After modifying a concept created to demonstrate the existence of quantum gravity to investigate the human brain and its functioning, researchers from Trinity College believe our brains may be capable of using quantum computation. The discovery could provide insight into consciousness, whose functioning is still not well understood by science. Another reason we still beat supercomputers in unexpected situations, decision-making, and learning new things could be due to quantum brain processes.
The fact that conscious awareness and short-term memory are linked to the brain functions that have been measured suggests that quantum processes are also a part of cognitive and conscious brain functioning.
If the team’s findings can be verified, which will probably require highly sophisticated multidisciplinary methods, it will improve our general understanding of how the brain functions and perhaps how it might be preserved or even repaired, They might try to find new technologies that could help them make quantum computers that are even smarter.
The study was co-authored by Dr. Christian Kerskens, head physicist at the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN), and it was just released in the Journal of Physics Communications.
He stated: “We modified a concept used in experiments to demonstrate the presence of quantum gravity, in which two known quantum systems interact with an unidentified system. The unknown must be a quantum system as well if the known systems can entangle. It avoids the challenges of locating measuring tools for an unknown quantity. ”
We employed the proton spins of “brain water” as the known system in our studies. ‘Brain water’ accumulates naturally as fluid in our brains, and MRI can measure the proton spins (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). We then discovered MRI signals that resemble cardiac evoked potentials, a type of EEG signal, by employing a particular MRI design to look for entangled spins. Some people may be familiar with the electrical brain currents that EEGs monitor from personal experience or just from watching hospital dramas on television.
The researchers think they were only able to discover electrophysiological potentials—such as the heartbeat induced potentials—because the nuclear proton spins in the brain were entangled. Normally, electrophysiological potentials like these cannot be detected using MRI.
Added Dr. Kerskens: “If entanglement is the only explanation, then brain functions must have interacted with nuclear spins to mediate their entanglement if there is no other explanation. We can therefore conclude that those mental processes must be quantum.
“It is possible that those quantum processes play a significant role in our cognitive and conscious brain activities because these brain functions are also connected with the capacity for short-term memory and awareness.”
We still beat supercomputers when it comes to making decisions, dealing with unforeseen circumstances, and learning new things, which may be explained by quantum brain processes. Our tests, conducted just 50 meters from the lecture hall where Schrödinger famously outlined his theories about life, may provide answers to biological problems as well as the even more enigmatic nature of consciousness. ”
Science Foundation Ireland and TCIN funded this study.
