Consciousness and Anesthesia: An Hypothesis Involving Biophoton Emission in the Microtubular Cytoskeleton of the Brain
Karl H. Pribram
Origins October 24, 2018 DOI: 10.4324/9781315789347-12 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that microtubules, when the dipole interaction of confined water with the quantized electromagnetic field is considered, function as nonlinear coherent optical devices supporting superradiance and self-induced transparency. Proposes that such a superradiant optical network could be free of thermal noise and loss and may inform understanding of holographic brain activity, biophoton emission, and anesthesia. |
Abstract
Laser-like long-range coherent quantum phenomena resulting from the instantiation of superradiance and self-induced transparency take place in microtubules of the cytoskeletal network. By taking into account the often neglected interaction between the electric dipole of water molecules confined within a microtubule and the quantized electromagnetic field, it is shown that microtubules play the role of non-linear coherent optical devices. Unlike laser phenomena, superradiance is a specific quantum mechanical ordering phenomenon with characteristic time much shorter than that of thermal interaction, so microtubules may be thought to form an ideal optical network free from both thermal noise and loss. Such a superradiant optical network in cytoskeletal microtubule structure may provide us with a new understanding of holographic brain activity, biophoton emission and the origin of anesthesia.