On the Significance of Special Relativity to Understanding Maxwell’s Laws for Electromagnetic Phenomena, Neural Oscillations, Consciousness, Cognition, and Perception

Changing electric and magnetic fields which compose neural oscillations are a bridge between consciousness, cognition, perception, and neurophysiology. Empirical results supporting this bridge are found in the association of coherence in cognition with coherence in neural oscillations and incoherence in cognition with incoherence in neural oscillations and that the application of electric fields on the skull can increase coherence both in neural oscillations and in cognition. Another example that demonstrates the influence of a changing magnetic field on neural activity and consciousness is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) which is an accepted tool for the treatment of depression. TMS relies on Faraday’s Law, one of Maxwell’s Laws of electromagnetism, in which a changing magnetic field applied to the surface of the skull induces an electric field in the brain that affects neural activity. It is shown that consciousness, cognition, and perception cannot be reduced to a material cause through Einstein’s solution to a major discrepancy in electrodynamics in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s concerning Faraday’s Law that involved the introduction of non-material, logical, and cognitive coordinate systems moving at a constant velocity relative to one another within which temporal duration and spatial extension are relative to a specific coordinate system. Neural oscillations are subject to Maxwell’s Laws and are thus subject to these same non-material, logical, and cognitive coordinate systems and transformations between these coordinate systems found in Einstein’s resolution of the discrepancy noted, providing support for the idea that neural oscillations are a bridge between consciousness, cognition, perception, and neurophysiology. Rock’s experiment and other work on induced self-motion showing that a human observer experiences himself at rest even if he is moving at a constant velocity in the absence of certain perceptual cues is key to the above analysis. It is only this feature of conscious experience that allows for Einstein’s solution to the above noted discrepancy in electrodynamics. The importance of a human observer’s ability to experience himself at rest even if he might be moving at a constant velocity has not heretofore been discussed with regard to Einstein’s solution. It is this ability of the human observer that allows the consciousnesses of two human observers, each at rest in his respective coordinate system (where these non-material, logical, and cognitive coordinate systems are moving at a constant velocity relative to one another), to be distinct from each other and not dependent on a material feature. The integrity of Maxwell’s Laws themselves depends on these non-material, logical, and cognitive coordinate systems moving at a constant velocity relative to one another within which temporal duration and spatial extension are relative to a specific coordinate system that are at the heart of special relativity. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.15235.26408