Are there optical communication channels in the brain?
arXiv Preprint Archive August 23, 2017 Parisa Zarkeshian, Sourabh Kumar, Jack A Tuszynski et al.
Some unanswered questions about consciousness might be explained by new physical mechanisms. Biophotons have been discovered in the brain, raising the possibility that neurons communicate using light in addition to electro-chemical signals. Such photonic communication would require waveguides. This review examines a proposal that myelinated axons could act as photonic waveguides, modeling light transmission through them with realistic imperfections and suggesting experiments to test the idea. Potential connections to quantum biology are also discussed.