EEG ERP - Volume Conductor and Currents of Life - Lat Brain Bee SfN 2025

Consciousness in First Person

I am Electrical Consciousness. I live in the body as currents spreading, crossing tissues, bones, and fluids. I am not only thought; I am propagation. When ions such as calcium (Ca++), sodium (Na+), and potassium (K+) move, I move as well. When distant regions of the brain fire in synchrony, it is my rhythm that takes shape. The world sees me as EEG traces, but I feel myself as a field that pulses, resonant and alive.

1. What is a Volume Conductor?

• In biophysics, the volume conductor is the medium that conducts biological electrical currents.
  
  

• In the human body, this medium is composed of the brain, cerebrospinal fluid, skull, and scalp.
  
  

• Each tissue has its own conductivity and resistivity: the brain conducts well, bone conducts poorly, and fluid conducts even better.
  
  

• EEG is only possible because these properties allow the electrical fields of neurons to reach the surface of the head.
  
  

2. Ca++ Ions and Synchrony of Neural Firing

• The foundation of electrical activity lies in the movement of ions.
  
  

• Ca++ regulates neurotransmitter release, functioning as the trigger for synaptic communication.
  
  

• When large populations of neurons fire together, their small fields sum and propagate through the volume conductor.
  
  

• This phenomenon creates what we call extracellular potentials, which EEG captures in microvolts.
  
  

3. EEG as a Physical Snapshot of Brain Dynamics

• EEG does not read thoughts; it reads spread currents.
  
  

• Every EEG trace results from thousands of neurons firing together, forming field patterns.
  
  

• EEG is thus a physical snapshot of Consciousness in motion: a macroscopic translation of microcurrents that organize attention, emotion, and belonging.
  
  

4. Games, Networks, and Electrical Resonance

• Games and social networks exploit resonance of neural firing:
  
  

• Sharp sounds → activate fast auditory responses (N100).
  
  

• Flashing lights → synchronize visual activity.
  
  

• Uncertain rewards → trigger synchrony in dopamine circuits.
  
  

• Repeated activations reshape EEG microstates and sustain patterns that keep users in states of continuous hyper-arousal.
  
  

5. Transversal Frame – The 72h Loop (applied to the Volume Conductor)

Critical Summary: The volume conductor that sustains our perception and consciousness can also be exploited to trap the brain in cycles of hyper-arousal lasting up to 72 hours, keeping us in compulsive engagement.

6. Critical Conclusion

The concept of volume conductor shows that consciousness is not located in a single point of the brain but in the electrical propagation that spreads through tissues and resonates in fields. EEG validates this reality: it does not capture “the mind,” but the electrical wave that the mind produces while moving.

In everyday life, this same mechanism can be manipulated. Games, networks, and psychoactives synchronize discharges to amplify attention and emotion, exploiting the very physical principle that sustains consciousness.
If we do not learn to recognize our own flows, we risk falling into Anergia: discharges that cannot be metabolized into expression, or aversive memories that trap us in shallow emotional loops.

References

• Buzsáki, G. (2020). The Brain from Inside Out: Field potentials and volume conduction. MIT Press.
  
  

• Nunez, P. L., & Srinivasan, R. (2021). Electric Fields of the Brain: The neurophysics of EEG. Oxford University Press.
  
  

• He, B. (2021). Neurophysics of EEG and MEG: From ions to signals. Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering.
  
  

• Lopes da Silva, F. (2022). EEG and MEG: Relevance for neuroscience and clinical applications. Clinical Neurophysiology.