Tom Campbell | Searcharxiv

arXiv2017

On testing the simulation theory

Can the theory that reality is a simulation be tested? We investigate this question based on the assumption that if the system performing the simulation is finite (i.e. has limited resources), then to achieve low computational complexity, such a system would, as in a video game, render content (reality) only at the moment that information becomes available for observation by a player and not at the moment of detection by a machine (that would be part of the simulation and whose detection would also be part of the internal computation performed by the Virtual Reality server before rendering content to the player). Guided by this principle we describe conceptual wave/particle duality experiments aimed at testing the simulation theory.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Can Occipital Alpha Neurofeedback Influence LTRCs and Deterministic ERPs without Critical Branching?

Critical branching is a theoretical interaction in-between simple units, such as neuronal elements of the human brain. Zhigalov, Kaplan, and Palva (2016, Clin. Neurophysiol., 127(8), 2882-2889) revealed that neurofeedback flash stimulation locked to the phase of high-amplitude occipital alpha influences stimulus-locked occipital averages in the alpha-band. This feedback also influences the power scaling of long-range temporal correlations in alpha-band amplitude fluctuations. Seemingly, neurofeedback influences critical branching alongside there being an interaction between ongoing neuronal activity and evoked responses. However, the causal relations between these neuronal long-range temporal correlations, sustained attention, and any avalanche dynamics are called into question. Further, uncorrected concerns include false discovery rate and an objective mathematical error in the precedent (Palva et al., 2013, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 110(9), 3585-3590). An alternative set of illustrative mathematical principles offers a preliminary fit to the effects in the data. That is, neurofeedback influences the deterministic contribution to the single-trial event-related potentials, which each flash evokes, separately from the oscillatory alpha gain that those flashes cause. Accordingly, distinct principles of this neurofeedback-related exponential occipital oscillatory alpha gain and deterministic event-related potential generation produce micro-behaviours with macroscale consequences: neurofeedback causally influences power-scaling of long-range temporal correlations without critical branching.

q-bio.NC↗