Collective neurodynamics: Phase diagram

Here, we conceptualize the phase diagram of collective short-term bio-chemo-electric component of neurodynamics (S-ND) on the parameter space of externally, e.g., pharmacologically, controllable single-neuron parameters such as the resting potential and/or firing threshold, repolarization time, etc. This concept may become a useful tool for the systematization of knowledge in anesthesiology and provide a fruitful venue for future studies of the high-level S-ND functionalities such as short-term memory and the information encoding/processing in it. Our proposition is based on the recently developed approximation-free supersymmetric theory of stochastics that revealed the field theoretic essence of the ubiquitous dynamical long-range order (turbulence, 1/f noise, chaos, butterfly effect, self-organization, etc.) and predicted that the general phase diagram of (weak-noise) stochastic dynamics consists of the three major phases: thermal equilibrium (Tphase), noise-induced chaos (N-phase, also known as self-organized criticality), and ordinary chaos (C-phase). Within this theoretical picture and using some common sense reasoning, we argue that the T-, N-, and Cphases should be classified, from the neuroscientific point of view, as the coma-, conscious-, and seizure-like phases, respectively. We substantiate this point of view by constructing the rudimentary T-N-C phase diagram of the emulated S-ND on a neuromorphic electronic chip.