Neuronal Potential: Actualisation and Individuation: 3 Synthesis — Neural Potential as Relational Process

Neuronal potential is continuously structured, actualised, and differentiated through the processes described in Edelman’s Theory of Neuronal Group Selection. Activated ensembles — instantial neuronal patterns — do not merely perform functions; they recursively shape the relational field, generating new possibilities and structuring future activations.

1. From Preconditions to Consequences

The preconditions — structured neural potential, synaptic constraints and affordances, relational frames, and stabilising scaffolds — determine where and how neuronal instances can emerge. The consequences — functional novelty, constraint propagation, recursive shaping, and semiotic-functional structuring — show how these instances influence network dynamics. Together, they reveal the relational logic underpinning cognition and perception.

2. Recursive, Multi-Scale Dynamics

Neuronal actualisation and individuation operate recursively across scales:

• Local circuits: ensembles instantiate and stabilise within microcircuits.

• Network systems: ensembles combine to form functional modules and higher-order circuits.

• Brain-wide integration: distributed modules interact, supporting cognition, perception, and conscious experience.

At each scale, instances both reflect and reshape potential, producing the ongoing emergence of neural complexity.

3. Relational and Semiotic Integration

Neuronal instances are simultaneously functional and semiotic: they stabilise patterns, generate distinctions, and structure subsequent interactions. Each activation embeds meaning relationally within the network, shaping perception, action, and learning in a continuous feedback loop.

4. Cognition as Continuous Becoming

The TNGS demonstrates that cognition and consciousness are not fixed entities but emergent properties of relational actualisation. Neural potential unfolds through the recursive interplay of instance and potential, where each activation generates new opportunities for differentiation and complexity.

In sum, the brain exemplifies a field of relational potential in continuous enactment, where neuronal instances actualise possibilities, individuate functional ensembles, and recursively transform the landscape of cognition and perception.