A Categorical Higher Gauge Theory of Mind: Emergent Cognitive Symmetries, Adaptive Neuronal Dynamics, and Observer-Dependent Realities

In this paper, we present a novel theoretical framework formulating a categorical higher gauge theory of mind, incorporating neuronal-cognitive structures as adaptive gauge symmetry groups within higher-categorical groupoids. Using detailed mathematical and intuitive constructions, we describe neurons and neuronal clusters as higher-dimensional categorical objects embedded within cognitive manifolds. Gauge fields and higher gauge fields encode neurotransmitter gradients, receptor densities, neuronal plasticity, rhythmic synchronization, and other cognitive observables. Intrinsic neuronal-cognitive processes induce dynamical and adaptive modifications of gauge symmetries, described rigorously through categorical natural transformations. This theoretical construction leads to a class of novel nonlinear partial differential equations, enabling precise, previously unattainable predictions of cognitive and neuronal responses to pharmacological perturbations.We also demonstrate that observer-dependent gauge choices in biology—such as experimentally determined dopamine baselines—are directly analogous to gauge-dependent quantities in physics, such as the color of quarks. Contrary to traditional physics doctrine, we argue that observer-dependent measurements, although gauge-dependent, are fundamentally measurable given a consistent observer framework. We propose that gauge symmetries in physics may similarly be emergent, adaptive, and dynamically evolving, especially in contexts such as Grand Unified Theories (GUT) and the generation of quark mass hierarchies. Our theory bridges neuroscience, cognitive science, pharmacology, theoretical physics, and philosophy, challenging conventional assumptions and proposing a unified categorical-gauge-theoretic paradigm of observer-dependent reality, mind, and matter.