Assessing the Brain Wave Hypothesis: Call for Commentary

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the likelihood of a proposed wave excitation in animal brains that may encode three-dimensional space, suggesting a potential paradigm shift in neuroscience if confirmed.

Contribution

It provides a Bayesian assessment of the wave hypothesis, quantifying the probability of its existence based on existing evidence and calling for further scientific commentary and testing.

Findings

Bayesian probability of the wave's existence is > 0.4

Evidence from mammalian thalamus and insect brain supports the hypothesis

Proposes new directions for testing the wave hypothesis

Abstract

It has been proposed that there is a wave excitation in animal brains, whose role is to represent three dimensional local space in a working memory. Evidence for the wave comes from the mammalian thalamus, the central body of the insect brain, and from computational models of spatial cognition. This is described in related papers. I assess the Bayesian probability that the wave exists, from this evidence. The probability of the wave in the brain is robustly greater than 0.4. If there is such a wave, we may need to re-think our whole understanding of the brain, in a break from classical neuroscience. I ask other researchers to comment on the wave hypothesis and on this assessment. In a companion paper, I outline possible ways to test it.