Notes
Slide Show
Outline
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In the “Int’l Court” of Quantum Mind 2003    
(at the first concurrent session 3/15/2003)           
In Re:

SPIN-MEDIATED
CONSCIOUSNESS THEORY

                                                               
Huping Hu and Maoxin Wu
 - “Petitioners” - _______________________________________
  • © Biophysics Consulting Group
  •  http://www.QuantumBrain.org
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Sub-caption of the “Case”
  •                                       Biology
  •     Possible Roles of Neural Membrane and Protein    Nuclear Spin Ensembles and Unpaired Electronic Spins of Rapidly Diffusing O2 and Other Molecules in Consciousness and Memory.


  •                                       Physics
  •     Spin is the seat of consciousness and the linchpin  between mind and the brain, that is, spin is the “mind-pixel.”


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Outline of the Presentation
  • Present the physics


  • Describe the model


  • Make predictions


  • Offer evidence


  • Give summation
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The “Constitution”
  • Consciousness exists (not an illusion).


  • Consciousness is quantum mechanical.


  • The “process” generating quantum effects also generates consciousness.
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Spin is the Process Generating Quantum Effects
  • Spin is embedded in the microscopic structure of spacetime and is likely the cause of spacetime itself (Dirac equation, spin network [Penrose] & spin foam [e.g., Smolin]).


  • In the Bohmian picture, the “internal motion” associated with spin is recently shown to be responsible for the quantum potential (Recami & Salesi [1998], Phys. Rev. A, 57, p. 98; Esposito [1999], Found. Phys. Lett., 12, p. 165; Bogan, quant-ph/0212110).


  • In the Hestenes picture, the zitterbewegung associated with spin is said to be responsible for all the quantum effects of the relativistic electron (see, Hestenes [1983], Found. Phys., 15, p. 63).


  • Some authors also expressed the view that electron is Compton wavelength vortex and the wave function is about “quantum vorticity” (e.g., Sidharth, physics/0203079; Kiehn, http://www22.pair.com/csdc/pdf/bohmplus.pdf).
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Spin Is the “Mind-Pixel”
  • Consciousness is intrinsically connected to quantum mechanical spin, that is, spin is the seat of consciousness (Hu & Wu, quant-ph/0208068).


  • Spin is a self-referential process which drives spacetime dynamics and underlies quantum mechanics (Hu & Wu, Cogprints: ID2827).


  • The probabilistic structure of quantum mechanics is due to the self-referential collapse of spin state (Hu & Wu, Cogprints: ID2827).


  • Said collapse is contextual, noncomputable, nonlocal and irreversible (See Penrose’s books; Hu & Wu, Cogprints: ID2827).


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The Model: General Considerations
  • The most abundant unpaired spins in the brain are the proton nuclear spins of all the molecules and electronic spins carried by O2.


  • Neural membranes are the matrices of most vital brain functions and phospholipids/proteins are saturated with proton nuclear spins.


  • O2 play crucial roles in brain functions and is hypothesized by us to be involved in the mechanism of anesthetic action (Hu & Wu [2002], Medical Hypotheses, 57, p. 619).
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The Model: Neural Substrates
  • Unpaired nuclear spins in neural membranes and possibly proteins are the mind-pixels since atomic nuclei are almost immobile and shielded from much of the noise in the “warm and wet” brain.


  • Unpaired electronic spins of rapidly diffusing O2, NO etc are the spin beam for pixel-activation since they are very mobile, can generate strong fluctuating E.M. fields via their large magnetic dipoles associated with their spins, and strongly couple to unpaired nuclear spins.


  • Spin chemistry is the bridge to classical neural activities since biochemical reactions mediated by free radicals are very sensitive to small changes of magnetic energies.
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Phospholipid with Diffusing O2
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Quantum Effects
  • Activations of neural nuclear spin states through strong interactions with unpaired electrons of rapidly diffusing O2, NO etc.


  • Entanglement of various neural nuclear spin states through intra- and intermolecular spin-spin interactions.


  • Decoherence, and survivals of the “fittest” entangled spin states in decoherence-free subspaces or through Zeno Effects.


  • Collapse of fittest entangled spin states through spacetime dynamics driven by self-referential spin processes.
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Evidence for Brain Nuclear Spin Quantum Effects
  • Proton nuclear spins in nematic liquid crystal can achieve long-lived intra-molecular quantum coherence with entanglement in room temperature for information storage (Khitrin et al, quant-ph/0202035, 0205040 & 0208136).


  • Long-ranged (>10 microns) intermolecular multiple-quantum coherence in NMR spectroscopy was discovered about a decade ago (Warren, et al [1993], Science, 262, p. 2005).


  • Long-lived (>.05 milliseconds) entanglement of two macroscopic spin ensembles in room temperature has been achieved recently (Julsgaard et al [2001], Nature, 413, p. 400 ).


  • NMR quantum computation in room temperature is reality (See Nielsen & Chuang [2000], Quantum Computation and Quantum Information. Cambridge Universal Press).
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“Consciousness Explained”
  • Nuclear spin ensembles in neural membranes/proteins (“NSE”) are activated through strong interactions with unpaired electronic spins of rapidly diffusing O2 etc that extract information from their diffusing pathways in the brain.


  • NSE process said information such that conscious experiences emerge from the collapses of NSE entangled quantum states through spacetime dynamics driven by self-referential spin processes.


  • In turn, NSE has effects through spin chemistry on the classical neural activities thus influencing the classical neural networks of the brain.
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Spin-Mediated Consciousness
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Associative Memory Model
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Predictions
  • Replacement of hydrogen with deuterium will block consciousness.


  • Interference with the dynamics of neural nuclear spin ensemble will affect consciousness.


  • Perturbation of membrane structures and dynamics will affect consciousness.


  • Perturbation/blockage of oxygen pathways in the membrane will affect/block consciousness.
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Mechanism of Anesthetic Action
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Supporting Evidence for the Model
  • Transcranial magnetic stimulations affect awareness and consciousness functions (see Chicurei [2002], Nature, 417, p. 114 [news feature]) which can be explained as the stimulations interfering with neural nuclear spin dynamics.


  • General anesthetics cause unconsciousness which can be explained as said anesthetics perturbing O2 pathways and neural membrane structures and dynamics (Hu & Wu [2002], Medical Hypotheses, 57, p. 619).


  • Temporary hypoxia causes unconsciousness which can explained as deprivation of  O2 spin beam functions.


  • D2O has various neurological effects (see Kushner et al [1999], Can. J. Physiol. Pharmacol., 77, p. 79) some of which may be explained as brain losing mind-pixels.
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Summation
  • Physics: Spin is the seat of consciousness and the linchpin between mind and the brain. Biology: Unpaired neural membrane/protein nuclear spins are the mind-pixels and unpaired electron spins of O2  and other molecules are the pixel-activating spin beam.


  • If speculation, theory and accepted theory is the order of progress, our proposal is a qualitative theory.


  • If no evidence, some evidence, “preponderance” and “beyond reasonable doubt” is the order of proof, our proposal is at the stage of having some evidence.