A measurement-induced phase transition (MIPT), where competition between unitary evolution and measurements drives a system between entangled and disentangled phases, is conjectured to play a key role in cognitive networks and the formation of consciousness during the newborn-adult transition. The authors propose a probe-target picture for the brain, interpreting MIPT as a learnability transition in the mental part of the target, where sites in cognitive networks of semantic memory are concepts. A comparison is made with synchronization phase transitions in the probe.
Consciousness may be characterized by an order parameter analogous to the Page curve used in black hole physics. The entanglement between the brain's state and the time series of neuronal firing, along with the non-orthogonality of functional connectomes, are central to this proposal. The conjecture draws on the recent resolution of the black hole information paradox to suggest a measure for the state of consciousness.