Tozzi Arturo, Bormashenko Edward, Jausovec Norbert
Center for Nonlinear Science, Department of Physics, University of North Texas, 1155 Union Circle, #311427, Denton, TX 76203-5017 USA.
Chemical Engineering Department, Engineering Faculty, Ariel University, P.O.B. 3, 407000 Ariel, Israel.
Cogn Neurodyn. 2021 Oct;15(5):887-896. doi: 10.1007/s11571-021-09668-z. Epub 2021 Feb 17.
Whenever one attempts to comb a hairy ball flat, there will always be at least one tuft of hair at one point on the ball. This seemingly worthless sentence is an informal description of the hairy ball theorem, an invaluable mathematical weapon that has been proven useful to describe a variety of physical/biological processes/phenomena in terms of topology, rather than classical cause/effect relationships. In this paper we will focus on the electrical brain field-electroencephalogram (EEG). As a starting point we consider the recently-raised observation that, when electromagnetic oscillations propagate with a spherical wave front, there must be at least one point of the tangential components of the vector fields where the electromagnetic field vanishes. We show how this description holds also for the electric waves produced by the brain and detectable by EEG. Once located these zero-points in EEG traces, we confirm that they are able to modify the electric wave fronts detectable in the brain. This sheds new light on the functional features of a nonlinear, metastable nervous system at the edge of chaos, based on the neuroscientific model of Operational Architectonics of brain-mind functioning. As an example of practical application of this theorem, we provide testable previsions, suggesting the proper location of transcranial magnetic stimulation's coils to improve the clinical outcomes of drug-resistant epilepsy.
每当有人试图把一个毛球梳平,球上总会至少有一处有一簇毛发。这句话看似没什么价值,却是毛球定理的一种通俗描述。毛球定理是一件非常重要的数学工具,已被证明在从拓扑学角度而非经典的因果关系来描述各种物理/生物过程/现象方面很有用。在本文中,我们将聚焦于脑电场——脑电图(EEG)。作为起点,我们考虑最近提出的一个观察结果:当电磁振荡以球面波前传播时,矢量场的切向分量必定至少有一点处的电磁场消失。我们展示了这种描述对于大脑产生且能被脑电图检测到的电波同样成立。一旦在脑电图迹线中确定了这些零点,我们证实它们能够改变在大脑中可检测到的电波波前。基于脑-心功能运作的操作建筑学神经科学模型,这为处于混沌边缘的非线性、亚稳态神经系统的功能特征提供了新的见解。作为该定理实际应用的一个例子,我们提供了可检验的预测,建议经颅磁刺激线圈的合适位置,以改善耐药性癫痫的临床疗效。