Self-organized criticality as a framework for consciousness: A review study

“…SOC offers an attractive theoretical framework for the brain, since it predicts the empirical evidences of optimal information processing (Shew et al, 2011;Shew and Plenz, 2013), dynamical range (Kinouchi and Copelli, 2006;Larremore et al, 2011), and maximization of metastability (Tognoli and Kelso, 2014). It was previously suggested that SOC could serve as a framework for Consciousness as well (Werner, 2009;Carhart-Harris et al, 2014;Tagliazucchi, 2017;Walter and Hinterberger, 2022). In fact, criticality was linked to IIT as a necessary condition for integration of information (Kim and Lee, 2019;Popiel et al, 2020), and it is compatible with predictions from the GNW hypothesis (Tagliazucchi, 2017), among other frameworks.…”

“…Our results indicate that in both meditation conditions, Hurst exponent values are reduced with respect to the value observed during (2018) who showed a reduction of long-range temporal correlations of neural oscillations during FAM compared to REST in experienced meditators but not in meditation-naïve healthy volunteers, arguing that the focus of attention reduces information propagation by shifting the system toward a subcritical regime. Similarly, Walter and Hinterberger (2022) observed a significant reduction in long-range temporal correlation in three different meditation conditions (FAM, presence monitoring, thoughtless emptiness) compared to REST in highly proficient meditators.…”

“…do not have poles neither in κ nor in ϵ. The γ−functions, γ E (34) and γ E ≡ D µ log Z E are also the analytic functions in κ and ϵ.…”