Spontaneous radiofrequency emission from electron spins within Drosophila: a novel biological signal

Gaitanidis, Alexandros; Sotgiu, A.; Turin, Luca

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-821413-8.00018-x

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The experiment can be conducted within an electronic spin spectrometer and spin resonance will employed to monitor spin signals. This part of the study will be conducted in the lab of Luca Turin at the University of Buckingham [21].…”

Section: Turning the Mind Off Using Isotopes Of Xenonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Conjecture That Quantum Processes Create Conscious Experience

Neven,

Read,

Kosik

et al. 2024

Preprint

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The question of what generates conscious experience has mesmerized thinkers since the dawn of humanity, yet its origins remain a mystery. The topic of consciousness has gained traction in recent years, thanks to the development of large language models that now arguably pass the Turing test, an operational test for intelligence. However, intelligence and consciousness are not related in obvious ways, as anyone who suffers from a bad toothache can attest - pain generates intense feelings and absorbs all our conscious awareness yet nothing particularly intelligent is going on. Still, in the hard sciences, this topic is frequently met with skepticism because to date no protocol to measure the content or intensity of conscious experiences in an observer-independent manner has been agreed upon. Here we present a novel proposal: Conscious experience arises whenever a quantum mechanical superposition forms. Our proposal has several implications: First, it suggests that the structure of the superposition determines the qualia of the experience. Second, quantum entanglement naturally solves the binding problem, ensuring the unity of phenomenal experience. Finally, a moment of agency may coincide with the formation of a superposition state. We outline a research program to experimentally test our conjecture via a sequence of quantum biology experiments. Applying these ideas opens up the possibility of expanding human experience through brain-quantum computer interfaces.

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Section: Turning the Mind Off Using Isotopes Of Xenonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Conjecture That Quantum Processes Create Conscious Experience

Neven,

Read,

Kosik

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The experiment can be conducted within an electronic spin spectrometer, and spin resonance will be employed to monitor spin signals. This part of the study will be conducted in the lab of Luca Turin at the University of Buckingham [ 31 ].…”

Section: A Sequence Of Quantum Biology Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Conjecture That Quantum Processes Create Conscious Experience

Neven,

Zalcman,

Read

et al. 2024

Entropy

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View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The question of what generates conscious experience has mesmerized thinkers since the dawn of humanity, yet its origins remain a mystery. The topic of consciousness has gained traction in recent years, thanks to the development of large language models that now arguably pass the Turing test, an operational test for intelligence. However, intelligence and consciousness are not related in obvious ways, as anyone who suffers from a bad toothache can attest—pain generates intense feelings and absorbs all our conscious awareness, yet nothing particularly intelligent is going on. In the hard sciences, this topic is frequently met with skepticism because, to date, no protocol to measure the content or intensity of conscious experiences in an observer-independent manner has been agreed upon. Here, we present a novel proposal: Conscious experience arises whenever a quantum mechanical superposition forms. Our proposal has several implications: First, it suggests that the structure of the superposition determines the qualia of the experience. Second, quantum entanglement naturally solves the binding problem, ensuring the unity of phenomenal experience. Finally, a moment of agency may coincide with the formation of a superposition state. We outline a research program to experimentally test our conjecture via a sequence of quantum biology experiments. Applying these ideas opens up the possibility of expanding human conscious experience through brain–quantum computer interfaces.

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“…Spontaneous gigahertz emission has also been detected from Drosophila , and is blocked by exposure to the anesthetic gas chloroform ( Gaitanidis et al, 2021 ). Deeper level, faster cytoskeletal dynamics inside brain neurons and other cells may be essential features of living systems, and mediate consciousness.…”

Section: “Bottom-up” Effects Of Microtubules On Neuronal and Network ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Consciousness, Cognition and the Neuronal Cytoskeleton – A New Paradigm Needed in Neuroscience

Hameroff

2022

Front. Mol. Neurosci.

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Viewing the brain as a complex computer of simple neurons cannot account for consciousness nor essential features of cognition. Single cell organisms with no synapses perform purposeful intelligent functions using their cytoskeletal microtubules. A new paradigm is needed to view the brain as a scale-invariant hierarchy extending both upward from the level of neurons to larger and larger neuronal networks, but also downward, inward, to deeper, faster quantum and classical processes in cytoskeletal microtubules inside neurons. Evidence shows self-similar patterns of conductive resonances repeating in terahertz, gigahertz, megahertz, kilohertz and hertz frequency ranges in microtubules. These conductive resonances apparently originate in terahertz quantum dipole oscillations and optical interactions among pi electron resonance clouds of aromatic amino acid rings of tryptophan, phenylalanine and tyrosine within each tubulin, the component subunit of microtubules, and the brain’s most abundant protein. Evidence from cultured neuronal networks also now shows that gigahertz and megahertz oscillations in dendritic-somatic microtubules regulate specific firings of distal axonal branches, causally modulating membrane and synaptic activities. The brain should be viewed as a scale-invariant hierarchy, with quantum and classical processes critical to consciousness and cognition originating in microtubules inside neurons.

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Spontaneous radiofrequency emission from electron spins within Drosophila: a novel biological signal

Cited by 3 publications

References 41 publications

Testing the Conjecture That Quantum Processes Create Conscious Experience

Testing the Conjecture That Quantum Processes Create Conscious Experience

Testing the Conjecture That Quantum Processes Create Conscious Experience

Consciousness, Cognition and the Neuronal Cytoskeleton – A New Paradigm Needed in Neuroscience

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