Nonlinear measures and dynamics in psychophysiology of consciousness

Abstract

According to recent findings nonlinear dynamic processes related to neural chaos and complexity likely play a crucial role in neural synchronization of distributed neural activities that enable information integration and conscious experience. Disturbances in these interactions produce patterns of temporal and spatial disorganization with decreased or increased functional connectivity and complexity that underlie specific changes of perceptual and cognitive states. These perceptual and cognitive changes may be characterized by neural chaos with significantly increased brain sensitivity that may underlie sensitization and kindling, and cognitive hypersensitivity in some mental disorders. Together these findings suggest that processes related to more irregular neural states with higher complexity that may lead to neural chaos, negatively affect information integration and processing in the brain, and may influence disintegrated conscious experience.