Based on a clear physical definition of the Mind given in the previous volume of the “Symphony of Matter and Mind” series, the author begins to formulate a unified concept of the Brain and Mind which will be developed in this and subsequent volumes.

All mental phenomena, from basic sensory-motor to higher abstract-verbal, are the result of neural encoding of the external world signals and internal bodily signals into representations constituting the model of reality for the purpose of controlling the body and adapting to this reality. Thus, any theory of the brain faces the question of the nature of the neural code which could explain the observed speed and efficiency, scope and complexity of the computational process that we call the Mind.

The mainstream theories of neuroscience that consider neural activity as trains of discrete identical spikes (various firing rate coding and temporal coding models) contradict the reality of the information density of neural computing. That is why, despite huge efforts by generations of researchers, this approach did not lead to deciphering the neural code. We know the details of the neural processes down to the molecular level but the brain remains a ‘black box’ that we cannot read. It is the outcome of the wrong theoretical assumption that should be revised. The author creates the concept of a neural code that overcomes the shortcomings of old models.

There is another problem that cannot be avoided by any theory of consciousness. It is not enough to say that the brain creates the psyche as this leaves an explanatory gap. We need to show how this physiological system generates mental phenomena physically. The Mind is a technological process that works according to a certain algorithm based on physical laws. The author’s theory offers a fundamentally new approach to the nervous system that bridges physiology and psychology by illuminating the algorithm and the physics of the Mind from the intracellular to the system-wide level.