Neuronal Potential: Actualisation and Individuation: 2 Consequences of Neuronal Actualisation and Selection — Shaping Neural Potential

Once neuronal ensembles activate as instantial patterns, they do more than perform a function: they reshape the relational and semiotic landscape of the brain, generating new possibilities, constraints, and future activations. Neural actualisation and individuation are thus generative, recursive, and systemic.

1. Emergence of Functional Novelty

Each activated ensemble instantiates a specific pattern of neural activity, corresponding to perception, action, or cognition. These instances produce functional novelty, enabling new behaviours, interpretations, and interactions within the system. Neural actualisation generates pathways of relational and cognitive potential previously unavailable.

2. Constraint Propagation

Activated ensembles impose relational constraints on the network. They bias which other groups can activate, modulate excitability, and influence synaptic reinforcement. Each instance shapes the probabilities of future activations, structuring the unfolding of neural dynamics.

3. Recursive Shaping of Potential

Neuronal instances modify the network’s potential: repeated activations strengthen pathways, alter connectivity, and canalise future activity patterns. This recursive shaping embeds prior activations into the system, allowing cognition and perception to emerge as patterns of relational continuity.

4. Semiotic-Functional Impact

Neuronal ensembles carry functional and semiotic significance. Their activations encode distinctions, generate relational meaning, and structure subsequent interactions. In effect, each instance creates reference points within the network, shaping perception, decision-making, and learning.

5. Enabling Further Differentiation

Finally, each neural instance facilitates subsequent actualisations. Differentiated ensembles provide scaffolds for more complex assemblies, supporting hierarchical and compositional neural patterns. Cognition unfolds as a cascade of relational events, with each instance shaping the potential for subsequent ones.

---

In sum, neuronal actualisation and selection do more than activate circuits: they transform the relational field, generate novelty, propagate constraints, and recursively structure potential. Consciousness, perception, and cognitive capacity are emergent properties of this continuous interplay, where neuronal instances shape and are shaped by the field of potential.