Criticality supports cross-frequency cortical-thalamic information transfer during conscious states
bioRxiv Preprint Server February 22, 2023 Daniel Toker, Eli Müller, Hiroyuki Miyamoto et al. 3 citations preprint
Consciousness depends on bidirectional communication between the cortex and thalamus. A specific pattern of cross-frequency communication—low-frequency waves (1.5–13 Hz) from one region encoded as high gamma waves (50–100 Hz) in the other—is present during conscious states in humans, mice, and rats. This communication diminishes during propofol-induced anesthesia and generalized spike-and-wave seizures, but is enhanced by the psychedelic 5-MeO-DMT. Numerical simulations and neural recordings show that these changes are mediated by shifts in thalamocortical dynamics toward or away from edge-of-chaos criticality, the phase transition between stability and chaos. The findings offer a mathematically defined framework linking thalamic-cortical communication to consciousness.