.png)
Online ISSN 2653-4983
Online first articles
Articles not assigned to any issue
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Thermodynamic compensation indicates binding promiscuity of dystrophin in the nervous system
Madison E. Fountain, Sarah F. Cuneio, Jonghoon Kang
Dystrophin plays a key role in neuronal structure and synaptic signaling, yet its full range of binding partners in the nervous system remains incompletely understood. Here, we examined dystrophin–dystrobrevin interactions using a combined thermodynamic and bioinformatic approach. Analysis of published calorimetric data revealed that binding is driven primarily by favorable electrostatic and polar interactions and displays strong enthalpy–entropy compensation (EEC), with a notably low compensation temperature, suggesting that dystrophin may accommodate diverse partners through compensatory energetics. Bioinformatic profiling and principal component analysis (PCA) distinguished dystrobrevin isoforms and indicated that the C-terminal flanking region and overall charge (pI) are key determinants of binding affinity. Multiple linear regression further showed that DG° can be predicted from sequence-derived variables, particularly pI and intrinsic disorder. Together, these findings provide a thermodynamic rationale for the broad interaction capacity of dystrophin and establish a sequence-based framework for identifying potential dystrophin-binding proteins in the nervous system.
​
BRIEF REPORT
Network geometry breakdown, not entropy increase: a neurotopological interpretation of epileptic seizures
Arturo Salazar Chon and Dhay Amer Kadhim
​
Epileptic pathology is commonly interpreted as a state of increased neural disorder or high entropy. We challenge this interpretation and propose that such conclusions arise from incomplete or unidimensional metric approaches. Using a Unified Neurotopological Framework, we characterize brain dynamics by integrating both informational content and network geometric structure. We quantify neural coherence through a multimodal metric set including Permutation Entropy, Persistent Homology, and Ricci Curvature. The framework is validated using EEG data by comparing status epilepticus with healthy resting-state activity (isostasis). Our results (p < 0.001) show that epileptic seizures do not reflect heightened disorder but instead constitute a catastrophic collapse of network geometry, resulting in disordered low-complexity coherence. Furthermore, we identify a paradox in which the resting healthy brain demonstrates low-ordered complexity, yet remains functionally coherent. These findings suggest that the critical biomarker differentiating health from pathology is not entropy magnitude but the dynamic geometry of neural coherence.
​
.png)
REVIEW
The interdisciplinary ontology of consciousness in multiscale neuroscience
Alfredo Pereira Júnior
According to the Interdisciplinary Ontology called "Triple Aspect Monism" (TAM), consciousness has three necessary - and conjointly sufficient - aspects: Matter, Information and Sentience. All three equally derive from a 'neutral' basis - one that is neither physical nor mental - called Energy. Matter is particle-condensed Energy; Information is the differential distribution of Energy in Space, and Sentience (defined as "the capacity of feeling") is a special type of distribution of Energy in Time. Although the three aspects are potentially present in Energy, their conjunction, generating conscious experiences, occurs only - as far as we know - in living systems. In these systems, the three aspects are integrated during the evolutionary process; they develop the “first-person perspective” proper to each singular conscious being, arising from a self-organization process (the "endogenous feedback"; Carrara-Augustenborg and Pereira Jr., 2012), which, in humans, allows the emergence of self-referential meaningful language. While Matter and Information are well treated by natural and computational sciences, the understanding of Sentience, with its special temporal waveforms, poses challenges, for which a new science - called Sentiomics (Pereira Jr. and Aguiar, 2022) - was formulated. Two compatible explanations are provided here, for the emergence of Sentience: 1) As a Fibonacci-like pattern of amplitude modulation of multi-ionic waves in time, proposed by myself with colleagues, and 2) As a quantum geometric constraint operating in dynamic organic systems and projecting conscious contents (Poznanski, 2025).
​
.png)
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Quantum Potential Geometry: a framework for ontophysical processes underlying
phenomenality
Roman R. Poznanski
Quantum Potential Geometry (QPG) is a process-based framework for modeling delocalized information systems in the brain. It is formulated within a Weyl-like geometric setting, where phase relations are encoded as scale connections, and the effective quantum potential (Q* ) specifies geometric curvature rather than probabilistic amplitudes. QPG conceptualizes neuropil microcavity–supported quasipolaritons as forming a discrete relational lattice, arising from diachronic boundary conditions, which constitutes the ontophysical substrate of the framework. When coherence extends across many microcavities through Q*, this discrete lattice undergoes a transition: its local relational structure generates a globally coherent phase configuration, whose effective curvature manifests as an emergent functional manifold at the macroscopic scale. QPG employs the Heisenberg formulation because quantum-delocalized informational dynamics arise not from nonlocal operators but from the intrinsic physical nature of quasipolaritonic modes, which cannot be simultaneously localized in complementary observables. Operators themselves are local mathematical objects; it is the Heisenberg uncertainty principle that imposes delocalization constraints on the modes. These constraints allow coherence to span microcavities, enabling long-range phase coupling and the formation of an extended functional geometry. Phase information is an ontophysical process, biophysically instantiated, it describes how local phase relations among domains are modulated to sustain coherence via a selection mechanism that restricts global phase patterns to those consistent with the Weyl-like scale connection and satisfying functional holonomy.
