- from article
Synaptic Quantum Tunnelling
in Brain Activity
In view of these new and important
concepts for elevating consciousness finally
up to a scientific basis, we present evidence
for a realistic implementation of quantum
events into brain dynamics. It is based on our
present knowledge of cortical structure and
the synaptic regulation of neural impulses.
Basic assumptions and results are:
· Quantum processes in the wet and hot
surroundings of the brain are only possible at
the microscopic level of (electron) transitions
in the pico- to femtosecond time scale.
· Spine synapses are important regulators in
brain activity, filtering the ever present firings
of nerve impulses.
· Exocytosis, the release of transmitter
substance across the presynaptic membrane,
is an all-or-nothing event which occurs with
probabilities much smaller than one.
· A model, based on electron transfer,
relates exocytosis with a two-state quantum
trigger, leading by quantum tunnelling to the
superposition of two states, followed by state
reduction (collapse into one definite final
state).
· The coherent coupling of synapses via
microtubular connections is still an open
problem. Quantum coherence ('macroscopic
quantum state') is not needed to couple
microsites, which exhibit quantum transitions
with their definite phase relations, to
produce spatio-temporal patterns. The
quantum trigger can, however, initialize
transitions between different macroscopic
modes (stochastic limit cycles, Grifoni and
Hänggi, 1996).
The quantum trigger opens a
doorway for a better understanding of the
relation between brain dynamics and
consciousness.