Quantum-Biological Effects In The Brain

Quantum-biological effects in the brain, a frontier of quantum biology and neuroscience, are the subject of ongoing research, with emerging evidence suggesting quantum phenomena like superposition and entanglement may influence neuronal activity and cognitive functions. While long dismissed due to the warm, noisy brain environment, new studies on molecules like tryptophan and the protein tubulin within microtubules show potential for quantum effects, such as photoprotection and information processing, to occur in brain cells. However, it remains to be seen if these microscopic quantum events can scale up to affect neuronal computations or consciousness.

Evidence for Quantum Effects in the Brain

Microtubules: These protein structures within neurons are hypothesized to act as quantum computers, processing information through quantum superposition and entanglement. 

Tryptophan Networks: Large networks of tryptophan, an amino acid found in neurons, exhibit quantum superradiance, efficiently absorbing high-energy ultraviolet light and re-emitting it at lower, safer energies, which may protect against degenerative brain diseases. 

Non-Linear Dynamics: The brain's complex, non-linear nature may amplify microscopic quantum fluctuations, potentially influencing large-scale neuronal activity. 

Key Hypotheses and Models

Orch OR Theory: Proposed by Stuart Hameroff and Roger Penrose, this theory suggests that consciousness arises from quantum computations within microtubules. 

Quantum Cognition: Researchers are exploring how quantum processing, potentially using nuclear spins in molecules, could occur in the brain for computational purposes. 

Challenges and Future Directions

Warm, Noisy Environment: A major challenge is the brain's inherently warm and 'noisy' environment, which typically disrupts quantum states. 

Experimental Evidence: While some studies show quantum effects in isolated proteins or solutions extracted from brain tissue, direct experimental evidence of quantum processes in actual brain cells is still lacking. 

Scaling Up: A critical question is whether any observed quantum effects in biological molecules can influence larger-scale neuronal function and computation. 

Novel Quantum Technologies: If quantum effects are confirmed in the brain, this research could lead to new approaches for quantum computing and brain-inspired technologies.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/sp-y2ZaKcFs


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Neuroscience Of Sleep And Dreams

Image
Dr. Rahul Jandial spends a great deal of time delving into the human brain—both literally, as a neurosurgeon, and figuratively, as a researcher, professor and author of the international bestseller 'Life Lessons From a Brain Surgeon' and the memoir, 'Life on a Knife’s Edge'. In his engaging and information-packed new book, 'This Is Why You Dream: What Your Sleeping Brain Reveals About Your Waking Life', Jandial enthusiastically explores the slumberous state, offering tips to help readers use dreams to reach their full potential around the clock. “By interpreting your dreams,” he asserts, “you can make sense of your experience and explore your emotional life in new and profound ways.” Understanding the sleeping brain’s whimsy isn’t as simple as consulting a dream dictionary—which, by the way, Jandial does not recommend. That’s because dream dictionaries 'cleverly offer a mix of vagueness and specificity that make it easy to shape your personal circumstances t...
Read more

The Psychology Of Lucid Dreaming

Image
If you don't know what lucid dreaming means, basically it is when you become aware that you're dreaming. Sometimes during a lucid dream, the dreamer has the ability to manipulate their dream to achieve a desired outcome. Have you ever woken from a bad dream and wanted to 'go back in' and fix it? Perhaps change the outcome for a happy ending? Or have you woken from a very pleasant dream and tried to get back to sleep to continue the story or dream experience? That's lucid dreaming. And you might be interested to know that Albert Einstein, Charles Dickens, Thomas Edison, Stephen King, Nikola Tesla and Salvador Dali are - or were - lucid dreamers. In 'Lucid Dreaming Made Easy - A Beginner's Guide to Waking Up in Your Dreams', Charlie introduces the reader to several techniques to start lucid dreaming and the book kicks off from there. I thought I was an experienced and capable lucid dreamer, but it turns out I'm still a beginner. Apparently there's ...
Read more

Photons and Consciousness

Image
The role of biophotons in the brain is a growing area of research in neurobiology – and where there are photons there might be quantum mechanics. The light of the mind is blue, wrote the poet Sylvia Plath ('The Moon and the Yew Tree' 1961). But it seems it may actually be red. That’s because recent research suggests a link between intelligence and the frequency of biophotons in animals’ brains. In 2016 Zhuo Wang and colleagues at the South-Central University for Nationalities in China studied brain slices from various animals (bullfrog, mouse, chicken, pig, monkey and human) that had been excited by glutamate, an excitatory neurotransmitter. They found that increasing intelligence was associated with a shift in the biophoton’s frequency towards the red end of the spectrum. Admittedly, it is unclear what the measure of intelligence actually is, and the study has drawn criticism for its lack of an explanatory mechanism; correlation, as the mantra goes, does not mean causation. Ho...
Read more