​
.png)
PERSPECTIVE
Sentience in the animal kingdom based on radical emergence
Eda Alemdar
​
Phenomenal consciousness, under the QPG/SIP framework, is understood as emerging from a deep, multilayered, and ontologically distinct stratum that cannot be reduced to neural computation, synaptic integration, nor behavioral response patterns alone. In this view, phenomenality does not arise from classical information processing within neuron–synapse architectures, but from threshold conditions that enable sentience to manifest as quasipolaritonic resonance modes. These threshold conditions are radically emergent requiring: (1) Sufficient density and spatial organization of neuropil microcavities, (2) Minimally separated cavity topologies capable of phase interaction, (3) High morphodynamic (non-rigid) plasticity supporting reconfigurable geometry. In this view, they replace microtubules as the key physical locus for phase-coupled quasipolaritonic modes, thereby serving as the mesoscopic bridge through which QPG/SIP dynamics can instantiate sentience. Accordingly, phenomenal consciousness is framed not as a computational output, functional representation, or emergent symbol-processing property, but as a radical phase-transition event occurring when microcavity organization reaches a coherence-supporting critical regime. In this interpretation, phenomenality is the self-organizing instantiation of functional holonomy expressed through the functional geometry of the neuropil, and sentience precedes phenomenality and grounds the possibility of consciousness itself.
COMMENTARY
Upgrading the Turing Test for Consciousness
Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton​
In Where is the Definition of Consciousness? (WdDoC), it was argued that the traditional Turing Test requires significant revision to address a broader and more inclusive definition of consciousness—one that applies not only to humans, but also to non-human animals, synthetic biological constructs such as xenobots, and potentially other emergent systems. Under this expanded framework, updating the Turing Test becomes largely redundant, particularly given its anthropocentric bias. Using a proposed definition of consciousness that closely parallels definitions of learning, this article asserts that the degree of consciousness expressed by any given entity may vary in sophistication or simplicity according to its architecture and resources. However, the core criteria used for assessment remain constant: (1) Advaita Vedanta-inspired Boolean-algebraic discrimination capability, (2) memory, (3) imagination/creativity, and (4) the ability to act upon predictive insights and learn from past errors. Under these criteria, even Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control systems qualify as minimally conscious, highlighting both the difficulty and rigor required in establishing a meaningful test—comparable to the exhaustive certification standards used in safety-critical engineering. While it is acknowledged that evaluating only a single entity (or a very small sample) introduces statistical risk, this paper challenges the assumption that testing groups is the only viable mitigation approach. Group-level testing is subject to the same limitations in statistical generalisation unless sample sizes are sufficiently scaled. Ultimately, testing for consciousness in an individual is functionally equivalent to administering a sophisticated variant of the classic behavioural challenge: “Can you run and catch a moving ball?”
​
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Intracellular Calcium Dynamics in Starburst Amacrine Cell Dendrites:
The Onset of Cardinal Direction Selectivity and Speed Tuning*
N.L. Iannella
​Detecting moving objects is crucial in the animal kingdom and is fundamental to vision. In the vertebrate retina, starburst amacrine cells are directionally selective in terms of their calcium responses to stimuli that move centrifugally from the soma. The mechanism by which starburst amacrine cells show calcium bias for centrifugal motion is still to be determined. Recent morphological studies using fluorescent microscopy and immunostaining have shown that the endoplasmic reticulum is omnipresent in the soma, extending to the distal processes of starburst amacrine cells. Electron microscopy for ChAT SAC in adult rat retina unequivocally proves the presence of local endoplasmic reticulum. The submicron in diameter dendrites implies that the endoplasmic reticulum is not luminally connected between the soma and the distal tips. We construct a computational model of SAC dendrites with ER to simulate the Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release (CICR)-based calcium waves in the presence of unsaturated buffer to test the hypothesis that CICR mechanism can sustain constant calcium wave propagation in the centrifugal direction. The veto mechanism with a 100msec delay for the operation of retinal direction selectivity. is a working hypothesis, in which a CICR mechanism in the presence of local endoplasmic reticulum underlies speed tuning for directionality and propagation failure in the centripetal direction due to a build-up of calcium hyperexcitability in the distal regions of starburst amacrine cells. Modeling the heterogeneity of calcium endoplasmic reticulum in simulated starburst amacrine cells sheds light on a possible explanation for the cause ...
​