FUNCTIONAL ROLES OF THREE CUES THAT "PERVADE" THE BRAIN: ELECTRO-MAGNETIC FIELD, OXYGEN AND CARBON DIOXIDE

The brain integrative actions depend on the exchange of information among its computational elements. Hence, such a phenomenon plays the key role in driving the complex dynamics of central nervous system (CNS), in which true computations interact with non-computational dynamical processes to generate brain representations of the body in the external world, hence the finalistic behaviour of the organism. In this context, it should be pointed out that beside the intercellular interactions mediated by classical electro-chemical signals also other types of interactions, namely 'cue' and 'coercion' appear to be exploited by the system to achieve its function. Actually, the main focus of the present paper will be on cues present in the environment as well as produced by cells of the body, that "pervade" the brain contributing to its dynamics. These cues can also be metabolic substrates and in most cases, they are of a fundamental importance for the brain function and for the entire organism survival. Three of these highly pervasive cues will be analysed more in detail, namely oxygen, carbon dioxide and electromagnetic fields (EMF). A special emphasis will be given to EMF since it has been proposed by several authors that these highly pervasive energy fluctuations could play an important role in the global integrative actions of the brain, hence EMF signalling may transcend purely connectionist models of brain function. Thus, the new concept of "Broadcasted Neuro-Connectomics" (BNC) has been introduced that transcends the current connectomics view of the brain.

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