I propose that quantum coherence is the basis of living organization and
can also account for key features of conscious experience - the "unity
of intentionality", our inner identity of the singular "I",
the simultaneous binding and segmentation of features in the perceptive
act, the distributed, holographic nature of memory, and the distinctive
quality of each experienced occasion.
How to understand the organic whole
Andrew's [1] assessment that brain science is in a "primitive"
state is, to some extent, shared by Walter Freeman [2], who, in his recent
book, declares brain science "in crisis". At the same time,
there is a remarkable proliferation of Journals and books about consciousness,
which brain science has so far failed to explain, at least in the opinion
of those who have lost faith in the conventional reductionist approach.
One frequent suggestion is the need for quantum theory, though the theory
is interpreted and used in diverse, and at times conflcting ways by
different authors.
I believe that the impasse in brain science is the same as that
in all of biology: we simply do not have a conceptual framework for
understanding how the organism functions as an integrated whole. Brain
science has been more fortunate than many other areas in its long
established multi-disciplinary practice, which is crucial for
understanding the whole. In particular, the development of
noninvasive/nondestructive imaging techniques has allowed access to the
living state, which serves to constantly remind the reductionists
among us of the ghost of the departed whole. The images obtained from the
ultra sensitive, and hence truly noninvasive magnetic tomography [3] are
captivating. Analyzing such data presents an even greater challenge than
the multichannel eeg data obtained by Freeman and Barrie [4]. Both kinds
of data are showing up largescale spatiotemporal coherence of brain
activities that cannot be satisfactorily explained by conventional
mechanisms. The brain functions, not as a collection of specialized brain
cells, but as a coherent whole. That is surely one good reason to seek
alternative perspectives that would help us understand the organic whole.
How the brain functions as a coherent whole is inseparable from how the
organism functions as a coherent whole. It is the same question, stated
eloquently by Joseph Needham in Order and Life [5], and by Schrödinger
inWhat is Life? [6], that has exercised generations of biologists
and physicists dissatisfied with the mechanistic approach.
Inspired by this long line of distinguished dissidents, I began to work
towards a theory of the organism based on empirical and theoretical
findings across the disciplines [7-13]. The theory starts from
thermodynamic considerations of energy storage in a space-time
structured system under energy flow, which, by dynamic closure, creates
the conditions for quantum coherence. This effectively frees the
organism from thermodynamic constraints so that it is poised for rapid,
specific intercommunication, enabling it to function as a coherent whole.
In the ideal, the organism is a quantum superposition of coherent
activities, with instantaneous (nonlocal) noiseless intercommunication
throughout the system.
I do not think quantum theory per se will lead us through the
mechanistic deadlock to further understanding. Instead, we need a
thoroughly organicist way of thinking that transcends both
conventional thermodynamics and quantum theory [7,12]. I have focussed on
the notion of quantum coherence and the attendant nonlocal
intercommunication as the expression of the radical wholeness of the
organism, where global and local are mutually entangled, and every part is
as much in control as it is sensitive and responsive.
In this paper, I shall briefly summarize the arguments for quantum
coherence in the living system, then go on to explore how certain key
features of conscious experience may be understood. I suggest that the
wholeness of the organism is based on a high degree of quantum
coherence. Quantum coherence underlies the "unity of intentionality"
[2] and our inner identity of the singular "I". It may account
for binding and segmentation in the perceptive act, the distributed,
holographic nature of memory, and the distinctive quality of each
experienced occasion.
The organism as a vibrant sentient whole
Organisms overcome the immediate constraints of thermodynamics in their
capacity to store mobilizable energy, which circulates through a
cascade of cyclic processes within the system before it is dissipated
[11-13]. The dynamic closure of circulating energy constitutes a life
cycle. Within the life cycle, coupled cylic processes span the entire
gamut of space-times from the local and fast (or slow) to the global and
slow (or fast). This enables energy to be readily shared throughout the
system, from local to global and vice versa, which is why we can
have energy at will. But how is energy mobilization so well-coordinated?
