The use of many-body physics and thermodynamics to describe the dynamics of rhythmic generators in sensory cortices engaged in memory and learning

•Transition from the molecular and cellular level to the macroscopic level of observed assemblies of myriads of neurons is discussed.•The dissipative many-body model and thermodynamics might offer the dynamical frame to fill the gap between the bio-molecular and cellular level and the one of brain macroscopic functioning.•Memory appears to be memory of meanings, not memory of information.

The problem of the transition from the molecular and cellular level to the macroscopic level of observed assemblies of myriads of neurons is the subject addressed in this report. The great amount of detailed information available at molecular and cellular level seems not sufficient to account for the high effectiveness and reliability observed in the brain macroscopic functioning. It is suggested that the dissipative many-body model and thermodynamics might offer the dynamical frame underlying the rich phenomenology observed at microscopic and macroscopic level and help in the understanding on how to fill the gap between the bio-molecular and cellular level and the one of brain macroscopic functioning.