Nonequilibrium physics of brain dynamics
Physics Reports October 24, 2025 Ramón Nartallo-Kaluarachchi, Morten L. Kringelbach, Gustavo Deco et al. 11 citations
The brain's neural activity, observed via electrophysiology and neuroimaging, shows time-irreversibility and broken detailed balance, indicating it operates in a nonequilibrium stationary state rather than a symmetric equilibrium. The degree of this nonequilibrium, measured by entropy production or irreversibility, appears to be a key marker of cognitive complexity and consciousness. This review introduces the mathematical frameworks for understanding nonequilibrium dynamics in continuous and discrete state-spaces, then surveys model-free and model-based analysis methods applied to neural recordings and spike-trains. It also touches on nonequilibrium computation in neural systems and concludes with a discussion of future directions for this emergent field at the intersection of nonequilibrium statistical physics and neuroscience.