Bridging micro-to-macro nonequilibrium dynamics in the brain

Establish how nonequilibrium dynamics and thermodynamic quantities at cellular and subcellular scales coarse-grain into macroscopic measures of irreversibility and entropy production observed in neuroimaging signals, thereby characterizing the multi-scale interaction between microscopic and macroscopic brain dynamics.

Background

Nonequilibrium dynamics are evident at multiple scales in neural systems, from cellular thermodynamics to large-scale neuroimaging. Coarse-graining can profoundly alter thermodynamic quantities, complicating interpretation across scales.

A rigorous account of how microscopic dissipation manifests in macroscopic irreversibility would clarify the physical meaning of nonequilibrium signatures measured from brain recordings and inform multi-scale modeling frameworks.