Neural Dynamics and Human Consciousness: A Tryst with Chaos

Chaos! Chaos is Gaea, Chaos is Love of Life! Life came from Chaos, lives in Chaos and into Chaos life evolves! The present work is a culmination of the ongoing study and evaluation of variability profile of human physiology. The study on variability pattern of electrocardiographic signals (heart rate variability) both in disease and health was initiated in the year 2003 and in due course the task of exploring another physiological time series, electroencephalographic (EEG) signals in health was taken up. Incidentally, while evaluating neural dynamics in health it was observed that EEG signals follow the principles of chaos ¿ a chance finding, nothing new, as the tenet had already been documented and published some 20 years ago! The nervous system of humans, in health, work on the principles of nonlinear dynamics, observing a pre-ordained chaotic trajectory in the phase-space, with an order in the seeming disorder. The work was presented at the European Federation of Neurological Societies (EFNS) Congress at Florence, Italy in September, 2009. It was the first step into the fascinating frontiers of Chaos and since then efforts are on to fathom the intricacies of Neural Dynamicss