THE background chatter between brain cells isn’t just random noise but
structured chaos, says a team of scientists who have modelled brain activity.
They say this could explain how subtle changes in our surroundings rapidly
trigger complex mental images.
Chaotic activity may be unpredictable, but it is orderly and follows rules,
unlike random noise. Its hallmark is the butterfly effect: a tiny change in the
initial conditions of a chaotic system will have a dramatic impact on the
outcome. The existence of chaos in the brain could explain how we make sense of
an ever changing world.
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