A new theory from MIT proposes that cognition and consciousness emerge partly through analog computations performed by traveling electrical brain waves, rather than solely through fixed neural circuits and synaptic connections. While synapses provide the underlying infrastructure for storing memories, goals, and knowledge, researchers argue that they are too slow to explain the brain’s ability to rapidly reorganize information. Instead, rhythmic waves coordinate large populations of neurons in real time. Slower alpha and beta waves may regulate faster gamma activity associated with sensory information, dynamically determining which neural ensembles become active at places and moments. The interaction and interference of these waves could therefore enable parallel, analog forms of spatiotemporal computing.
The researchers extend this framework to consciousness, proposing that conscious experience emerges when brain-wave patterns organize activity across the cortex into a coherent, globally integrated state. Evidence from anesthesia studies supports this possibility: different anesthetic drugs can produce unconsciousness while disrupting large-scale wave dynamics despite acting through different molecular mechanisms. However, the authors emphasize that this remains a theory, and direct experimental evidence that brain waves perform the proposed analog computations is still needed. If confirmed, the framework could reshape models of cognition and potentially inspire treatments that target brain-wave dynamics, which can sometimes be influenced non-invasively.
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