Human Quorum Sensing, First-Person Consciousness, and the Tensional Architecture of Selves
Human Quorum Sensing, First-Person Consciousness, and the Tensional Architecture of Selves
A Call for Research with EEG, NIRS, and SpO₂
Crafting the Self with Imagetic Apus for Extended Proprioception in Elite Performance
We live in a time marked by perceptual fragmentation, digitized sociality, and the dissociation of consciousness from the living body. In response to this scenario, this paper proposes a new neurophenomenological framework and invites master's and doctoral students to explore it further: the concept of Human Quorum Sensing (HQS) as a bioaffective and relational system that shapes the emergence of selves — here understood as first-person lived consciousness states.
First-Person Consciousness: Each Feeling as a Self
Within the first-person perspective, consciousness arises directly from the lived body in its relational environment. Feelings are not mere representations — they are active expressions of the self, each one embodying a specific metabolism of existence. Breathing patterns, postural tension, cortical activation, and directionality of action converge in each moment of embodied awareness.
This perspective resonates with the neurophenomenology of Francisco Varela, Antonio Damasio’s embodied mind, and Alfredo Pereira Jr.’s Triple-Aspect Monism. These views converge in the idea that each feeling configures a distinct self, which expresses a situated consciousness-in-action.
Human Quorum Sensing (HQS): Bioaffective Synchrony Among Living Bodies
Modeled on bacterial quorum sensing — where cells regulate group behavior based on chemical signaling — Human Quorum Sensing describes how humans achieve social and sensory synchrony through shared nonverbal signals: smell, tone of voice, proximity, breathing rhythms, micro-expressions, temperature, and gesture.
This field of affective information is supported by 12 embodied senses, including interoception, proprioception, and the proposed 12th sense: Belonging. This expanded sensory field provides the matrix from which different selves emerge — each shaped by tensions and adapted for specific actions and experiences.
The Matrix of Selves: Bioaffective Configurations of Consciousness
Each self arises from a 2D tensional plane, composed of two dominant forces acting within the 12D sensorimotor field. These selves operate as functional consciousness modes — dynamic forms of knowing and acting in the world.
The Matrix of Selves - Bioaffective Configurations of Consciousness
Each row represents a lived configuration of first-person consciousness, metabolically anchored and measurable with current neuroscientific tools.
Measuring Selves with EEG, NIRS, and SpO₂
These states of lived consciousness can be measured physiologically, using technologies already available and widely adopted in neuroscience:
* EEG captures transitions between selves through microstate dynamics, anticipatory mu rhythms, and inter-nirs-fnirs-brain-tuning-a-study-of-hyperscanning-and-intercerebral-coherence-in-the-educational-context" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">brain synchrony patterns.
* NIRS measures regional cortical oxygenation associated with each dominant self. Each self imposes a unique metabolic demand on the cortex, resulting in distinguishable flow patterns that resemble graded versions of Cortical Spreading Depression (CSD) — subtle, localized, and reflective of the intensity and presence of that embodied consciousness.
* SpO₂ serves as a complementary physiological marker for identifying likely states of attentional focus. SpO₂ ranges between 94% and 97% are often correlated with stable respiratory engagement and sustained attentional presence, supporting the embodied experience of a self at work.
This triad of EEG, NIRS, and SpO₂ offers an integrated path toward a scientifically grounded first-person neuroscience, where the body becomes the primary source of conscious evidence.
Epigenetics, Belonging, and the Health of Selves
Social belonging and affective safety shape the emergence and stability of healthy selves. Chronic judgment, overstimulation, and relational disconnection tend to generate unstable self configurations — often associated with heightened stress nirs-fnirs-task-with-fnirs-from-stimulus-to-responses" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">responses and gene expression shifts.
Studies show that:
* Long-term isolation promotes increased methylation of genes linked to inflammation and cortisol regulation;
* Collective rituals and affective synchrony promote demethylation of genes associated with well-being and neuroplasticity.
Thus, the Quorum Sensing environment becomes a bioepigenetic field that shapes both consciousness and biological development.
A Call for Original Research
This framework opens space for master’s and PhD research across neuroscience, cognition, psychology, physiology, education, and anthropology. Possible lines of investigation include:
* Physiological measurement of selves as dynamic metabolic states using EEG, NIRS, and SpO₂;
* Development of self-mapping protocols based on bioaffective tension axes;
* Neurophenomenological field studies of first-person consciousness;
* Clinical and educational applications of self rehabilitation through bioaffective synchrony;
* Technological innovation in biofeedback devices and sensory-enhanced environments for restoring human quorum.
Conclusion: Consciousness Begins in the Living Body
The self emerges from the body — not as metaphor, but as physiological and relational fact. Each self represents a unique way the body configures itself to perceive, engage, and adapt. Through careful observation and the use of available tools, science can now access these lived states in real time.
To feel is to know. And to know oneself is to metabolize presence through the body.
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