That is partly a direct consequence of the energy stored, which renders
the whole systemexcitable, or highly sensitive to specific weak
signals. Weak signals originating anywhere within or outside the system
will propagate throughout the system and become amplified, often into
macroscopic action. Intercommunication can proceed very rapidly, in
particular, on account of the liquid crystalline structure of the
cells and the connective tissues [14].
Connective tissues make up the bulk of all multicellular animals. They
are flexible, highly responsive, yetordered phases which are
connected, via transmembrane proteins to the intracellular matrices of
individual cells [15, 16]. The extracellular and intracellular matrices
together constitute an excitable continuum for rapid
intercommunication permeating the entire organism, enabling it to function
as a coherent whole [13]. The existence of this liquid crystalline
continuum has been directly demonstrated in all live organisms by
a noninvasive optical imaging technique recently discovered in my
laboratory [17 - 19]. It constitutes a "body consciousness" that
precedes the nervous system in evolution [16]; and I suggest, it still
works in tandem with, and independently of the nervous system (see next
Section). This body consciousness is the basis ofsentience,
the pre-requisite for conscious experience that involves the participation
of the intercommunicating whole of the energy storage domain. In the
limit of the coherence time and coherence volume of energy storage,
intercommunication is instantaneous and nonlocal. Because energy is
stored over all modes, the organism possesses a complete range of
coherence times and coherence volumes [7].
The life cycle, with its complex of coupled cyclic processes, forms a
heterogeneous, multidimensional and entangled space-time which structures
experience. In the ideal, it is a quantum superposition of coherent
space-time modes, constituting a pure state that maximizes both local
freedom and global cohesion [7, 12, 13] in accordance with the factorizability
of the quantum coherent state [20]. Quantum coherence gives rise to
correlations between subsystems which resolves neatly into products of the
self-correlations so that the sub-systems behave as though they are
independent of one another. One can also picture the organism as a
coherent quantum electrodynamical field of many modes, with an uncertainty
relationship between energy and phase [21],
DnDf e h
So, when phase is defined, energy is indeterminate, and vice versa.
That may be of fundamental importance to the flexibility and adaptability
of the living system.
In quantum optics and quantum electrodynamic theory the coherent state
is asymptotically stable [22]. Hence, the pure coherent state is an
ideal attractor or end state towards which the system tends to return
on being perturbed [23]. There is abundant evidence of macroscopic
activities with collective phases in the spectrum of biological rhythms,
many of which tend towards integral phase relationships with one another
[7, 24]. There are also examples of collective activities that may involve
phase correlations over entire populations [25, 26]. As the coherence
times of living processes span more than 20 orders of magnitude from 10-14s
for resonant energy transfer to 107s for circannual
cycles, a pure coherent state for the entire system would be a many-mode
quantum electrodynamical field with a collective phase over all
modes. It may be attainable only under very exceptional circumstances, as
during an aesthetic or religious experience when the "pure duration"
(see later) of the here and now becomes completely delocalized in the
realm of no-time and no-space [7]. Nevertheless, quantum coherence can
exist to different degrees or orders [20]; and
I suggest that the wholeness of the organism is based on a high
degree of quantum coherence. It constitutes Freeman's "unity of
intentionality" [2] - the pre-requisite to conscious experience.
Quantum coherence and body consciousness
From the perspective of the whole organism, the brain's primary
function may be the mediation of coherent coupling of all subsystems, so
the more highly differentiated or complex the system, the bigger the brain
required. Substantial parts of the brain are indeed involved in
integrating inputs from all over the body, and over long time scales. But
not all the processing that goes on in the brain is involved in the
coherent coordination of subsystems, for this coordination seems
instantaneous by all accounts.
Thus, during an olfactory experience, slow oscillations in the
olfactory bulb are in phase with the movement of the lungs [4]. Similarly,
the coordinated movement of the four limbs in locomotion is accompanied by
patterns of activity in the motor centers of the brain which are in phase
with those of the limbs [27]. That is a remarkable achievement which
physiologists and neuroscientists alike have taken too much for granted.
