Quantum & Brain
This review was written by me as a chapter about the relationship between Quantum world and Brain functions. Please note that this review was written due to a class project, it is not published in any scientific book or bulletin.
British physicist and mathematician Roger Penrose said that human brains are organic quantum computers. As human beings, we generally forget that we are made of stardust just like anything in the world. The human brain and mind have been seen so magical and abstract that we might never go to understand it completely, but in that view, it was forgotten that it is an organ with many atoms and cells, as it called “meat brain”. The brain is made of the materials, which we call atoms, that is shared by the stars, animals, trees, air, door… and all objects in this universe. Moreover, this was the main start point of search on the link between neurology and physics. However, as the last century showed, classic physics, or in other words Newton physics, is not enough for us to understand the brain because in the atomic levels. The microscopic world in our brains creates cognition and mind. We are not able to break the link between the matter and the mind (Tarlaci, 2016), the mind cannot occur independent from matter and matter cannot exist without the mind, at least for now. Quantum physics, with that information, showed many similarities with the biology of the brain. The brain is a complex system that includes a macroscopic system like neurons but also a microscopic system (Tarlaci, 2010). In the perspectives of neuroscience, Quantum Brain Dynamics tries to explain the function of the brain within the framework of quantum theories.
What is Quantum Neurology?
Quantum Neurology (also called Quantum Neurobiology, Quantum Neurophysics or NeuroQuantology) are basically the names of the interdisciplinary scientific area with the purpose of understanding the link between quantum physics and neurology. The idea of examining the relationship between the brain and quantum mechanics is own to the fathers of quantum mechanics. The aim of this area is to understand how the brain functions at a microscopic (quantum) level with asking how and in which level and time the atomic level functions are involved in mind, cognitive functions, memory, consciousness and all other cognitive processes (Tarlaci, 2014). Quantum biology as another subtopic, refers to functions of quantum mechanics on general biology.
As the studies have shown, quantum mechanics play various roles in biological circumstances. These microbiological roles are significant and necessary from the basic to the complex circumstances of organisms. Studies have supported that the quantum mechanics of tunneling is an important part of biological structures. For example, in the role of protein or transference of electrons or protons that often happens between some amino acids (Tarlaci & Pregnolato, 2016).
Why Cognitive Neuroscience with Quantum Mechanics?
Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific area that interested in neurological processes underlines in how sensory input is perceived, recognized and recorded into the memory for recall, executive processes like decision, control, and language. On the other hand, conscious processes and cognitions are not examined much by cognitive neuroscientist even while they are included in all these processes. Cognitive neuroscience has been very promising with examining the nature of neurological actions without conscious experiences. Synapses, action potential, Neural connections, and many others are examples of this nature. However, we are still unable to fully examine how the brain as an organic material without consciousness can create conscious experiences. Nowadays, quantum mechanics are included in cognitive neuroscientific studies to examine how consciousness is present and function.
The quantum mind (or quantum consciousness) approaches suggest that classical mechanics of physics fail to explain consciousness but quantum mechanics such as quantum entanglement and superposition play significant roles in functions of the brain and their roles explain consciousness. These approaches are interested in how quantum effects can involve in the process that is related to consciousness. However, the ones who came with hypotheses also stated that they can be possibly unprovable. In 2004, Atmanspacher stated that experiments about quantum mind still fail to give strong supportive evidence until those times (Atmanspacher, 2004). Later, Hameroff (2006) stated The Penrose–Hameroff “Orch OR” model which suggests that consciousness can be explained as “a sequence of quantum computations in microtubules within brain neurons, shielded from decoherence to reach the threshold for objective reduction” (Hameroff, 2006). In terms of consciousness and free will, OrchOR model suggests that conscious choices are not entirely algorithmic (Hameroff, 2012).
It was proposed by different physicists and one neurologist that synaptic transmission occurs with respect to the quantum tunnelling rather than the classical diffusion model. Tunnelling is a specific quantum physics phenomenon and it means that a quantum particle which does not have enough energy to pass a barrier still has the possibility to do so. This possibility is defined with the width and height of the barrier. The particle does not jump over the barrier but gets to the other side as if it had tunnelled through it. These theories give rise to a new approach not only for brain functions but also to the cause of consciousness, and the interaction between the consciousness and the brain (Tarlaci & Pregnolato, 2016).
What is the link between Cognitive Science & Quantum World?
From the cognitive revolution in the 1960s to 2000s cognitive models and movements were based on classical assumptions like the logic theory, connectionist network movement… etc. Still, the classical understanding of mind remains at the core of the development of cognitive science. Cognitive science has been trying to examine how the mind functions with several methods like fMRI, PET, EEG… etc. However, there is a dimension that stays outside of the cognitive research area when the technics used in cognitive science can be devised as cross-sectional and timewise resolutions. This dimension becomes visible when we look to the size that stays under the synapses in millisecond intervals which can also be called quantum level (Tarlaci, 2010). The nervous system is dynamic, and it does not work linearly. The feedbacks are natal for many cognitive and physiological processes. The systems of quantum physics are overlapped with these qualities of the nervous system. Microscopic fluctuations may affect and/or be affected by the nervous system with the result of the extreme sensitivity of these conditions (Jedlicka, 2017).
