A quantum approach to visual consciousness.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences November 1, 2001 Nancy J. Woolf, Stuart Hameroff
Visual consciousness may arise from quantum computations inside microtubules within neurons, according to the Penrose-Hameroff 'Orch OR' model. A physiological model is presented that could allow such quantum states to survive in the warm, wet brain and extend across the whole brain. In this view, visual consciousness occurs in a series of several-hundred-millisecond epochs, each containing 'crescendo sequences' of quantum computations at approximately 40 Hz. The approach resolves some enigmatic features of visual consciousness but raises questions about how delicate quantum states avoid decoherence in the brain's environment.