The reason macroscopic organs such as the four limbs can be coordinated
is that each is individually a coherent whole, so that a definite phase
relationship can be maintained among them. The hand-eye coordination
required for the accomplished pianist is extremely impressive, but depends
on the same inherent coherence of the subsystems which, I suggest, enables
instantaneous intercommunication to occur. There simply isn't time enough,
from one musical phrase to the next, for inputs to be sent to the brain,
there to be integrated, and coordinated outputs to be sent back to the
hands (c.f. Hebb [28]).
I raised the posssibility, above, that a "body consciousness"
works in tandem with, but independently of the "brain consciousness"
constituting the nervous system. I suggest that instantaneous coordination
of body functions is mediated, not by the nervous system, but by the body
consciousness inhering in the liquid crystalline continuum of the body. Ho
and Knight [29] following Oschman [16], review evidence suggesting that
this liquid crystalline continuum is responsible for the direct current
(DC) electrodynamical field, permeating the entire body of all animals,
that Becker [30] and others have detected. Becker has further demonstrated
that the DC field has a mode of semi-conduction that is much faster than
nervous conduction. During a perceptive event, local changes in the DC
field can be measured half a second before sensory signals arrive
in the brain, suggesting that the activities in the brain may be
pre-conditioned by the local DC field.
Up to 70% of the proteins in the connective tissues consist of
collagens that exhibit constant patterns of alignment, as characteristic
of liquid crystals. Collagens have distinctive mechanical and dielectric
properties that render them very sensitive to mechanical pressures,
changes in pH, inorganic ions and electromagnetic fields (see ref. 29). In
particular, a cylinder of bound water surrounds the triple-helical
molecule, giving rise to an ordered array of bound water on the surface of
the collagen network that supports rapid "jump conduction" of
protons. Proteins in liquid crystals have coherent residual motions, and
will readily transmit weak signals by proton conduction, or as coherent
waves [31]. Thus, extremely weak electromagnetic signals or mechanical
disturbances will be sufficient to set off a flow of protons that will
propagate throughout the body, making it ideal for intercommunication in
the manner of a proton-neural network [32].
The liquid crystalline nature of the continuum also enables it to
function as a distributed memory store. The proportion of bound versus
free water on the surfaces of proteins are known to be altered by
conformation changes of the proteins. Proteins undergo a hierarchy of
conformational changes on a range of time scales as well as different
energies. Conformers are clustered in groups that are nearly isoenergetic,
with very low energetic barriers between them [33]. They can thus be
triggered to undergo global conformational changes that will, in turn,
alter the structure of bound water. As the bound water forms a global
network in association with the collagen, it will
have a certain degree of stability, or resistance to change. The corollary
is that it will retain tissue memory of previous experiences. The memory
may consist partly of dynamic circuits, the sum total of which
constituting the DC body field. Thus, consciousness is distributed
throughout the entire body, brain consciousness being embedded in body
consciousness. Brain and body consciousness mutually inform and condition
each other. The unity of intentionality is a complete coherence of brain
and body.
Quantum Coherence and the Binding Problem
So it is that we perceive ourselves as a singular "I"
intuitively, despite the extremely diverse multiplicity of tissues, cells
and molecules consituting our being (c.f. Schrödinger [6]). Quantum
coherence entails a plurality that is singular, a multiplicity that is a
unity. The "self" is the domain of coherence [7], a pure state
or pure duration that permeates the whole of our being, much as Bergson
[34] has described.
It is because we perceive ourselves as a singular whole that we
perceive the real world as colour, sound, texture and smell, as a unity
all at once. Sounds presented in linear sequences are recognized as speech
or music, much as objects in motion are recognized as such, rather than as
disconnected configurations of light and shadow. How is this unity
structured so that not only can we recognize whole objects, but
distinguish different objects in our perceptual field? That is the problem
of binding and reciprocally, of segmentation [35].
Detailed investigations over the past decades have revealed that there
are many cells which respond to isolated features such as edges or bars in
the visual cortex, but no special cells have been found to respond to
higher categories (see ref. 1), such as squares or cubes for example.
