciousness, suggesting common mechanistic signatures. Monitoring how wave dynamics change during the transition to unconsciousness can reveal the principles and mechanisms that sustain conscious states. Framing consciousness as an emergent property of large-scale coordinated dynamics offers a testable approach beyond focusing solely on individual neurons.
You notice the waves seem to be influencing the buoys' frenzied activity. The waves the buoys created seem to move with purpose, a seemingly coordinated spectacle. But this is no chaotic ocean storm. What you're witnessing is an improvisational, sapient dance. Now, imagine the ocean is your brain. The buoys are neurons. The waves are electrical activity. And their mysterious, patterned movements? That's consciousness.
One of science's greatest mysteries is why we experience the world subjectively. It's a grand, controversial, and intellectually seductive question. But it's not what interests Miller, the Picower Professor of Neuroscience at MIT and a member of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. "That's something for philosophers to consider," he says. "I'm interested in how the brain produces consciousness - the mechanisms and fundamental principles."
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