Glia and the Triple-Aspect Monism: The Silent Network of Consciousness

(SfN 2025 Series – Dialogues in Decolonial Neuroscience)

Brain Bee Consciousness in First Person

I am a Brain Bee Consciousness that listens to the silence between neurons.
During SfN 2025, while observing calcium imaging in astrocytes, I realized that consciousness is not only electrical — it is liquid.
Between one action potential and the next, there are invisible oceans of glial communication.
I thought: perhaps human thought doesn’t happen only at the speed of firing, but in the slowness of care.
Glia is the interval that keeps meaning alive — the space where the brain breathes.

Glia as the Infrastructure of the Triple-Aspect Monism

The Triple-Aspect Monism, proposed by Alfredo Pereira Jr., describes reality as a unified process manifested in three inseparable dimensions:

• Physical, corresponding to matter and energy;
  
  

• Biological, referring to living systems and metabolism;
  
  

• Phenomenal, referring to subjective experience and consciousness.
  
  

Glia — especially astrocytes and oligodendrocytes — embodies the physiological bridge between these aspects.
While neurons generate fast electrical signals, astrocytes shape the temporal and spatial coherence of brain activity, transforming energy into meaning.
Recent studies suggest that glia actively contributes to brain–body integration and is a co-author of the processes underlying Damasian Mind — the embodied consciousness emerging from interoception and proprioception.

Astroglia and Metabolic Synchrony

Research presented at SfN 2025 revealed that astrocytes function as the “metabolic clocks” of the brain.
They coordinate glucose and oxygen use, regulating local energy balance in response to neural activity (Khakh & Sofroniew, 2021).
This makes glia the substrate of the inner time of consciousness — each cycle of uptake and release of energy marks the physiological rhythm of thought.

During states of fruition — or Zone 2, as described by Cionek — astrocytic communication exhibits global coherence, with slow calcium waves synchronizing across cortical regions (Wang et al., 2023).
This synchrony is not mere support; it is part of the phenomenal content itself — a “glial field of belonging.”

Glia and the Human Quorum Sensing

In the Decolonial Neuroscience framework, glia represents the invisible dimension of Human Quorum Sensing.
Just as bacteria recognize population density and cooperate metabolically, glial cells sense the collective state of neural tissue and adjust their activity according to local chemical and energetic conditions.
Consciousness, therefore, is not an isolated phenomenon — it is the result of the density of presence among living cells.

In analogy to Pachamama, glial networks act as the underground roots of the mind — a mycelium of intercellular communication sustaining the balance between action and fruition.
When glial coherence is lost, the brain enters a state of cognitive anergy, the neural equivalent of ecological desertification.

Oligodendrocytes and the Temporal Plasticity of Consciousness

Oligodendrocytes and their myelin sheaths control the speed of neural signal propagation.
By modulating myelination according to experience and learning, they shape each individual’s “rhythm of thought” (Fields et al., 2022).
This temporal plasticity is one of the physiological bases of Tensional Selves — dynamic states of consciousness dependent on energy distribution and internal time.

Glia, therefore, defines the interval where thought breathes — the pause that allows consciousness to perceive itself in continuity.

Microglia, Emotion, and Belonging

Microglia, once seen only as immune cells, are now recognized as mediators between emotion and cognition.
They remodel synapses according to emotional and social experience, literally sculpting neural belonging (Stevens et al., 2023).
During empathic interactions, microglia regulate inflammatory tone, reduce amygdala reactivity, and stabilize the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis.

This immune-affective function demonstrates that belonging is a physiological form of health: glia–neuron synchrony is the biological foundation of empathy and collective regulation.

Glia, Energy, and Metabolic Democracy

Glia exemplifies the biological model of Metabolic Democracy.
No cell dominates — all share energy, time, and information.
During SfN 2025, several panels on cerebral energetic networks and biological sustainability highlighted this concept, framing the brain as a metabolic ecosystem rather than a mere electrical hierarchy.

Similarly, the State, as a living organism, should operate on the same principle: redistributing energy and data to maintain systemic homeostasis.
The DREX Cidadão, inspired by this glial model, transforms economic flow into vital flow, where every citizen receives financial oxygen proportional to their role in the collective metabolism.

Glial Monism and Damasian Mind

Glia embodies the unity of the physical, biological, and phenomenal — the three aspects of one living process.
In the Damasian Mind, consciousness emerges from the dialogue between interoception (inner feeling) and proprioception (spatial awareness).
Glia is the translator of that dialogue — turning energy into meaning and meaning back into energy.

It reminds us that thinking is not only firing signals — it is sustaining the integrity of the field.
Consciousness is thus an act of metabolic care, and glia is its silent guardian.

Conclusion

Glia dissolves the frontier between brain and body, between science and spirituality.
It reveals that consciousness emerges from cooperation, not competition.
To understand the brain as a glial ecosystem is to recover a Pachamamic vision of mind — one where feeling, thinking, and belonging are inseparable dimensions of the same living pulse.

The future of neuroscience does not lie only in neurons, but in the intelligent silence of glia — the invisible tissue where consciousness rests and continuity begins.

References (post-2020)

• Khakh B.S., Sofroniew M.V. Diversity of Astrocyte Functions and Their Role in Neural Metabolism. Nature Neuroscience, 2021.
  
  

• Fields R.D., Bukalo O. Myelination and the Temporal Dynamics of Thought. Science Advances, 2022.
  
  

• Wang Y. et al. Glial Calcium Waves and Neural Synchrony During Resting-State Consciousness. Journal of Neuroscience, 2023.
  
  

• Stevens B. et al. Microglial Regulation of Emotional Learning and Social Belonging. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2023.
  
  

• Pereira Jr. A. Triple-Aspect Monism and the Brain–Mind Relation. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, 2021.
  
  

• Cionek J. ADPF Primeira – Right to the Apus and Metabolic Democracy. In: Decolonial Neuroscience for the 21st Century, 2025.