Related papers: Consciousness as a Jamming Phase
Loss of cortical integration and changes in the dynamics of electrophysiological brain signals characterize the transition from wakefulness towards unconsciousness. The common mechanism underlying these observations remains unknown. In this…
Large language models (LLMs) often exhibit abrupt emergent behavior, whereby new abilities arise at certain points during their training. This phenomenon, commonly referred to as a ''phase transition'', remains poorly understood. In this…
Symbolic logical reasoning is a critical yet underexplored capability of large language models (LLMs), providing reliable and verifiable decision-making in high-stakes domains such as mathematical reasoning and legal judgment. In this…
Consciousness spans macroscopic experience and microscopic neuronal activity, yet linking these scales remains challenging. Prevailing theories, such as Integrated Information Theory, focus on a single scale, overlooking how causal power…
Jamming is an athermal transition between flowing and rigid states in amorphous systems such as granular matter, colloidal suspensions, complex fluids and cells. The jamming transition seems to display mixed aspects of a first-order…
The cellular automaton model for traffic flow exhibits a jamming transition from a free-flow phase to a congested phase. In the deterministic case this transition corresponds to a critical point with diverging correlation length. We present…
Neurons in the brain are wired into adaptive networks that exhibit a range of collective dynamics. Oscillations, for example, are paradigmatic synchronous patterns of neural activity with a defined temporal scale. Neuronal avalanches, in…
Brain rhythms contribute to every aspect of brain function. Here, we study critical and resonance phenomena that precede the emergence of brain rhythms. Using an analytical approach and simulations of a cortical circuit model of neural…
The jamming transition characterizes athermal systems of particles interacting via finite range repulsive potentials, and occurs on increasing the density when particles cannot avoid making contacts with those of their first coordination…
The mechanisms underlying major aspects of the human brain remain a mystery. It is unknown how verbal episodic memory is formed and integrated with sensory episodic memory. There is no consensus on the function and nature of dreaming. Here…
Recent experimental observations have supported the hypothesis that the cerebral cortex operates in a dynamical regime near criticality, where the neuronal network exhibits a mixture of ordered and disordered patterns. However, A…
Interactions with large language models have led to the suggestion that these models may soon be conscious. From the perspective of neuroscience, this position is difficult to defend. For one, the inputs to large language models lack the…
Computation in the brain involves multiple types of neurons, yet the organizing principles for how these neurons work together remain unclear. Information theory has offered explanations for how different types of neurons can optimize the…
The observation of critical-like behavior in cortical networks represents a major step forward in elucidating how the brain manages information. Understanding the origin and functionality of critical-like dynamics, as well as their…
Superintelligence is commonly envisioned as a quantitative extrapolation of human cognitive abilities driven by scale and computational power. Here we show that qualitative transitions in intelligence instead arise as dynamical phase…
This paper argues that self-awareness is a learned behavior that emerges in organisms whose brains have a sufficiently integrated, complex ability for associative learning and memory. Continual sensory input of information related to the…
The cellular automaton model for traffic flow exhibits a jamming transition from a free-flow phase to a congested phase. In the deterministic case this transition corresponds to a critical point with diverging correlation length. In the…
We propose a scaling ansatz for the elastic energy of a system near the critical jamming transition in terms of three relevant fields: the compressive strain $\Delta \phi$ relative to the critical jammed state, the shear strain $\epsilon$,…
We seek general principles of the structure of the cellular collective activity associated with conscious awareness. Can we obtain evidence for features of the optimal brain organization that allows for adequate processing of stimuli and…
We analyze the jamming transition that occurs as a function of increasing packing density in a disordered two-dimensional assembly of disks at zero temperature for ``Point J'' of the recently proposed jamming phase diagram. We measure the…