2022-12-07, 08:17 PM
A “Quantum Brain” Could Solve The Hard Problem of Consciousness, New Research Suggests
Tim McMillan
Tim McMillan
Quote:In an intriguing new study, physicists using modified MRI machines say they may have found quantum entanglement between the heart and brain. These results suggest that the human brain operating like a quantum system could be the ticket to eventually solving the elusive, hard problem of consciousness.
“I actually was working on this for a long time,” Dr. Christian Kerskens, the lead physicist at the Institute of Neurosciences at Trinity College Dublin, told Salon. “I think if you ask, most neuroscientists — or even physicists — they would say that it’s not possible to find entanglement in the brain. [However] when I studied the dynamics of blood flow, I thought something [is] going on there that you can’t really explain with just classical physics.”
Quote:Kerskens and Pérez theorize they could detect the heartbeat signals through the MRI static because the proton spins in the brain and heart were “entangled,” a hallmark process in quantum mechanics. Under this assumption, it could mean the brain works like a quantum computer by mediating the entangled protons at the quantum level.
Perhaps offering another clue that quantum mechanics plays a role in solving the hard problem of consciousness, in a few instances when study participants fell asleep and were unconscious while still monitored by the MRI, researchers discovered that the heartbeat signals were no longer detectable.
Researchers replicated their study using a group of 30 participants between the ages of 18 to 29, in addition to another group of 30 participants who were 65 years old or older.
In this second study, Kerskens and Pérez said they found that the heartbeat signals were less stable with age, suggesting that perhaps cardiac performance is somehow related to improved cognitive ability.