Emergent computation in microtubule model networks

The finer scale of consciousness: quantum theory

“…Under the background of rapid development of world computer technology, Hameroff likened the flow of information in the brain to computers in which microtubules were to the brain what transistors were to the computer (40)(41)(42)(43). Inspired by this fantastic analogy and Gödel's incompleteness theorems, in The Emperor's New Mind (44) published in 1989, Roger Penrose first attached the quantum effect in human cognition.…”

“…Originally, the cytoskeleton was proposed as the cell's nervous system and biological controller (nanocomputer), which had self-stabilizing logic algorithms introduced by Hameroff who was inspired by the subtle link between Fröhlich's coherent excitations and tubulin subunits in microtubules (40,42,(45)(46)(47). He invoked that microtubules could be the fundamental units involving information processing in our enigmatic brain (48), e.g., visual identity (49,50), learning (42), cognition (42), and memory (49,51). An unprecedented collaboration heralded the advent of the Orch-OR theory.…”

“…Even more exciting, with the emergence of new drugs, new research methods, and new quantum technologies, this theory is constantly being enriched and perfected. Especially in the research of anesthesiology (96-100), memory (71), cognition (42,(101)(102)(103), neural synchrony (104) and vision (49), mounting results and evidence indicated the Orch-OR theory could be selfexplanatory and could be invoked to many different conscious backgrounds. More recently, Li et al found that xenon's (one kind of anesthetic) nuclear spin could impair its own anesthetic power, which involves a neural quantum process (105).…”