Quantum Information Process in the Brain

Danko Dimchev Georgiev

Vahid Salari, Mohammad Bagher Rahnama, Jack A. Tuszyński

The feasibility of wave function collapse in the human brain has been the subject of vigorous scientific debates since the advent of quantum theory. Scientists like Von Neumann, London, Bauer and Wigner (initially) believed that wave function collapse occurs in the brain or is caused by the mind of the observer. It is a legitimate question to ask how human brain can receive subtle external visual quantum information intact when it must pass through very noisy and complex pathways from the eye to the brain? There are several approaches to investigate information processing in the brain, each of which presents a different set of conclusions. Penrose and Hameroff have hypothesized that there is quantum information processing inside the human brain whose material substrate involves microtubules and consciousness is the result of a collective wavefunction collapse occurring in these structures. Conversely, Tegmark stated that owing to thermal decoherence there cannot be any quantum processing in neurons of the brain and processing in the brain must be classical for cognitive processes. However, Rosa and Faber presented an argument for a middle way which shows that none of the previous authors are completely right and despite the presence of decoherence, it is still possible to consider the brain to be a quantum system. Additionally, Thaheld, has concluded that quantum states of photons do collapse in the human eye and there is no possibility for collapse of visual quantum states in the brain and thus there is no possibility for the quantum state reduction in the brain. In this paper we conclude that if we accept the main essence of the above approaches taken together, each of them can provide a different part of a teleportation mechanism.

Doaa Mohey Eldin

Majid Rahnama, Vahid Salari, Jack A. Tuszyński

The main problem which this paper tries to address is whether collapse of the wave function describing the state of a quantum mechanical system occurs, or, rather can occur in the brain of the observer or not. One of the first (relatively) detailed “collapse models” following the original abstract suggestion by von Neumann that collapse occurs in the brain of the observer and is related to consciousness, is the Orch OR model of Penrose and Hameroff. This model was first criticized by Tegmark on the ground that due to decoherence, quantum processing cannot occur in the human brain. This criticism was countered by saying that due to structural shielding, microtubules inside the neurons can be protected against the wet and warm environment inside the brain. Thaheld, however, in a number of papers argued that quantum visual information carried by the photons from the environment cannot reach the brain intact. In other words, the quantum states of the photons would collapse inside the human eye and only classical information would finally reach the brain and hence no collapse and quantum processing in the brain can take place. In this paper we advance a hypothesis that there is the possibility for the quantum states of photons to be transmitted to the brain in a quantum-like manner. Our approach is based on the quantum teleportation mechanism which includes both classical and quantum aspects of information transfer, but the process itself is wholly quantum mechanical.

Mitja Peruš, Chu Kiong Loo

Giuseppe Vitiello