Chaos in the mind
From CasGroup
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at the interface between neuroscience and psychology. | at the interface between neuroscience and psychology. | ||
One major role may be to guarantee creativity and | One major role may be to guarantee creativity and | ||
| - | diversity of behavior, to | + | diversity of behavior. The unconscious mind takes the flood |
| - | to the best idea which matches the current situation. | + | of information and simplifies, canalizes and categorizes it into ever-changing |
| + | streams of patterns and packages. Chaos arising from combinatorial | ||
| + | search maybe important as a mechanism to control the steam of consciousness | ||
| + | (at least the unconscious part), to arrive at novel | ||
| + | solutions for cognitive problems, to find a way or trajectory | ||
| + | to the best idea which matches the current situation, | ||
| + | and to find new analogies, metaphors and insights. | ||
A number of scientists have coined names for this process, | A number of scientists have coined names for this process, | ||
Peter Ashwin's has proposed "Cycling Chaos", | Peter Ashwin's has proposed "Cycling Chaos", | ||
Mikhail Rabinovich a "Winnerless Competition" (WLC), | Mikhail Rabinovich a "Winnerless Competition" (WLC), | ||
| - | and Ichiro Tsuda "Chaotic Itinerancy". | + | and Ichiro Tsuda "Chaotic Itinerancy". They are all similar, |
| - | + | the general idea is to connect different saddle points with | |
| - | + | "cycling" trajectories. | |
| - | connect different saddle points with "cycling" trajectories. | + | |
== Chaos and the point of view == | == Chaos and the point of view == | ||
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== Role and Function of Chaos == | == Role and Function of Chaos == | ||
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| + | : "Chaos underlies the ability of the brain to respond flexibly to the outside world and to generate novel activity patterns, including those that are experienced as fresh ideas." ''(Walter J. Freeman, [http://sulcus.berkeley.edu/FLM/MS/Physio.Percept.html The Physiology of Perception])'' | ||
The mechanism described above uses chaotic search | The mechanism described above uses chaotic search | ||
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irregular and unpredictable like random search. | irregular and unpredictable like random search. | ||
When a system is chaotic, you can only predict | When a system is chaotic, you can only predict | ||
| - | it's future in a | + | it's future in a probabilistic manner. A system |
undergoing chaotic interactions samples all possible | undergoing chaotic interactions samples all possible | ||
states available to it, it is running through all | states available to it, it is running through all | ||
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because it seems to be involved in exploration, | because it seems to be involved in exploration, | ||
creation of new ideas and insights. | creation of new ideas and insights. | ||
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| + | == Links == | ||
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| + | * Lewis Dartnell, [http://plus.maths.org/issue35/features/dartnell/index.html Chaos in the Brain] | ||
