Commentary: The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience – August 30, 2016
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
The compelling idea that psychedelic states elevate consciousness by making brain activity "more random and harder to predict" is central to Neuroscience. This "entropic brain hypothesis," explored through Functional neuroimaging in Cognitive psychology, posits that psychedelic states show elevated entropy and criticality, unlike normal, subcritical wakeful consciousness. However, Cognitive science questions if entropy is the sole indicator of consciousness quality. It also scrutinizes whether psychedelic-induced brain activity is genuinely critical, challenging current understanding in Psychedelics and Drug Studies.
Abstract
The “entropic brain hypothesis” holds that the quality of conscious states depends on the system’s \nentropy (Carhart-Harris et al., 2014). Brain activity is said to become “more random and so harder \nto predict in primary states – of which the psychedelic state is an exemplar.” Psychedelic-induced \nbrain activity would be associated with elevated entropy in some of its aspects with respect to \nnormal wakeful consciousness. This would indicate that psychedelic-induced brain activity would \nexhibit criticality, while normal wakeful consciousness would be subcritical. \nBut can entropy be a unique indicator of the “quality of consciousness?” Are there reasons to \nbelieve that psychedelic-induced activity is not critical?