Abstract
Concepts from complex systems have been widely used in model building and experiments in neuroscience. This article presents a short overview of synchronization and chaos theory in studies of perception, and consciousness. In addition, these findings seem to have serious implications for the understanding of mental disorders. Finally some consequences for the future of psychiatry are discussed.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arenas, A., Dîaz-Guilera, A., Kurths, J., Moreno, Y., & Zhou, C. (2008). Synchronization in complex networks. Physics Reports, 469(3), 93–153.
Atagun, I., Ozerdem, A., Guntekin, B. and Basaar, E. (2011). Evoked and event related thêta oscillations are decreased in drug-free euthymic bipolar patients. In: Society of Biological Psychiatry 66th Annual Meeting, 12–14 May 2011, Hyatt Regency, San Francisco, CA, p. 97S.
Adeli, H., & Lichtenstein, A. G. (2011). Automated EEG-based diagnosis of the neurological and psychiatric disorders. In Systems, Signals and Image Processing (IWSSIP), 2011 18th International Conference on (pp. 1–4). IEEE.
Azhar, H., Iftekharuddin, K., & Kozma, R. (2005). A chaos synchronization-based dynamic vision model for image segmentation. In Neural Networks, 2005. IJCNN’05. Proceedings. 2005 IEEE International Joint Conference on (Vol. 5, pp. 3075–3080). IEEE.
Baars, B. J. (2005). Subjective experience is probably not limited to humans: The evidence from neurobiology and behavior. Consciousness and Cognition, 14(1), 7–21.
Bahrami, B., Seyedsadjadi, R., Babadi, B., & Noroozian, M. (2005). Brain complexity increases in mania. Neuroreport, 16(2), 187–191.
Barton, S. (1994). Chaos, self-organization, and psychology. American Psychologist, 49(1), 5.
Basar, E., & Guntekin, B. (2013). Review of delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma response oscillations in neuropsychiatrie disorders. Clinical Neurophysiology, 62, 303–341.
Bob, P. (2003). Dissociation and neuroscience: history and new perspectives. International Journal of Neuroscience, 113(7), 903–914.
Bob, P. (2007). Chaotic patterns of electrodermal activity during dissociated state released by hypnotic abreaction. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 55, 435–436.
Bob, P. (2009). Chaos, cognition and disordered brain. Activitas Nervosa Superior, 50(4).
Bob, P., Susta, M., Chladek, J., Glaslova, K., & Palus, M. (2009). Chaos in schizophrenia associations, reality or metaphor? International Journal ofPsychophysiology, 73(3), 179–185.
Bob, P. (2011). Brain, mind and consciousness: advances in neuroscience research. Springer Science & Business Media, New York.
Bob, P. (2013). Dissociation, epileptiform discharges and chaos in the brain: toward a neuroscientific theory of dissociation. ANS: The Journal for Neurocognitive Research, 54(3–4).
Bob, P. (2014). Dissociation, Chaos and Transcendent Function. Activitas Nervosa Superior, 55(4).
Bob, P. (2015). The Brain and Conscious Unity: Freud’s Omega. New York, NY: Springer New York.
Bob, P., & Louchakova, O. (2015). Dissociative states in dreams and brain chaos: Implications for creative awareness. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1353.
Boccaletti, S., Latora, V., Moreno, Y., Chavez, M., & Hwang, D. U. (2006). Complex networks: Structure and dynamics. Physics reports, 424(4), 175–308.
Boly, M., Seth, A. K., Wilke, M., Ingmundson, P., Baars, B., Laureys, S., et al. (2013). Consciousness in humans and non-human animals: recent advances and future directions. Frontiers in psychology, 4.
Boutros, N.N., Arfken, C, Galderisi, S., Warrick, J., Pratt, G. and Iacono, W. (2008) The status of spectral EEG abnormality as a diagnostic test for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 99(1–3): 225–237.
Buckjohn, C. N. D., Siewe, M. S., Tchawoua, C, & Kofane, T. C. (2010). Synchronization of chaotic and nonchaotic oscillators: Application to bipolar disorder. Physics Letters A, 374(35), 3646–3655.
Burwick, T. (2014). The binding problem. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science WIREs Cogn Sei, 5, 305–315.
Casali, A. G., Gosseries, O., Rosanova, M., Boly, M., Sarasso, S., Casali, K. R.,... & Massimini, M. (2013). A theoretically based index of consciousness independent of sensory processing and behavior. Science translational medicine, 5(198), 198 ral05–198ral05.
Chen, M. (2008a). Chaos synchronization in complex networks. Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, IEEE Transactions on, 55(5), 1335–1346.
