August 2025
A new study from Shanghai University in China concludes that consciousness may have something to do with quantum entanglement in the brain.
The Chinese scientists find that quantum processes in a fatty material surrounding neurons seem to be associated with the brain’s inner communication, cognition, and, by extension, conscious experience.
ILLUSTRATION: Imgmidi / Pixabay
According to articles in science magazines New Scientist and Popular Mechanics, the theory is that a fatty material called myelin surrounding the nerve cells provides the right environment for entanglement of photons. Myelin fibres emit pairs of entangled particles, and this quantum phenomenon might explain the rise of cognition and how parts of the brain work together.
The Shanghai paper seems to more or less confirm Roger Penrose’s and Sturat Hameroff’s theory Orch OR (Orchestrated Objective Reduction), which says that consciousness is a derivative of quantum processes in minuscule organelles in the neurons called microtubules.
“Consciousness within the brain hinges on the synchronized activities of millions of neurons, but the mechanism responsible for orchestrating such synchronization remains elusive”, the study reads.
One of the authors, Yong-Cong Chen, told New Scientist: “If the power of evolution was looking for handy action over a distance, quantum entanglement would be an ideal candidate for this role.”
The immediacy of conscious processes is a major mystery to materialist science. Quantum mechanics is beginning to offer a hint of what’s going on. The question is: Are these quantum processes the origin of consciousness, or do they represent a point of access to consciousness for the physical brain?
Anders Bolling
