Quantum brain dynamics

There are many blank areas in understanding the brain dynamics and especially how it gives rise to conscious experience. Quantum mechanics is believed to be capable of explaining the enigma of consciousness, however till now there is not good enough model considering both the data from clinical neurology and having some explanatory power!

Jibu & Yasue (1992, 1995) were the first researchers that tried to popularize the quantum field theory of Nambu-Goldstone bosons (NG bosons, hereafter) as one and only reliable quantum theory of fundamental macroscopic dynamics realized in the brain with which a deeper understanding of consciousness can be obtained. This revolutionary theory was originated by Umezawa (Ricciardi & Umezawa 1967, Stuart et. al. 1978, 1979) in a very elegant and general framework of spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB, hereafter) formalism, and since then developed into a quantum field theoretical framework of brain functioning called "Quantum Brain Dynamics" (QBD, hereafter) (Jibu & Yasue 1992, 1993a, 1993b, 1994, Jibu et. al. 1994, Hagan et. al. 1994, Jibu & Yasue 1995) and that of general biological cell functioning called "Quantum Biodynamics" (Del Giudice et. al. 1982, 1985, 1986 1988, 1989, Preparata 1995, Jibu et. al. 1997). There, Umezawa proposed a general theory of quanta of long-range coherent waves in and among brain cells, and showed an outstanding mechanism of memory storage and retrieval in terms of NG bosons characteristic to SSB formalism.

It should be noted however that even after their last publication in 1997, where Jibu & Yasue proposed that the Bose-Einstein condensation of tunneling photons could be pumped with energy process ensuring dynamical timescale of the brain coherent process above the timescale of thermal fluctuations (so called dissipative QBD), the underlying biology of QBD was shrouded in mystery!

In 2002 Georgiev started detailed revision of the QBD approach suggesting and both theoretically and experimentally verifying that the proteins constituing the intraneuronal cytoskeletons, and not water molecule dynamics per se can explain consciousness. Mind is supposed to be a macroscopic quantum wave governing the dynamics of the quantum coherent cytoskeletal protein system inside the cytoplasm of the brain cortical neurons (Georgiev, 2002a, 2002b, 2003a, 2003b, 2004). Its dynamical timescale is determined to be that of protein dynamics (~15ps) ruling out the possibility of avoiding thermalization since catalysis is accomplished via vibrationally assisted tunneling (Georgiev, 2002b). The cytoskeletal protein conformational states are entangled into a whole (they are quantum coherent), and effect mediated by the propagation and condensation of evanescent (tunneling) photons emitted by the ordered water that forms coherent domains in its interaction with the local electromagnetic (EM) field. Since the protein conformations rely on its hydration shells the Bose-Einstein condensation of those evanescent photons will safely transmit quantum information between the water molecules and the protein hydration shells correlating the dynamics of the cytoskeletal proteins. Special attention is paid to tubulin C-termini that are highly flexible projections from the outer microtubule surface, which organize the cytoskeletal activity via interaction with MAP structural and MAP motor proteins. In order the quantum coherent state to be realized in timescales above the thermal fluctuations the water laser system must be pumped with energy. This can be the ATP derived metabolic energy delivered to microtubules as they interact with the motor proteins, actin filaments and from cytoskeletal bound kinases and phosphatases that release energy in their catalytic action. The motor proteins are hopping along the elastic microtubules (spending ATP), leading to microtubule (and tubulin domains) vibration and F-actin contraction leads to microtubule sliding and rotation (torque). Finally the chemical (ATP-released) energy, accumulated in the microtubule elastic (acoustic) vibrations can be gained by the water molecule laser system directly from the microtubule walls and used for coherent photon emission. The emitted photons then become massive due to the Higgs mechanism (Jibu & Yasue, 1997) and propagate via tunneling.

Since the condensation of the tunneling photons is supposed to mediate long-range quantum correlations between the hydration shells of the proteins it is suggested that the protein conformational states and therefore protein action is long-range correlated in brain. If consciousness is quantum phenomenon then it will manifest its causal power via the long-range correlated protein (enzyme) action in the brain cortex. Georgiev (2003a) have shown that the interneuronal coherence can be selectively regulated via switching on/off interneuronal protein bridges known as synaptic cellular adhesive molecules (CAMs) and that between the pre-synaptic, postsynaptic cytoskeletons and the pre-synaptic exocytotic SNARE complex there is flow of protein-protein conformational quantum information. Thus the mind localized in the brain cortex can 'read out' the sensory information brought to the cortex via neural impulses (the sensory info is manifested as local EM field in the cortex), translate in down to the cytoskeletons into quantum states (interaction between the local EM field, the water and protein dipoles in QBD) and control the neuronal firing (exocytosis, neuromediator release) via vibrationally assited tunneling in SNARE complex action (neuroligin-1, beta-neurexin, synaptotagmin-1, Munc-18 etc. interaction).

