A model on the role of noise at the neuronal and the cognitive levels

Abstract

This paper deals with information transfer from the environment as well as between successive hierarchical levels in a self-organizing system—in the presence of additive noise. We define a self-organizing system as follows: It's an open non-linear dynamical structure far from thermodynamic equilibrium in which via information transfer from the environment the number of ordered (coherent) relationships between appropriate variables (like, for example, the phase differences between the oscillating components of the system) change with time. We examine cases where the number of self-sustained oscillating components at a given hierarchical level may vary with time in such a way that the maximum entropy of the system at that level increases faster than the overall instantaneous entropy. We put forth the hypothesis that in such cases—because of the increase of the redundancy—the system at the observed hierarchical level (and at higher levels) gets organized not just in spite of, but merely because of the presence of (amplitude) quasi-stationary noise-acting additively on the pertinent dynamical variables of the system. Possible applications in biological systems (especially concerning a model of cerebral organization) are discussed. It has to be pointed out that evolution of organization at the higher hierarchical levels (affective and cognitive) preassumes an already existing dynamic structure and advanced degree of organization at a number of “substrate” lower hierarchical levels of the system.