Consciousness as synchronization (of some kind)

 This might not mean much to you, but, spending a few hours reading about consciousness-related neuroscience today, I had a like, mind-blowing idea, like POOFFF

What if, the entire function of brain plasticity, is to organize the different neurons to be able to be electrically active in a synchronized or de-synchronized manner in response to different inputs?

What is a kind of synchronization is at the core of awareness...

Because, think about it: The things that come together to make up our conscious experience at any given time, have a huge variety. We can be conscious of a green, juicy apple, or a scary face, or blue sky with music and a person next to us etc etc - endless combinations. All those different brain areas that give rise to those experiences are always there, and are often active in some way, but don't always join in or contribute to our conscious experience. Their physical connections don't change, so what is it that changes that makes them contribute to a conscious experience?

There has to be a mechanism, a basic mechanism that allows all those different elements to "come together" or "stay out".

Also, consider how many things in our body, and especially in the nervous system, are rhythmical. The heart, for example, is a collection of cells that do nothing but synchronize their electric activity, to ensure that our heart beats properly. We have circadian rhythms, a basic rhythm of 8 times per second governing our attention, heartbeats, the state of sexual arousal, for example, is all about frequency and rhythm. There is a very precise synchronization between the firing of neurons and the electric activation of muscles, without which we would not be able to move properly. There needs to be a very high degree of calibration of all the synapses, for the different muscle groups to contract at just the right degree and at just the right time to allow us to stand without falling, or to execute specific movements. What if the same high-precision synchronization is also responsible for our conscious experience and its content, at any given moment?

On the other hand, over-synchronization of the whole brain is related to seizures, rather than an experience of "everything", if such a thing is even possible. So what is meant by "synchronization" here is not homogeneous activity, but rather a kind of "symphony", where the activity of different components is harmoneous in some way (kind of like how the rythm of different instruments in music . Moreso, that rhythm is not adjusted to the rhythm the muscles require to have proper movement.

The cells in our retina have evolved to respond electrically to electromagnetic radiation at different frequencies (the "visible spectrum" of light). Truly, so much of what the brain responds to has to do with repetition at different frequencies (including sounds).

Wouldn't it be very possible then, that harmony of electric activity among different brain region be responsible for a single conscious experience, comprising of different elements? (The "green" of the apple, the texture of it, and the music we may hear in the background, etc').

Yet we can hear any kind of music, no matter its frequency, combined with any other kind of input,

Now here is an interesting question: How does the brain process different sounds (of different frequencies)? If a lower vibration sound triggers a lower vibration neural activity in one area, does that mean that the green apple we are also looking at, at the same time, or rather, the area of the brain processing that input, have to also “vibrate” at the same frequency of that sound?

Something about this is problematic, because we can hear an endless variety of different sounds (different frequencies) and still be aware of the SAME green apple. Yet we ARE aware of it as two different entities. What if our attention shifts back and forth between those two things, but it happens so fast that they seem like one experience? Maybe that is how we can differentiate different “entities”.

This raises one important question: Is there a connection between the frequency of neuron firing and the frequency of the input? I think the answer is not necessarily. For example, the visible light has a certain frequency, but the rate of activity of the neurons in the retina has more to do with the rate of sampling, probably, or the internal rhythm of the neuron, rather than the frequency of the light.

I mean, if red light has a higher frequency than blue, does that mean that neurons that receive “red” will fire action potentials at a faster rate than those that receive (respond to) “blue”? I would guess the answer is NO. But this needs to be checked!