PreprintHypothesisVersion 1Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Is the Tendency to Maximise Energy Distribution an Optimal Collective Activity for Biological Purposes? A Proposal for a Global Principle of Biological Organization
Version 1
: Received: 4 April 2022 / Approved: 5 April 2022 / Online: 5 April 2022 (11:22:37 CEST)
Version 2
: Received: 6 March 2023 / Approved: 6 March 2023 / Online: 6 March 2023 (14:21:13 CET)
Perez Velazquez, J.L.; Mateos, D.M.; Guevara, R. Is the Tendency to Maximise Energy Distribution an Optimal Collective Activity for Biological Purposes? A Proposal for a Global Principle of Biological Organization. Heliyon 2023, e15005, doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15005.
Perez Velazquez, J.L.; Mateos, D.M.; Guevara, R. Is the Tendency to Maximise Energy Distribution an Optimal Collective Activity for Biological Purposes? A Proposal for a Global Principle of Biological Organization. Heliyon 2023, e15005, doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15005.
Perez Velazquez, J.L.; Mateos, D.M.; Guevara, R. Is the Tendency to Maximise Energy Distribution an Optimal Collective Activity for Biological Purposes? A Proposal for a Global Principle of Biological Organization. Heliyon 2023, e15005, doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15005.
Perez Velazquez, J.L.; Mateos, D.M.; Guevara, R. Is the Tendency to Maximise Energy Distribution an Optimal Collective Activity for Biological Purposes? A Proposal for a Global Principle of Biological Organization. Heliyon 2023, e15005, doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15005.
Abstract
Our purpose is to address the biological problem of finding foundations of the organization in the collective activity among cell networks in the nervous system, at the meso/macroscale, giving rise to cognition and consciousness. But in doing so, we encounter another problem related to the interpretation of methods to assess the neural interactions and organization of the neurodynamics, because thermodynamic notions, which have precise meaning only under specific conditions, have been widely employed in these studies. The consequence is that apparently contradictory results appear in the literature, but these contradictions diminish upon the considerations of the specific circumstances of each experiment. After clarifying some of these controversial points and surveying some experimental results, we propose that a necessary condition for cognition/consciousness to emerge is to have available enough energy, or cellular activity; and a sufficient condition is the multiplicity of configurations in which cell networks can communicate, resulting in non-uniform energy distribution, the generation and dissipation of energy gradients due to the constant activity. These ideas may reveal possible fundamental principles of brain organization and how healthy activity may derive to pathological states.
Keywords
Neural synchrony; Cognition; Consciousness; Entropy; Equilibrum; Energy gradients
Subject
Physical Sciences, Thermodynamics
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