There is simply no "grandmother cell" that integrates the
separate features. So how are the separate features bound into a whole?
And how is it that we can bind features correctly so that they belong to
the same object in the real world? For example, how do we see correctly, a
red rose in a yellow vase and not a yellow rose in a red vase? It turns
out that timing is of the essence.
Freeman [2] and his coworkers carried out simultaneous recordings with
an array of 64 electrodes covering a large area of the rabbit cortex, and
found oscillations that are coherent over the entire array. These tend to
vary continually or abruptly, but when they change, they do so in the same
way over the whole area. The amplitudes will differ, but the pattern of
discharges is simultaneous and uniform. He concludes, "This spatial
coherence indicates that the oscillation is a macroscopic property of the
whole area, that all the neurons in the neuropil share it, and that the
same frequency holds at each instant everywhere."(p. 57). Gray et
al [36] recorded simultaneously from pairs of neuronal units whose
outputs might be subject to binding. These are in the same or different
cerebral hemispheres and responded to the same or different sensory
modalities. They found that throughout the wide range of situations, the
characteristic feature of paired discharges that are suitable for
subsequent binding is a high degree of coincidence in time. It seems that
the nervous system produces "simultaneity as an aid to subsequent
binding."
Singer [37] has also found evidence of simultaneous oscillations in
separate areas of the cortex, accurately synchronized in phase as well as
frequency. He suggests that the oscillations are synchronized from some
common source, but Freeman's group, using a large array of electrodes (see
above) failed to identify any obvious source. As Andrew [1] points out,
the accuracy of phase agreement is far too perfect for the synchronizing
to spread by normal neural transmission, and he favours some kind of
optical signal transmitted by water trapped in microtubules acting as
optical fibres [38,39].
If, however, the system is coherent to begin with, then a genuine
nonlocal simultaneity may be involved. The present precision of
recording is insufficient to distinguish between instantaneous
simultaneity and propagation at the speed of light. As is well-known,
there is no time-like separation within the coherence volume, and no
space-like separation within the coherence time, so apparent "communication"
is instantaneous, and synchrony can be established with no actual delay.
This simultaneity may be mediated and gated by the DC body field mentioned
above. That can easily be tested by repeating the measurements carried out
by Becker [30].
The clue to both binding and segmentation is in the accuracy of phase
agreement of the spatially separated brain activities. That implies the
nervous system (or the body field) can accurately detect phase, and is
also able to control phase coherence. I have already alluded to the
importance of phase information in coordinating limb movements during
locomotion and other aspects of physiological functioning, so it is not
surprising that the nervous system should be able to accurately detect
phase. The degree of precision may be estimated by considering our ability
to locate the source of a sound by stereophony. Some experimental findings
show that the arrival times of sound pulses at the two ears can be
discriminated with an accuracy of a very few microseconds [see ref. 1].
For detecting a note in middle C, the phase difference in a microsecond is
4.4 x 10-4. Accurate phase detection is
characteristic of a system operating under quantum coherence. Could it be
that phase detection is indeed a key feature of conscious experience?
Marcer [40, 41] has proposed a "quantum holographic" model of
consciousness in which perception involves the conversion of an
interference pattern (between a coherent wave-field generated by the
perceiver and the wave-field reflected off the perceived) to an object
image that is coincident with the object itself. This is accomplished by a
process known as phase conjugation, whereby the wave reflected
from the object is returned (by the perceiver) along its path to form an
image where the object is situated. The perceiving being is into
the act of perceiving, as Freeman [2] observes. Endogenously generated
coherent waves or activities, therefore, function as precise gating, on
the basis of phase information, to bind and segment features as
appropriate. In the act of perceiving, the organism also perceives itself
situated in the environment, through active phase conjugation. As Gibson
[42] remarks, perception and proprioception are one and the same. Within
the perceptive realm of the organism, there will always be an image of the
self as the focus of "prehensive unification" [43], to which all
features in the environment are related. Marcer's quantum holographic
model of self-consciousness would involve an image of the self coincident
with the organism itself, so "self" and "other" are
simultaneously defined. What is the source of the coherent wave-field
generated by the perceiver? Could it be the body field itself? Or the body
field as modulated by the nervous system? Again, this could be subject to
empirical investigation.
