"Consciousness may be the product of carefully balanced chaos"

"The results, published online today in theJournal of the Royal Society Interface, show that brain activity varies widely between conscious and unconscious states. The difference may come down to how the brain “explores the space of its own possible configurations,” Tagliazucchi says.

During wakeful consciousness, participants’ brains generated “a flurry of ever-changing activity,” and the fMRI showed a multitude of overlapping networks activating as the brain integrated its surroundings and generated a moment to moment “flow of consciousness.” After the propofol kicked in, brain networks had reduced connectivity and much less variability over time. The brain seemed to be stuck in a rut—using the same pathways over and over again.

The results suggest that, in the brain, there is an optimal level of connectivity between neurons that creates the maximum number of possible pathways. If each neuron can be thought of as a node in the network, consciousness might result from exploring the network as thoroughly as possible. But the most diverse networks—the ones with the largest possible number of arrangements—don’t necessarily have the maximum amount of neuronal connectivity.

If every neuron in the brain were directly connected to every other neuron, however, the brain would become too homogenous, and one signal would become indistinguishable from the next"
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/consciousness-may-be-product-carefully-balanced-chaos?utm_source=newsfromscience&utm_medium=facebook-text&utm_campaign=consciouschaos-2100

I love thinking about the functioning of the brain on all. These different levels.

FB: "consciousness might emerge from a careful balancing that causes the brain to “explore” the maximum number of unique pathways to generate meaning, he says. The researchers call this balance point “a critical point.”"