TY - JOUR
T1 - Entropy production of multivariate Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes correlates with consciousness levels in the human brain
AU - Gilson, Matthieu
AU - Tagliazucchi, Enzo
AU - Cofré, Rodrigo
N1 - Funding Information:
M.G. and R.C. thank the organizers of the 2021 Spring School of the European Institute of Theoretical Neuroscience, the place where this project started to develop. M.G. was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under the Specific Grant Agreement No. 945539 (Human Brain Project SGA3), as well as the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments (ERS PF-JARA-SDS005). E.T. is supported by Grants No. PICT2018-03103 and No. PICT-2019-02294 funded by Agencia (Argentina), by a Mercator fellowship granted by the German Research Foundation (DFG), and FONDECYT regular 1220995 (Chile). R.C. thanks to C. Godrèche and J. M Luck for explaining details about the theoretical basis for this work. R.C. was supported by the European Community (Human Brain Project H2020-945539).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 American Physical Society.
PY - 2023/2
Y1 - 2023/2
N2 - Consciousness is supported by complex patterns of brain activity which are indicative of irreversible nonequilibrium dynamics. While the framework of stochastic thermodynamics has facilitated the understanding of physical systems of this kind, its application to infer the level of consciousness from empirical data remains elusive. We faced this challenge by calculating entropy production in a multivariate Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process fitted to Functional magnetic resonance imaging brain activity recordings. To test this approach, we focused on the transition from wakefulness to deep sleep, revealing a monotonous relationship between entropy production and the level of consciousness. Our results constitute robust signatures of consciousness while also advancing our understanding of the link between consciousness and complexity from the fundamental perspective of statistical physics.
AB - Consciousness is supported by complex patterns of brain activity which are indicative of irreversible nonequilibrium dynamics. While the framework of stochastic thermodynamics has facilitated the understanding of physical systems of this kind, its application to infer the level of consciousness from empirical data remains elusive. We faced this challenge by calculating entropy production in a multivariate Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process fitted to Functional magnetic resonance imaging brain activity recordings. To test this approach, we focused on the transition from wakefulness to deep sleep, revealing a monotonous relationship between entropy production and the level of consciousness. Our results constitute robust signatures of consciousness while also advancing our understanding of the link between consciousness and complexity from the fundamental perspective of statistical physics.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85148332260&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevE.107.024121
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevE.107.024121
M3 - Article
C2 - 36932548
AN - SCOPUS:85148332260
SN - 1539-3755
VL - 107
JO - Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
JF - Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
IS - 2
M1 - 024121
ER -