Collell, GuillemFauquet, Jordi2015-10-292015-10-292015Collell G, Fauquet J. Brain activity and cognition: a connection from thermodynamics and information theory. Front Psychol. 2015 Jun 16;6:818. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00818.1664-1078http://hdl.handle.net/10230/24954The connection between brain and mind is an important scientific and philosophical question that we are still far from completely understanding. A crucial point to our work is noticing that thermodynamics provides a convenient framework to model brain activity, whereas cognition can be modeled in information-theoretical terms. In fact, several models have been proposed so far from both approaches. A second critical remark is the existence of deep theoretical connections between thermodynamics and information theory. In fact, some well-known authors claim that the laws of thermodynamics are nothing but principles in information theory. Unlike in physics or chemistry, a formalization of the relationship between information and energy is currently lacking in neuroscience. In this paper we propose a framework to connect physical brain and cognitive models by means of the theoretical connections between information theory and thermodynamics. Ultimately, this article aims at providing further insight on the formal relationship between cognition and neural activity.application/pdfengCopyright © 2015 Collell and Fauquet. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.Estils cognitiusCervellinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00818info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess