ABSTRACT

The aesthetic appeal of the golden mean seems to be a consequence of the kind of information coding by the brain. Since decades psychologists have claimed memory span to be the missing link between psychometric intelligence and cognition.

By applying Bose-Einstein-statistics to learning experiments, Pascual-Leone obtained a fit between predicted and tested span. Multiplying span by mental speed (bits processed per unit time) and using the entropy formula for bosons, we obtain the same result. If we understand span as the quantum number n of a harmonic oscillator, we get this result from the EEG. The metric of brain waves can always be understood as a superposition of n harmonics times 2 F, where half of the fundamental is the golden mean F (1.618…) as the point of resonance. Such wave packets scaled in powers of the golden mean have to be understood as numbers with directions, where bifurcations occur at the edge of chaos, i.e. 2 F.