One thing seems clear. Quantum coherent systems can bind and segment
simultaneously and nonlocally by virtue of their factorizability (see
above), which is how living processes are organized. Circulation,
metabolism, muscular and nervous acitivities all go on simultaneously and
independently, yet nevertheless cohering into a whole. A multitude of
bound and segmented simultaneities are created in the act of experiencing,
which define the here and now. These simultaneities are
nonlocal and heterogeneous. They contain further simultaneities within and
become entangled as they cascade through a quasi-continuum of space-times.
The here and now is, therefore, not a flat instantaneity, nor a travelling
razor blade dividing past from future (c.f. Gibson {42]). Instead, it is
the grain of experiencing - a labyrinth of commuting and non-commuting
simultaneities within simultaneities out of which hesitations we weave our
futures.
Coherent information storage and qualia of perception
The conscious being initiates and gates experience and determines the
content of the experience, so it is that two people can experience the
same music simultaneously, one with the highest rapture, and the other,
the utmost indifference. According to Gibson [42], objects in the
environment provide "affordances" which are selected by the
subject in the act of perceiving. The information goes into "resonant
circuits in the brain" from which "effectivities" flow,
ultimately as "object-oriented actions" complementary to the
affordances. Thus, the quality of each perception is coloured by all that
has gone before [2], the brain does more than coordinate subsystems of the
body, it forms images (or, at any rate, takes part in forming images),
and stores them for future reference.
The stored information, or memory system, is generally found to be
distributed over the entire brain, perhaps in the form of "reverberations"
or circuits that "mediate" responses to stimuli and initiate
actions. Thus, in contrast to the rapidity with which simultaneity can be
established in different parts of the brain, half a second is required for
the subject's brain to become "aware" (as evidenced by its
electrical activities) that something has happened, although the subject
automatically back-dates it to make up for the delay (see earlier).
Freeman's view is that the delay is the time needed for "propagation
of a global state transition through a forebrain to update the state of
the intentional structure by learning."(p. 83). In other words, that
is the time taken to reorganize the whole system.
There does appear to be a circulating activity in a network consisting
of different brain structures, and transmitted between various regions in
a highly organized fashion. These circulating activities, modified by
sensory inputs, are thought to be responsible for 'short-term' memory,
which becomes long-term memory by causing structural chemical changes
[44]. However, it would be a mistake to suppose that memory is thereby
'fixed' once and for all. Molecules in the brain, as in all of the rest of
the body, are subject to metabolic turnover. So, it is more realistic to
suppose that so-called 'long-term' memory is subject to the same dynamic
modification and reconstitution as short-term memory, and that short-term
and long term are simply the ends of a continuum that extends from the
most microscopic "here and now" to the individual's entire
life-span and beyond. It is this dynamic information store, distributed
over a whole gamut of timescales that underlies the distinctive quality of
each experience, for the experiencing being is constantly being renewed
and updated.
Thus, Freeman [2] and his coworkers found that rabbits trained to
distinguish odours have patterns of brain activities for each odour that
are never twice the same in any one session for any animal. And each
animal has its own repertoire of patterns which evolve in successive
trials. Far from being disconsolate, the experiments have given Freeman
new insights into the unity of intentionality in that every perception is
influenced by all that has gone before. Constant stimulus-response
relationships are not mediated by correspondingly constant cause and
effect associations of brain activities. In contrast to the microscopic
patterns carried by a few sensory neurons which differ consistently with
each smell, the macroscopic spatial patterns in the olfactory bulb are
distributed over the entire bulb for every odour, and "did not relate
to the stimulus directly but instead to the meaning of the stimulus."(p.