Chen, S. S., Tu, P. C, Su, T. P., Hsieh, J. C, Lin, Y. C, & Chen, L. F. (2008b). Impaired frontal synchronization of spontaneous magnetoencephalographic activity in patients with bipolar disorder. Neuroscience letters, 445(2), 174–178.
Chialvo, D. R. (2010). Emergent complex neural dynamics. Nature physics, 6(10), 744–750.
Cleeremans, A. E. (2003). The unity of consciousness: Binding, integration, and dissociation. Oxford University Press.
Crick, F., & Koch, C. (1990). Towards a neurobiological theory of consciousness. In Seminars in the Neurosciences (Vol. 2, pp. 263–275). Saunders Scientific Publications.
Dauwels, J., Vialatte, F., Musha, T. and Cichocki, A. (2010). A comparative study of synchrony measures for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease based on EEG. Neuroimage, 49 (1): 668–693.
Dauwels, J., Vialatte, F., Musha, T. and Cichocki, A. (2010). A comparative study of synchrony measures for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease based on EEG. Neuroimage, 49 (1): 668–693.
Dehaene, S., Charles, L., King, J. R., & Marti, S. (2014). Toward a computational theory of conscious processing. Current opinion in neurobiology, 25, 76–84.
Droege, P., & Braithwaite, V. A. (2015). A Framework for Investigating Animal Consciousness. Ethical Issues in Behavioral Neuroscience, 79–98.
Engel, A. K., Fries, P., & Singer, W. (2001). Dynamic predictions: oscillations and synchrony in top-down processing. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2(10), 704–716.
Erdi, P. (2007). Complexity explained. Springer Science & Business Media.
Fabbro, F., Aglioti, S. M., Bergamasco, M., Clarici, A., & Panksepp, J. (2015). Evolutionary aspects of self-and world consciousness in vertebrates. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 9.
Feldman, J. (2013). The neural binding problem (s). Cognitive neurodynamics, 7(1), 1–11.
Flynn, G., Alexander, D., Harris, A., Whitford, T., Wong, W., Galletly, C, Silverstein, S., Gordon, E. and Williams, L.M. (2008). Increased absolute magnitude of gamma synchrony in first-episode psychosis. Schizophrenia Research, 105(1–3): 262–271.
Freeman, W. (1992). Chaos in psychiatry. Biological Psychiatry, 1079–1081.
Freeman, W. J. (1999). Consciousness, intentionality and causality. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 6(11–12), 143–172.
Freeman, W. J., & Barrie, J. M. (2001). Chaotic oscillations and the genesis of meaning in cerebral cortex. In NATO Advanced Study Institute on Nonlinear Dynamics in the Life and Social Sciences, Apr-May, 2000, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia. IOS Press.
Freeman, W. J. W. (2011). The emergence of mind and emotion in the evolution of neocortex. Rivista di psichiatria, 46(5–6).
Freeman, W. J., Gaál G., & Jorsten, R. (2003). A neurobiological theory of meaning in perception Part III: Multiple cortical areas synchronize without loss of local autonomy. International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, 13(10), 2845–2856.
Fries, P., Neuenschwander, S., Engel, A. K., Goebel, R., & Singer, W. (2001). Rapid feature selective neuronal synchronization through correlated latency shifting. Nature neuroscience, 4(2), 194–200.
Gandal, M. J., Edgar, J. C, Klook, K., & Siegel, S. J. (2012). Gamma synchrony: towards a translational biomarker for the treatment-resistant symptoms of schizophrenia. Neuropharmacology, 62(3), 1504–1518.
Gottschalk, A., Bauer, M. S., & Whybrow, P. C. (1995). Evidence of chaotic mood variation in bipolar disorder. Archives of general psychiatry, 52(11), 947–959.
Groom, M.J., Cahill, J.D., Bates, A.T., Jackson, G.M., Calton, T.G., Liddle, P.F. and Hollis, C. (2010). Electrophysiological indices of abnormal error-processing in adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 51(1): 66–76.
Hadaeghi, F., Golpayegani, M. R. H., & Moradi, K. (2013). Does “crisis-induced intermittency” explain bipolar disorder dynamics?. Frontiers in computational neuroscience, 7.
Hammond, C, Bergman, H., & Brown, P. (2007). Pathological synchronization in Parkinson’s disease: networks, models and treatments. Trends in neurosciences, 30(7), 357–364.
Herculano-Houzel, S. (2009). The human brain in numbers: a linearly scaled-up primate brain. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 3.
Hertz, J., Krogh, A., & Palmer, R. G. (1991). Introduction to the theory of neural computation (Vol. 1). Basic Books.
