edelman/totoni

Consciousness arising from complexity: the greatest degree of complexity occurs when many specialized neural clusters are connected simultaneously. Each cluster is working on its own problem (color, shape, distance) and when they are all connected, the result is a pattern that very much makes a difference to the brain because it is differentiated. Contrast this with the diffuse way neurons fire in slow wave sleep: lots of individual neurons (not working in groups) firing simultaneously but with low complexity: in a way that does not make a difference to the brain because the pattern is too diffuse (p. 133-134).