This infrared image from NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Helix Nebula, a cosmic starlet often photographed by amateur astronomers for its vivid colors and eerie resemblance to a giant eye.

On June 12, 2017 a research team studying the complex networks involved in information processing, revealed that the processes involved in the creation of neural structures are built on multiverse-like structures. Using algebraic topology, they “zoomed” into the neural networks of the brain, finding hidden structures of the neurons. When they are presented with a stimulus, groups of neurons form a clique, each individual neuron connecting via a specific configuration, forming a precise geometric object. And the more neurons clique, the higher the dimensions.

The left shows a digital copy of a part of the neocortex, the most evolved part of the brain. On the right is a representation of the structures with different dimensions. The black hole in the middle symbolizes a complex of multi-dimensional spaces, or cavities.BLUE BRAIN PROJECT

“The appearance of high-dimensional cavities when the brain is processing information means that the neurons in the network react to stimuli in an extremely organized manner.

It is as if the brain reacts to a stimulus by building then razing a tower of multi-dimensional blocks, starting with rods (1D), then planks (2D), then cubes (3D), and then more complex geometries with 4D, 5D, etc. The progression of activity through the brain resembles a multi-dimensional sandcastle that materializes out of the sand and then disintegrates”

- Ran Levi. of the researchers

Exemplification of a  clique formed by five pyramidal cells (A), with zoom into the somata of the clique in (A) and representation of their connectivity as a directed graph. (B3).

“We found a world that we had never imagined. There are tens of millions of these objects even in a small speck of the brain, up through seven dimensions. In some networks, we even found structures with up to eleven dimensions.”

Having trouble picturing those 11 dimensions, aren’t you?