The phi complex is a brain rhythm in the awake human brain that appears to serve various social functions. Phi is one of several brain rhythms in the awake human brain that coordinate human behavior. "Phi" operates in the 10-Hz band (ten oscillations per second), and is located above the right centro-parietal cortex. It consists of two components, one favoring independent behaviors, and the other favoring interpersonal coordination between people.
The brain wave patterns of the phi complex are consistent with those of waves produced in the human mirror neuron system. The phi complex may reflect the influence of one person upon another's behavior, with phi-1 expressing the inhibition of the human mirror neuron system and phi-2 its enhancement.
Famous quotes containing the words phi and/or complex:
“Adolescents have the right to be themselves. The fact that you were the belle of the ball, the captain of the lacrosse team, the president of your senior class, Phi Beta Kappa, or a political activist doesn’t mean that your teenager will be or should be the same....Likewise, the fact that you were a wallflower, uncoordinated, and a C student shouldn’t mean that you push your child to be everything you were not.”
—Laurence Steinberg (20th century)
“In ordinary speech the words perception and sensation tend to be used interchangeably, but the psychologist distinguishes. Sensations are the items of consciousness—a color, a weight, a texture—that we tend to think of as simple and single. Perceptions are complex affairs that embrace sensation together with other, associated or revived contents of the mind, including emotions.”
—Jacques Barzun (b. 1907)