REFERENCES

Del Giudice, E., Doglia, S. & Milani, M. (1982). A collective dynamics in metabolically active cells. Phys. Lett. 90A:104-106.

Del Giudice, E., Doglia, S., Milani, M. & Vitiello, G. (1985). A quantum field theoretical approach to the collective behaviour of biological systems. Nucl. Phys. D251:375-400.

Del Giudice, E., Doglia, S., Milani, M. & Vitiello, G. (1986). Electromagnetic field and spontaneous symmetry breaking in biological matter. Nucl. Phys. B275:185-199.

Del Giudice, E., Preparata, G. & Vitiello, G. (1988). Water as a free electric dipole laser. Phys. Rev. Lett. 61:1085-1088.

Del Giudice, E., Doglia, S., Milani, M., Smith, C.W. & Vitiello, G. (1989). Magnetic flux quantization and Josephson behaviour in living systems. Phys. Scripta 40:786-791.

Georgiev, D. (2002a). The beta-neurexin-neuroligin-1 interneuronal intrasynaptic adhesion is essential for quantum brain dynamics. http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0207093

Georgiev, D. (2002b). The causal consciousness: beta-neurexin promotes neuromediator release via vibrational multidimensional tunneling. http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0210102

Georgiev, D. (2003a). Solving the binding problem: cellular adhesive molecules and their control of the cortical quantum entangled network. http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/archive/00002923/

Georgiev, D. (2003b). Consciousness operates beyond the timescale for discerning time intervals: implications for Q-mind theories and analysis of quantum decoherence in brain. http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/archive/00003318/

Georgiev (2004). Bose-Einstein condensation of tunnelling photons in the brain cortex as a mechanism of conscious action. In press.

Hagan, S., Jibu, M. & Yasue, K. (1994). Consciousness and anesthesia: An hypothesis involving biophoton emission in the microtubular cytoskeleton of the brain. In KH. Pribram, Ed. Origins: Drain and Self Organization. 153-171. Lawrence Erlbaum. New Jersey.

Jibu, M. & Yasue, K. (1992). A physical picture of Umezawa's quantum brain dynamics. In R. Trappl, Ed. Cybernetics and Systems Research '92. 797-804. World Sci. Singapore.

Jibu, M. & Yasue, K. (1993a). Intracellular quantum signal transfer in Umezawa's quantum brain dynamics. Cybernetics and Sys. 24:1-7.

Jibu, M. & Yasue, K. (1993b). The basics of quantum brain dynamics. In KH. Pribram, Ed. Rethinking Neural Networks: Quantum Fields and Biological Data. 121-145. Lawrence Erlbaum. New Jersey.

Jibu, M. & Yasue, K. (1994). Is brain a biological photonic computer with subneuronal quantum optical networks? In R. Trappl, Ed. Cybernetics and Systems Research '94, pp. 763-770, World Scientific, Singapore.

Jibu, M. & Yasue, K. (1995). Quantum Drain Dynamics. An Introduction. John Benjamins. Amsterdam.

Jibu, M., Hagan, S., Hameroff, S.R., Pribram, K.H. & Yasue, K. (1994). Quantum optical coherence in cytoskeletal microtubules: Implications for brain function. BioSystems 32: 195-209.

Jibu, M., Hagan, S. & Yasue, K. (1995). Subcellular quantum optical coherence: Implications for consciousness. In S.R. Hameroff, A.W. Kaszniak & A.C. Scott, Eds. Toward a Science of Consciousness: The First Tucson Discussions and Debates. 493-505. MIT Press.

Jibu, M., Pribram, K.H. & Yasue, K. (1996). From conscious experience to memory storage and retrieval: The role of quantum brain dynamics and boson condensation of evanescent photons. Intern. J. Mod. Phys. 10:1735-1754.

Jibu, M., Yasue, K. & Hagan, S. (1997). Evanescent (tunneling) photon and cellular "vision". BioSystems 42: 65-73.

Preparata, G. (1995). QED Coherence in Matter. World Scientific. Singapore.

Ricciardi, L.M. & Umezawa, H. (1967). Brain and physics of many-body problems. Kybernetik 4:44-48.

Stuart, C.I.J.M., Takahashi, Y. & Umezawa, H. (1978). On the stability and non-local properties of memory. J. Theor. Biol. 71:605-618.

Stuart, C.I.J.M., Takahashi, Y. & Umezawa, H. (1979). Mixed-system brain dynamics: Neural memory as a macroscopic ordered state. Found. Phys. 9:301-327.