  At incident powers much higher than the threshold for filamentation a pulse
from a high-power laser generates in the transversal plane a complex structure.
It consists of randomly meandering stripes defining connected regions where the
field intensity is high; and, the complementary regions dominated by diffusive
plasma with defocusing property. The pattern is similar to an ensemble of
clusters of various extensions.
  We provide evidence that there is a correlation between this filamentation
and the {\it labyrinth} instability in reaction-diffusion systems. Besides the
similarity of the spatial organization in the two cases, we show that the
differential equations that describe these two dynamical processes lead to
effects that can be mutually mapped. For the laser beam at high power the
Non-linear Schrodinger Equation in a regime of strong self-focusing and
ionization of the air leads to multiple filamentation and the structure of
clusters. Under the effect of the {\it labyrinth} instability a model of
activator-inhibitor leads to a similar pattern. The origin of this connection
must be found in the fact that both optical turbulence and the
activator-inhibitor dynamics have the nature of competition between two phases
of the same system.
