Classical-quantum interfaces in living neural tissue supporting conscious functions

Abstract

This chapter describes three classical-quantum interfaces in living neural tissue supporting conscious functions. The first is activation of the glutamatergic synapse, leading to memory formation, by means of the binding of calcium ions entering NMDA channels with calmodulin receptors and kinases. The second is the coupling of calcium ions with negative water (selected by membrane aquaporins) inside astrocytes, forming, by means of quantum spin configuration changes induced by Coulomb interactions, large-scale “hydro-ionic” waves that control the tissue's chemical homeostasis and support sentience. The third is the action of hydrogen protons (separated by aquaporins) on the extracellular fluid, generating by means of a Grotthuss-like effect, i.e., a coherent-dissipative “superconductive” medium, which impacts on the temporal patterning of action potentials of a neuronal population by means of Na[sbnd]Ca ions exchange at distal parts of axons, as originally proposed by Tasaki. This process is adequate to account for the “conscious binding” of features processed in the parallel distributed architecture of the thalamocortical system.