In praise of Brainwaves as Tissue. A biosemiotic perspective
Until discovery of telescopes Saturn was thought, by proto-scientists, to be the last planet of our solar system. Equally nowadays, in anatomic perspective, the skin is considered histologically the furthest tissue that divides us from , and is in contact with the external environment. But exactly as the upgrade of lens technology made observable otherwise invisible objects in the skies, the upgrade in physics of electromagnetic waves by Maxwell led to the discovery of brain electromagnetic waves made observable by electroencephalography 100 years ago.
All around the head exists an appreciable amount of electromagnetic energy brain related. It reaches the skin through bones and goes further. It can be measured as waves with their amplitude and frequency.
After 100 years of study and research, forty of which even I, myself, have worked, I have felt the urge to expose a biosemiotic analysis about the ontological and classificatory status of brain waves in the context of anatomy and histology. Otherwise maybe for next 100 years, brain waves will still be considered devoid of an autonomous status as tissue, differently from blood or connective tissue or nervous tissue. But the urges of times on the technological side find the biosemiotic community structure, both theoretically and personally on the rise.
A serious theoretical community implant that states that life is based on sign action, not just molecular interaction. I hope all the main schools of biosemiotics will best appreciate the nature of a tissue where molecules are zero, made of waves that are mere energy, no mass (or a vanishingly small mass). In that “tissue” persists the pure sign action devoid of the molecular interaction but that is also firmly grounded on solid empirical observables of neurophysiology and molecules.
As the astronomical community discovered Uranus and its meaning beyond Saturn, so nowadays the biosemiotic community has the opportunity to discover a tissue beyond skin. A tissue made of signs, because it has no molecules. A tissue where the basic unit of life is nearly 100% pure biosemiosis deserves a proper ontological status able to be included in an extended view of anatomy, and not only of physiology. Anatomy of waves of course, but not less physical than bones. Tissue of bones gives time to be seen even with no skill. Other tissues need to be fixed and processed to be conserved and studied, otherwise they decay.
This tissue “Brainwaves” has the shortest time possible to be seen because electromagnetic waves are light. One hundred millisecond for waves, 100 years for bones. (Yes you have to be on the ball to catch it on the neurophysiological practice).
Surely far faster in its cycle than DNA expression or protein building, this extreme difference on both planes, of speed and of immateriality do create some difficulties in cognitive acceptance of such a mechanism that extends the depth of semiotic freedom.
Not to be scared by those differences, but we are committed to searching for similarities, a useful ethical choice in “making-meaning” of “Brain Waves As a Tissue” because it’s even ours.
References
Hoffmeyer, Jesper (2008). Biosemiotics: An Examination into the Signs of Life and the Life of Signs. University of Scranton Press.
da Silva, F Lopes (1991). Neural mechanisms underlying brain waves: from neural membranes to networks. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1991 Aug; 79(2):81-93.