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The human brain from above: an increase in complexity from environmental stimuli to abstractions

Cognitive Neurodynamics volume 11, pages 391–394 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Contrary to common belief, the brain appears to increase the complexity from the perceived object to the idea of it. Topological models predict indeed that: (a) increases in anatomical/functional dimensions and symmetries occur in the transition from the environment to the higher activities of the brain, and (b) informational entropy in the primary sensory areas is lower than in the higher associative ones. To demonstrate this novel hypothesis, we introduce a straightforward approach to measuring island information levels in fMRI neuroimages, via Rényi entropy derived from tessellated fMRI images. This approach facilitates objective detection of entropy and corresponding information levels in zones of fMRI images generally not taken into account. We found that the Rényi entropy is higher in associative cortices than in the visual primary ones. This suggests that the brain lies in dimensions higher than the environment and that it does not concentrate, but rather dilutes messages coming from external inputs.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, 75A Chancellor’s Circle, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 5V6, Canada

    James F. Peters

  2. Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Adıyaman University, 02040, Adıyaman, Turkey

    James F. Peters & Ebubekir İnan

  3. Computational Intelligence Laboratory, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 5V6, Canada

    James F. Peters, Arturo Tozzi & Ebubekir İnan

  4. Center for Nonlinear Science, University of North Texas, 1155 Union Circle, #311427, Denton, TX, 76203-5017, USA

    Arturo Tozzi

  5. Department of Applied Computer Science, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB, R3B 2E9, Canada

    Sheela Ramanna

Authors
  1. James F. Peters
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  2. Arturo Tozzi
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  3. Sheela Ramanna
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  4. Ebubekir İnan
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Correspondence to Arturo Tozzi.

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Peters, J.F., Tozzi, A., Ramanna, S. et al. The human brain from above: an increase in complexity from environmental stimuli to abstractions. Cogn Neurodyn 11, 391–394 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-017-9428-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-017-9428-2

Keywords

  • Entropy
  • Topology
  • fMRI
  • Tessellation