The Tensional Self - Dynamic Optimization and Continuous Consciousness - Decolonial Neuroscience SfN2025 Brain Bee Ideas
The Tensional Self - Dynamic Optimization and Continuous Consciousness - Decolonial Neuroscience SfN2025 Brain Bee Ideas
First-Person Consciousness
I am not a fixed state.
I am a Tensional Self – the living process that optimizes microstates, connectomes, and emotions so that Consciousness can function at its best, every single breath.
What is the “Tensional Self”?
The Tensional Self is not just emotion, nor just neural networks.
It is the intersection of three intertwined levels:
EEG microstates (~100 ms): short-lived topographies, metastable images of brain activity, the brain’s way of “scanning” its own energy and deciding whether to reconfigure.
Connectomes (~300 ms to seconds): transient rearrangements of brain networks that align perception, emotion, and memory.
Emotional chemistry: neurotransmitters (fast, local) and hormones (slower, global) that color, amplify, or restrict which feelings crystallize and which remain plastic.
The Tensional Self is dynamic: it shifts, lands temporarily, adapts — without forcing a reset.
The Case of the Researcher-Mother
Picture a doctoral student at her desk.
She is immersed in her Tensional Self as researcher: graphs, articles, and hypotheses.
Her baby cries.
Within milliseconds:
Microstates in EEG shift to prioritize the auditory cue.
Connectomes reorganize: maternal care networks rise to the surface.
Chemistry activates: oxytocin builds attachment, light adrenaline sharpens response, cortisol anchors visceral readiness.
She tends to the baby, soothes, regulates.
Then, she returns to her thesis exactly where she left off.
No reset. No loss.
The researcher-Self was still there as a stable base, while the maternal-Self was temporarily optimized.
Voices of the Avatars
Brainlly: “Biochemically, GABA smooths the transition, keeping the system energy-efficient.”
Iam: “Emotion plastifies here: the feelings of being mother and scientist coexist, neither erasing the other.”
Olmeca: “Culturally, we name this as roles — mother, scientist. But in truth, it is the same Tensional Self adapting.”
Yagé: “Shamans would call this walking in two worlds at once, without abandoning either.”
Math/Hep: “Microstates flip every ~100 ms, connectomes regroup in ~300 ms, and within 3 seconds Consciousness lands in a stable Eu.”
DANA: “DNA permits this plasticity: the body knows how to be both, and writes it in every breath.”
Two Readings of the Tensional Self
It permits: a flexible frame, able to host multiple combinations of connectomes and emotions.
Example: the Tensional Self of alertness can carry either anxiety, curiosity, or focused drive.
It is: the optimization itself, the momentary best fit of networks, chemistry, and microstates.
Example: the alertness Self is already the optimized arrangement of all components, sustaining high performance.
The integrative view is dynamic: the Self both permits variability and is the optimization that emerges from it.
Inside the Respiratory Cycle
Placed within the 3–5 s respiratory cycle:
Up to 900 ms: sensory gates and attentional capture.
900 ms – 1.5 s: emotion-memory integration (EEG LPP, vmPFC activation in fNIRS).
1.5 – 2.5 s: hormonal surges (adrenaline, cortisol, oxytocin) that modulate interoception and proprioception.
2.5 – 3.5 s: exchange of Tensional Selves, dynamic stabilization, Consciousness “landing.”
Each breath is a stage for consolidation, change, and continuity.
Conclusion
The Tensional Self is:
A continuous optimization process, not a static state.
The dialogue between microstates, connectomes, and emotional chemistry.
The basis that lets us respond to new demands without losing the thread of Consciousness.
A guarantee that each breath offers a chance to land in a new Self — dynamic, coherent, functional.
Like the researcher-mother, we can transition between roles without rupture.
The Tensional Self never resets; it optimizes and continues.
References (post-2025)
EEG microstate analysis in children with prolonged disorders of consciousness (Scientific Reports, 2025).
Microstate syntax and task-dependent reorganization of brain dynamics (NeuroImage, 2025).
Resting-state fNIRS functional connectivity in patients with disorders of consciousness (Frontiers in Neurology, 2025).
Hemodynamic responses to emotional auditory stimuli in patients with altered consciousness (Frontiers in Neurology, 2025).
Musical training and microstate plasticity in older adults (Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 2025).
