September 2024
The quest continues for the neural correlate of consciousness, the holy grail of modern neuroscience. Among the competing theories, some have moved away from traditional materialism. Some scientists employ quantum mechanics as a stepping stone between the physicalist paradigm and a spiritual worldview.
No one has come close to finding a physical place in the brain (or elsewhere) where consciousness is produced, but there are associations.
A new study published in the journal eNeuro seems to support to Sir Roger Penrose’s and Dr Stuart Hameroff’s “Orch OR theory of consciousness”, according to which consciousness is a derivative of quantum processes in microtubules, a cylinder-shaped cell structure in neurons.
The researchers at Wellesley College, Mass., found that a drug that binds to microtubules delayed unconsciousness in rats under anesthesia. When they gave rats the drug, it took the rodents significantly longer than normally to fall unconscious.
This indicates that anesthesia acts on microtubules and that processes in microtubules are somehow associated with consciousness.
The study says, “These models predict that volatile anesthetics interfere directly with the vibrational state of MTs [microtubules] which are understood as the immediate substrate of consciousness.”
A quantum understanding of consciousness “gives us a world picture in which we can be connected to the universe in a more natural and holistic way,” says Michael Wiest, an associate professor of neuroscience at Wellesley and one of the authors, to Neuroscience News. “When it becomes accepted that the mind is a quantum phenomenon, we will have entered a new era in our understanding of what we are.”
The researchers also think their findings could have implications for anesthesia and the treatment of brain disorders.
Anders Bolling
For more background, see our Topic Brief for Journalists, Covering Consciousness.