Hinkley, L. B., Vinogradov, S., Guggisberg, A. G., Fisher, M., Findlay, A. M., & Nagarajan, S. S. (2011). Clinical symptoms and alpha band resting-state functional connectivity imaging in patients with schizophrenia: implications for novel approaches to treatment. Biological psychiatry, 70(12), 1134–1142.
Hipp, J. F., Engel, A. K., & Siegel, M. (2011). Oscillatory synchronization in large-scale cortical networks predicts perception. Neuron, 69(2), 387–396.
Hodgkin, A. L., & Huxley, A. F. (1952). A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve. The Journal of physiology, 117(4), 500–544.
Hodgkin, A. L., & Huxley, A. F. (1990). A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve. Bulletin ofmathematical biology, 52(1–2), 25–71.
Holland, J. H. (2014). Complexity: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.
Huber, M. T., Braun, H. A., & Krieg, J. C. (1999). Consequences of deterministic and random dynamics for the course of affective disorders. Biological psychiatry, 46(2), 256–262.
Koenig, T., Prichep, L., Dierks, T., Hubl, D., Wahlund, L. O., John, E. R., & Jelic, V. (2005). Decreased EEG synchronization in Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment. Neurobiology of Aging, 26(2), 165–171.
Korn, H., & Faure, P. (2003). Is there chaos in the brain? II. Experimental evidence and related models. Comptes rendus biologies, 326(9), 787–840.
Jamal, W., Das, S., Oprescu, I. A., Maharatna, K., Apicella, F., & Sicca, F. (2014). Classification of autism spectrum disorder using supervised learning of brain connectivity measures extracted from synchrostates. Journal of neural engineering, 11(4), 046019.
Jalili, M. (2009). Synchronizing Hindmarsh-Rose neurons over Newman-Watts networks. Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science, 19(3), 033103.
Lee, K., Williams, L., Haig, A., & Gordon, E. (2003). “Gamma (40 Hz) phase synchronicity” and symptom dimensions in schizophrenia. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 57–71.
Leocani, L., Locatelli, M., Bellodi, L., Fornara, C, Hénin, M., Magnani, G., et al. (2001). Abnormal pattern of cortical activation associated with voluntary movement in obsessive-compulsive disorder: an EEG study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158(1), 140–142.
Leon-Carrion, J., Leon-Dominguez, U., Pollonini, L., Wu, M. H., Frye, R. E., Dominguez-Morales, M. R., & Zouridakis, G. (2012). Synchronization between the anterior and posterior cortex determines consciousness level in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Brain Research, 1476, 22–30.
Leuchter, A. F., Hunter, A. M., Krantz, D. E., & Cook, I. A. (2015). Rhythms and blues: modulation of oscillatory synchrony and the mechanism of action of antidepressant treatments. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1344(1), 78–91.
Mainzer, K. (2007). Thinking in complexity: The computational dynamics of matter, mind, and mankind. Springer Science & Business Media.
Malsburg, C. (1995). Binding in models of perception and brain function. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 5(4), 520–526.
Mccarley, R. (2004). Neural synchrony indexes disordered perception and cognition in schizophrenia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 17288–17293.
McKenna, T. M., McMullen, T. A., & Shlesinger, M. F. (1994). The brain as a dynamic physical system. Neuroscience, 60(3), 587–605.
Melancon, G., Joanette, Y., & Bélair, J. (2000). Chaos, brain, and cognition: Toward a nonlinear order?. Brain and cognition, 42(1), 33–36.
Missonnier, P., Gold, G., Herrmann, F.R., Fazio-Costa, L., Michel, J.P., Deiber, M.P., Michon, A. and Giannakopoulos, P. (2006). Decreased theta event-related synchronization during working memory activation is associated with progressive mild cognitive impairment. Dement. Geriatr. Cogn. Disord., 22(3): 250–259.
Mitchell, M. (2009). Complexity: A guided tour. Oxford University Press.
Namikawa, J., Nishimoto, R., & Tani, J. (2011). A neurodynamic account of spontaneous behaviour. PLoS Computational Biology, 7(10), el002221.
O’Donnell, B.F., Hetrick, W.P., Vohs, J.L., Krishnan, G.P., Carroll, C.A. & Shekhar, A. (2004). Neural synchronization deficits to auditory stimulation in bipolar disorder. NeuroReport, 15, 1369–1372.
de Oliveira, S. C, Thiele, A., & Hoffmann, K. P. (1997). Synchronization of neuronal activity during stimulus expectation in a direction discrimination task. The Journal of Neuroscience, 17(23), 9248–9260.
