Quantum effects of neurotransmitters at the synaptic cleft

James P. Isaacs, John C. Lamb

Anton Wernig

Sylvia Pulmannová

Masroor Khonkhodzhaev, Shota Maglakelidze, Yonatan Dubi +1 more

The "quantum brain" proposal can revolutionize our understanding of cognition if proven valid. The core of the most common "quantum brain" mechanism is the appearance of correlated neuron triggering induced by quantum correlations between ions. In this work, we examine the preservation of the correlations created in the pre-synaptic neurons through the transfer of neurotransmitters across the synaptic cleft, a critical ingredient for the validity of the "quantum brain" hypothesis. We simulated the transport of two neurotransmitters at two different clefts, with the only assumption that they start simultaneously, and determined the difference in their first passage times. We show that in physiological conditions, the correlations are persistent even if the parameters of the two neurons are different.

Huber Nieto–Chaupis

The process of synaptic transmission is projected onto the territory of quantum mechanics. Thus, the electric interactions are seen as probabilistic events more than a deterministic one. In this manner, the neurotransmitter would obey quantum laws and their dynamics is governed by the evolution operator. Thus, synapse seen as an action of propagation would encompasses well to that the spatial propagator or Green function that might model the dyanamics of neurotransmitters along the cleft. This turns out to be instantaneous in coherence to the concept of neural transmission. Indeed under the quantum mechnics scenario it is found that the eigenvalues of energies of Hamiltonian consist in electric potentials between electrically charged neurotransmitters and receptors at the ion channels.

Steven J. Burden, Ronald D.G. McKay