Busemeyer and Wang discuss the commutative axiom and distributive axiom that the classical assumptions obey. The commutative axiom states that the order of the two propositions does not matter. In a given example, the commutative axiom follows the joint probability rule which refers to the probability of concluding that a defendant is guilty and decided to punish the defendant should be the same probability. Classical assumptions are also based on the distributive axiom. It obeys the law of total probability which is the probability that punishment should equal the probability of the defendant is guilty plus the probability that the defendant is not guilty (Busemeyer, & Wang, 2015). Quantum theory does not obey both axioms. It recognizes the possibility that judgments about some attributes may be complementary and states that the judge can decide in favor of punishment and staying uncertain with respect to the question of guilt at the same time. This superposition state, quantum probabilities allow violation of the classical law of total probability (Busemeyer, & Wang, 2015).
The holistic characteristic is one of the most important qualities of the brain. Holistic work cannot be understood by examining basic networks between the neurons and the classical physic is not enough for us to understand the holistic work of the brain. Bose and Einstein, on the other hand, stated the condensate of quantum mechanics that can be the most accurate explanation for the holistic work of the brain. Even though they argued that condensate can be frequently demonstrated in non-living objects, there can be a similar circumstance for living organisms as well with the energy from the environment. Holistic work in that way can be the basis of many cognitive processes like consciousness, personality, memory, sense of self (Tarlaci, & Pregnolato, 2016).
Quantum cognition is a research area with the purpose of using principles of quantum theory to explain human cognition without the concern of a link between the brain and quantum computers. Quantum mechanics are taken as a fresh framework to understand the puzzling findings of judgments, decision making, concepts, reasoning, memory, and perception (Busemeyer, & Wang, 2015). Experimental evidence about quantum brain hypothesis is a challenge for the reductionistic view of the human brain that suggests it perform machine-like (Jedlicka, 2017). Conte and colleagues created an experimental design to examine the quantum cognition hypothesis in ambiguous figures. In the previous experiments, two groups were selected. The first group was exposed ambiguous figure task with 2 choices for an answer which were (+) or (−). In the second group, participants were asked to answer to the same ambiguous figure after to a second ambiguous figure. In this experiment, the second group was presented an ambiguous figure but this time they were asked to only to look at rather than the answer to. After, they were asked to answer to the subsequent ambiguous figure. Moreover, the presence of the quantum interference during perception and cognition of ambiguous figures were tested experimentally. Result approved the effect of quantum interference and showed that at the awareness level, consciousness responds to the basic rules of quantum mechanics (Conte, Licata, & Alelú-Paz, 2015).
Quantum Psychopathology is a new branch of the psychopathological research area which throws light upon a brand-new point for clinical purposes to understand the causes of some psychopathologies. As a popular example, Globus (2010) advocated a new concept of schizophrenia that is defined by it’s linked to the tuning of quantum vibrations in the brain. Moreover, many researchers are working on new approaches to many psychopathologies like bipolar, depression, and more. Psychopathologies are hoped to be understood better and may even new intervention technics can develop. In the future, more studies about consciousness-altering drugs and their links with tubulin and microtubules can result to understand the complex biological line between conscious and unconscious states, and better understand many psychopathologies deeper (Tarlaci, & Pregnolato, 2016).
References
Atmanspacher, H. (2004). Quantum Approaches to Consciousness. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qt-consciousness/
Busemeyer, J. R., & Wang, Z. (2015). What is quantum cognition, and how is it applied to psychology?. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(3), 163–169.
Conte, E., Licata, I., & Alelú-Paz, R. (2015). A Quantum Neurological Model of Perception-Cognition and Awareness in Ambiguous Figures and the Case of the Dalmatian Dog. Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science, 5(12), 533.
Globus, G., 2010. Toward a quantum psychiatry: hallucination, thought insertion and DSM. NeuroQuantology, 8(1), 1–12.
Hameroff, S. (2006). Consciousness, neurobiology and quantum mechanics: The case for a connection. In The emerging physics of consciousness (pp. 193–253). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Hameroff, S. (2012). How quantum brain biology can rescue conscious free will. Frontiers in integrative neuroscience, 6, 93.
Jedlicka, P. (2017). Revisiting the Quantum Brain Hypothesis: Toward Quantum (Neuro) biology?. Frontiers in molecular neuroscience, 10, 366.
Schwartz, J. M., Stapp, H. P., & Beauregard, M. (2005). Quantum physics in neuroscience and psychology: a neurophysical model of mind–brain interaction. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 360(1458), 1309–1327.
Tarlacı, S., & Pregnolato, M. (2016). Quantum neurophysics: From non-living matter to quantum neurobiology and psychopathology. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 103, 161–173.
Tarlacı, S. (2010). A historical view of the relation between quantum mechanics and the brain: a NeuroQuantologic perspective. NeuroQuantology, 8(2).
Tarlacı, S. (2010). Why we need quantum physics for cognitive neuroscience. NeuroQuantology, 8(1).
Tarlacı, S. (2014). Neuroquantology: Quantum physics in the brain. reducing the secret of the rainbow to the colours of a prism. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science.