Özdemir, O., Özdemir, P. G., & Yilmaz, E. (2014). The butterfly effect in psychiatry: a case example. Journal of Mood Disorders, 4(1), 34–7.
Özerdem, A., Güntekin, B., Saatçi E., Tünca, Z., & Basar, E. (2010). Disturbance in long distance gamma coherence in bipolar disorder. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 34(6), 861–865.
Özerdem, A., Güntekin, B., Atagün, I., Turp, B., & Basar, E. (2011). Reduced long distance gamma (28–48Hz) coherence in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder. Journal of affective disorders, 132(3), 325–332.
Paulus, M. P., & Braff, D. L. (2003). Chaos and schizophrenia: does the method fit the madness? Biological Psychiatry, 53(1), 3–11.
Putnam, F. W. (1997). Dissociation in children and adolescents: A developmental perspective. Guilford Press.
Peled, A. (2004). From plasticity to complexity: a new diagnostic method for psychiatry. Medical hypotheses, 63(1), 110–114.
Peled, A. (2012a). Neuroanalysis: A method for brain-related neuroscientific diagnosis of mental disorders. Medical hypotheses, 78(5), 636–640.
Peled, A. (2012b). Personality disorders disturbances of the physical brain. Medical hypotheses, 79(4), 487–492.
Raffone, A., & van Leeuwen, C. (2001a). Chaos and neural coding: is the binding problem a pseudo-problem?. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24(05), 826–827.
Raffone, A., & Van Leeuwen, C. (2001b). Activation and coherence in memory processes: Revisiting the parallel distributed processing approach to retrieval. Connection Science, 13(4), 349–382.
Revonsuo, A. (1999). Binding and the phenomenal unity of consciousness. Consciousness and cognition, 8(2), 173–185.
Rolls, E., & Traves, A. (1990). Neuronal networks in the brain. Physics World, 3, 31–35.
Ronenwett, W.J., & Csernansky, J. (2010). Curr. Top Behav. Neurosci. 4, 509–528.
Saalmann, Y.B., Pinsk, M.A., Wang, L., Li, X., & Kastner, S. (2012). Science 337, 753–756.
Scott, A. C. (2007). The nonlinear universe: chaos, emergence, life. Springer Science & Business Media.
Seth, A. K., Baars, B. J., & Edelman, D. B. (2005). Criteria for consciousness in humans and other mammals. Consciousness and cognition, 14(1), 119–139.
Seth, A. K., Barrett, A. B., & Barnett, L. (2011). Causal density and integrated information as measures of conscious level. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 369(1952), 3748–3767.]
Seth, A. K., Izhikevich, E., Reeke, G. N., & Edelman, G. M. (2006). Theories and measures of consciousness: an extended framework. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103(28), 10799–10804.
Singer, W. (1999). Neuronal Synchrony: A Versatile Code for the Definition of Relations? Neuron, 24, 49–6.
Singer, W. (2001). Consciousness and the binding problem. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 929(1), 123–146.
Singer, W. (2009). The brain, a complex self-organizing system. European Review, 17(02), 321–329.
Singer, W. (2012). What binds it all together? Synchronized oscillatory activity in normal and pathological cognition (pp. 57–70). Springer Vienna.
Spencer, K., Salisbury, D., Shenton, M., & Mccarley, R. (2008). y-Band Auditory Steady-State Responses Are Impaired in First Episode Psychosis. Biological Psychiatry, 369–375.
Spencer, K., Niznikiewicz, M., Nestor, P., Shenton, M., & Mccarley, R. (2009). Left auditory cortex gamma synchronization and auditory hallucination symptoms in schizophrenia. BMC Neuroscience BMC Neurosci, 85–85.
Strelets, V. B., Garakh, Z. V., Novototskii-Vlasov, V. Y., & Magomedov, R. A. (2006). Relationship between EEG power and rhythm synchronization in health and cognitive pathology. Neuroscience and behavioral physiology, 36(6), 655–662.
Suppes, P., de Barros, J. A., & Oas, G. (2012). Phase-oscillator computations as neural models of stimulus-response conditioning and response selection. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 56(2), 95–117.
Tabor, M. (1989). Chaos and integrability in nonlinear dynamics: an introduction. Wiley-Interscience.
Tan, D., Özerdem, A., Güntekin, B., Atagün, M. L, Tülay, E., Karadag, F., & Basar, E. (2014). Increased Beta Frequency (15–30 Hz) Oscillatory Responses in Euthymic Bipolar Patients Under Lithium Monotherapy. Clinical EEG and neuroscience, 1550059414561056.