59) So, when reward was switched between two odours, the patterns of
activities changed for both odours, as also did the control patterns
without odour in background air. The patterns changed whenever a new odour
was added to the repertoire. There is no mosaic of compartments in the
olfactory memory in the bulb. It is a seamless information store.
All the evidence points to a dynamic maintenance and recreation of
memory over all time scales. There is a transfer of information to ever
longer and longer time scales exactly in the way that energy gets
transferred in cascades of processes of increasingly larger space-times
[7]. In the transfer of memory, different memories also become entangled
in the reconstituion of the whole, thus continually redefining a unique
here and now. One never ceases to write and overwrite one's biography - it
is a tissue of reconstructions. There is no sharp distinction between the
here and now and what has gone before. 'Past' simultaneities over-arch the
'now' and extend beyond while further simultaneities are seeded within the
'now'.
Strong evidence that memory storage is delocalized, at least over the
whole brain, is the finding that it is able to survive large brain
lesions. This has already led a number of people to suggest that memory
storage is holographic, in the same way that perception is holographic, so
that the whole can be reconstructed from even a small part, albeit with
less detail. As Langfield [45] points out, holography enables complex
information to be retrieved simply by generating a regular wave without
any informational content. Of course, the same regular or coherent wave is
instrumental in creating and coding the complex information in the first
place. Likely candidates for coherent reference waves are considered to
include alpha waves and waves generated by the hippocampus. Langfield has
proposed a model in which memory is encoded by coherent waves from the
hippocampus interacting with sensory inputs and undergoing a phase change.
These modulated "object" waves are then recombined with the
reference waves to form an interference pattern in the pyrimidal cells of
the hippocampus, from which a "reconstructed wavefront" is
projected to other parts of the brain to generate the circulating patterns
of activity that constitute "short-term memory". This short-term
memory is thought to be consolidated during sleep, whereas the alpha
rhythms occurring during states of relaxation are believed to play a
special role in memory retrieval.
Holographic memory storage is orders of magnitude more efficient than
any model that makes use of "representations" because
holographic memory employs actual physical simulations of processes [40,
41] and do not require lengthy sequences of arbitrary coding and
decoding of isolated bits. Marcer suggests that the brain stores
experienced holographic spatio-temporal patterns and compares stored with
new patterns directly, recognition and learning being reinforced in "adaptive
resonance", thus also making for much faster processing. As mentioned
before, the liquid crystalline continuum supporting the body field may
also take part in memory storage, although this possibility has never been
seriously considered. Laszlo [46] goes even further to suggest that much
of memory may be stored in an ambient, collective holographic memory field
delocalized from the individual; and that memories are only accessed by
the brain from the ambient field.
Quantum coherence and the macroscopic wave function of the conscious
being
If quantum coherence is characteristic of the organism as conscious
being, as I have argued here, then the conscious being will possesss
something like a macroscopic wave-function. This wave function is ever
evolving, entangling its environment, transforming and creating itself
anew [7]. I agree with Bohm and Hiley's [47] ontological interpretation of
quantum theory to the extent that there is no collapse of the wave
function. In their model, the wave function, with quantum potential
playing the role of active information to guide the trajectories
of particles, simply changes after interaction to become a new one. The
possibility remains that there is no resolution of the wave functions of
the quantum objects after interacting. So one may remain entangled and
indeed, delocalized over past experiences (i.e., in Lazlo's ambient field
[46]). Some interactions may have time scales that are extremely long, so
that the wave function of interacting parties may take a correspondingly
long time to become resolved, and largescale nonlocal connectivity may be
maintained.
What would our wave function look like? Perhaps it is an intricate
supramolecular orbital of multidimensional standing waves of complex
quantum amplitudes. It would be rather like a beautiful, exotic flower,
flickering in and out of many dimensions simultaneously. That would
constitute our quantum holographic self, created from the entanglements of
past experiences, the memory of all we have suffered and celebrated, the
totality of our anxieties and fears, our hopes and dreams.
Acknowledgments
I thank Peter Marcer, David Knight, Walter Freeman and Brian Goodwin for
stimulating discussions.
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