Vortices in brain waves
Abstract
Interactions by mutual excitation in neural populations in human and animal brains create a mesoscopic order parameter that is recorded in brain waves (electroencephalogram, EEG). Spatially and spectrally distributed oscillations are imposed on the background activity by inhibitory feedback in the gamma range (30-80 Hz). Beats recur at theta rates (3-7 Hz), at which the order parameter transiently approaches zero and microscopic activity becomes disordered. After these null spikes, the order parameter resurges and initiates a frame bearing a mesoscopic spatial pattern of gamma amplitude modulation that governs the microscopic activity, and that is correlated with behavior. The brain waves also reveal a spatial pattern of phase modulation in the form of a cone. Using the formalism of the dissipative many-body model of brain, we describe the null spikes and the accompanying phase cones as vortices.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0802.3854,
title = {Vortices in brain waves},
author = {Walter J. Freeman and Giuseppe Vitiello},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0802.3854},
year = {2008}
}