Tillmann, C, Wibral, M., Leweke, M., KÖhler, A., Singer, W., Koethe, D.,... & Uhlhaas, P. (2008). Source localization of high-frequency oscillations reveals widespread reductions in gamma-band activity during perceptual organization in chronic and first-episode schizophrenia. In Soc. Neurosci. Abstr (Vol. 54).
Tononi, G. (2004). An information integration theory of consciousness. BMC neuroscience, 5(1), 42.
Tononi, G. (2005). Consciousness, information integration, and the brain. Progress in brain research, 150, 109–126.
Tononi, G. (2007). The information integration theory of consciousness (pp. 287–299). Blackwell: Maiden, MA, USA.
Tononi, G. (2008). Consciousness as integrated information: a provisional manifesto. The Biological Bulletin, 215(3), 216–242.
Tononi, G., & Edelman, G. M. (1998). Consciousness and complexity. Science, 282(5395), 1846–1851.
Tononi, G., Edelman, G. M., & Sporns, O. (1998). Complexity and coherency: integrating information in the brain. Trends in cognitive sciences, 2(12), 474–484.
Tononi, G., & Sporns, O. (2003). Measuring information integration. BMC neuroscience, 4(1), 31.
Treisman, A. (1996). The binding problem. Current opinion in neurobiology, 6(2), 171–178.
Tsuda, I. (2001). Toward an interpretation of dynamic neural activity in terms of chaotic dynamical systems. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24(05), 793–810.
Uhlhaas, P., Linden, D., Singer, W., Haenschel, C, Lindner, M., Maurer, K., & Rodriguez, E. (2006). Dysfunctional Long-Range Coordination of Neural Activity during Gestalt Perception in Schizophrenia. Journal of Neuroscience, 8168–8175.
Uhlhaas, P. J., & Singer, W. (2006). Neural synchrony in brain disorders: relevance for cognitive dysfunctions and pathophysiology. Neuron, 52(1), 155–168.
Uhlhaas, P., Pipa, G., Lima, B., Melloni, L., Neuenschwander, S., Nikolic, D., & Singer, W. (2009). Neural synchrony in cortical networks: history, concept and current status. Frontiers in integrative neuroscience, 3, 17.
Uhlhaas, P., & Singer, W. (2010). Abnormal neural oscillations and synchrony in schizophrenia. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 100–113.
Uhlhaas, P. J., Roux, F., and Singer, W. (2013) Thalamocortical synchronization and cognition: implications for schizophrenia? Neuron, 77, (6). pp. 997–999.
Uhlhaas, P. J., & Singer, W. (2013). High-frequency oscillations and the neurobiology of schizophrenia. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 15(3), 301.
Varela, F., Lachaux, J. P., Rodriguez, E., & Martinerie, J. (2001). The brainweb: phase synchronization and large-scale integration. Nature reviews neuroscience, 2(4), 229–239.
Vassilieva, E., Pinto, G., de Barros, J. A., & Suppes, P. (2011). Learning pattern recognition through quasi-synchronization of phase oscillators. Neural Networks, IEEE Transactions, 22(1), 84–95.
Von Der Malsburg, C. (1995). Binding in models of perception and brain function. Current opinion in neurobiology, 5(4), 520–526.
Yang, A. C, & Tsai, S. J. (2013). Is mental illness complex? From behavior to brain. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 45, 253–257.
Yu, R., Chien, Y. L., Wang, H. L. S., Liu, C. M., Liu, C. C, Hwang, T. J.,... & Tseng, W. Y. I. (2014). Frequency-specific alternations in the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in schizophrenia. Human brain mapping, 35(2), 627–637.
Wang, X. F. (2002). Complex networks: topology, dynamics and synchronization. International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, 12(05), 885–916.
Wang, G., Kydd, R., & Russell, B. (2015). Quantitative EEG and Low-Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (LORETA) Imaging of Patients Undergoing Methadone Treatment for Opiate Addiction. Clinical EEG and Neuroscience.
Zavaglia, M., Canolty, R. T., Schofield, T. M., Leff, A. P., Ursino, M., Knight, R. T., & Penny, W. D. (2012). A dynamical pattern recognition model of gamma activity in auditory cortex. Neural Networks, 28, 1–14.
Zmigrod, S., & Hommel, B. (2011). The relationship between feature binding and consciousness: Evidence from asynchronous multi-modal stimuli. Consciousness and cognition, 20(3), 586–593.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
De Assis, L.P.G. Neural Binding, Consciousness, and Mental Disorders: Complexity as a Common Element. Act Nerv Super 57, 110–121 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03379943
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03379943