Commun Integr Biol
October 21, 2025
Majid Beshkar
Microtubules are nanoscale spintronic oscillators with memristive properties. Spintronic and memristive effects, together with some unique conditions found in the axon initial segment (AIS), allow quantum coherence to emerge spontaneously in a population of microtubules located within the AIS. According to the QBIT theory, the spontaneous emergence of coherence in a population of microtubules...
Brain-X
April 1, 2025
Majid Beshkar
Abstract Understanding the neural basis of consciousness remains a fundamental challenge in neuroscience. This study proposes a novel framework that conceptualizes consciousness through the lens of uncertainty reduction and negative entropy, emphasizing the role of coherence in its emergence. Sensory processing may operate as a Bayesian inference mechanism aimed at minimizing the brain's...
Integrative psychological & behavioral science
December 19, 2024
Majid Beshkar
1 citation
According to the QBIT theory, consciousness depends on the emergence of macroscopic coherence in a specific intracellular substrate which registers and processes sensory information. This occurs in a particular neuronal compartment called the axon initial segment which has unique properties not found in other neuronal segments. These unique properties allow the integration of synaptic inputs,...
Integrative psychological & behavioral science
December 1, 2024
Majid Beshkar
The ultimate goal of the QBIT theory is to provide a scientific solution to the problem of consciousness. The theory assumes that qualia (plural for quale) are real physical entities. Each quale is a physical system consisting of qubits bonded together by quantum entanglement. The qubits of a quale are so intimately bonded together that they collectively form a unified whole that is more than...
Integrative psychological & behavioral science
December 1, 2024
Majid Beshkar
How does the brain generate consciousness? The present paper is an attempt to answer this question from the perspective of the QBIT theory. In sum, the theory argues that the brain has a prior belief (P) about the stimulus that has caused a sensory representation (R) to be created in the brain. When the conditional entropy of P given R becomes less than zero, the brain becomes more than certain...
Integrative psychological & behavioral science
September 1, 2023
Majid Beshkar
The QBIT theory is a recently introduced multi-disciplinary approach to the problem of consciousness. One of the main axioms of the theory is that when information-theoretic certainty of an observer about a stimulus goes beyond a certain threshold, the observer becomes conscious of that stimulus. This axiom could provide an explanation for how the brain generates consciousness.In short, the...
Integrative psychological & behavioral science
December 1, 2020
Majid Beshkar
The QBIT theory is an attempt toward solving the problem of consciousness based on empirical evidence provided by various scientific disciplines including quantum mechanics, biology, information theory, and thermodynamics. This theory formulates the problem of consciousness in the following four questions, and provides preliminary answers for each question: Question 1: What is the nature of...
Medical Hypotheses
April 1, 2018
Majid Beshkar
What is the nature of qualia? Why qualia are subjective? This article is an attempt to provide speculative answers to these questions based on what we know about thermodynamics. The proposed answer to the first question is that qualia are self-organized structures built by exported entropy. The proposed answer to the second question is that qualia are subjective because entropy-decreasing...
Majid Beshkar
This paper attempts to explain consciousness from the perspective of the QBIT theory. The following is a summary of statements and conclusions presented in the paper: (1) The brain has an inherent tendency to minimize its uncertainty. (2) Uncertainty minimization in the brain is associated with entropy minimization in microtubules. (3) Consciousness emerges when uncertainty of the brain (and...
Majid Beshkar
The QBIT theory is an attempt toward solving the problem of consciousness. One of the main conjectures of the theory is that a conscious percept is a superdense pack of information in a coherent state. Another conjecture of the theory is that when information-theoretic uncertainty of the brain about a stimulus decreases below a critical threshold, the brain becomes conscious of that stimulus....
Majid Beshkar
Integrated Information Theory (IIT) has emerged as a prominent framework for the study of consciousness. IIT is based on a set of allegedly undeniable axioms and the claim that consciousness has physical existence and causal power. This paper presents four critiques of IIT, indicating that the foundational axioms of IIT are disputable and, in certain cases, incompatible with empirical evidence....