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Transcript of What is consciousness? Stuart Hameroff MD Anesthesiology, Psychology and Center for Consciousness...
What is consciousness? Stuart Hameroff MD Anesthesiology, Psychology and Center for Consciousness Studies The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona www.quantumconsciousness.org
BING!!!
In Western philosophy, consciousness isa representation of the world in our brain
Mind Matter
MaterialismBrain=Mind=Computer
.
In Eastern philosophy consciousness is connected to a deeper reality
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Mind = Matter
Panpsychism
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Mind Matter
Idealism
Consciousness
Lighting
Irony
ScriptStory
Costumes
Actors
Props
Cartesian Theater
Stage
For Descartes, consciousness like a play on stage The Cartesian Theater
Descartes believed an immaterial soul perceived the world in our head
BING!!
Mind Matter
Cartesian Dualism
Logic
TopDown
Inputs
Memory
Data
Global Workspace(computers)
GlobalWorkspace
Consciousness
Simon and Newell developed similar brain/mind computer architectures
CPU
Consciousness
ExecutiveCortex
Sensory Inputs
Emotions
Memory
Thalamo-corticalProjections
Cortex
Thalamus
Neuroscientists Baars, Edelman/Tononi, Changeux/Dehaene, Crick/Koch cast thalamo-cortical oscillations as Global workspace for consciousness
BING!!
Consciousness
ExecutiveCortex
Sensory Inputs
Emotions
Memory
Thalamo-corticalProjections
Cortex
Thalamus
Neuroscientists Baars, Edelman/Tononi, Changeux/Dehaene, Crick/Koch cast thalamo-cortical oscillations as Global workspace for consciousness
Bottom-up, top-down, hierarchical, based on sensory inputs, arousal
BING!!
But consciousness also internally-generated: mind wandering, daydreaming, memories, meditation The Brain's Dark Energy/Default network Raichle (2006) Science 314: 1249 – 1250, 2006)
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Brain functions (cognition)
• Sensory perception• Control of behavior• Learning, Memory• Attention, Sleep• Language• Intelligence• Visceral/sexual
may be either non-conscious (Chalmers’ easy problems, zombie modes, auto-pilot)
Brain functions (cognition)
• Sensory perception• Control of behavior• Learning, Memory• Attention, Sleep• Language • Intelligence• Visceral, Sexual
non-conscious (zombie/auto-pilot) or conscious
Bing Bing
Bing
Brain functions (cognition)
• Sensory perception• Control of behavior• Learning, Memory• Attention, Sleep• Language • Intelligence• Visceral, Sexual
Bing
Bing Bing
accompanied by gamma synchrony EEG
Brain functions (cognition)
• Sensory perception• Control of behavior• Learning, Memory• Attention, Sleep• Language • Intelligence• Visceral, Sexual
Bing Bing
Bing
moving through the brain
Brain functions (cognition)
• Sensory perception• Control of behavior• Learning, Memory• Attention, Sleep• Language • Intelligence• Visceral, Sexual
Bing
Bing Bing
Brain functions (cognition)
• Sensory perception• Control of behavior• Learning, Memory• Attention, Sleep• Language • Intelligence• Visceral, Sexual
Bing
Bing
Bing
Gamma synchrony in olfactory bulb cortex correlates with conscious smell.
J Neuroscience. 26(8):2269-77, 2006
Neuron46(5):761-72, 2005
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Neuroscience. 159(4):1257-63, 2009
Brain Research. 1156:46-58, 2007
Conscious feelings of pleasure and reward correlate gamma synchrony in dopaminergic nucleus accumbens
BING!!
The best neurophysiological correlate of consciousness (NCC) comes from EEG, voltage fluctuations recorded from scalp or brain surface.
EEG is divided into frequency bands:
Delta (< 4 Hz)Theta (4 to 8 Hz)Alpha (8 to 12 Hz)Beta (13 to 30 Hz) Gamma (> 30 Hz)
Coherence in gamma synchronyamong different brain regions is the best correlate of consciousness
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Lutz et al, PNAS
“... consciousness itself is only momentary........ a sequence of moments..causing each other…each moment of consciousness only lasts for a very short period of time. A very advanced meditator…is able to detect the transition from moment to moment…They are..1/64th of the snap of a finger.”
John Dunne Emory University
Buddhist writings quantify the frequency of conscious moments. The Saarvastivaadins (Von Rospatt, 1995) describe 6,480,000 moments in 24 hours (one moment per 13.3 seconds = 75 Hz), and Chinese Buddhists as 50 ‘thoughts’ per second (50 Hz). Gamma synchrony EEG is 30 to 90 Hz.
Dendrites
Cell body Axonal firing, or ‘spike’
Dendrites
‘ Hodgkin-Huxley neuron’ leads to integrate-and-fire
Where’s consciousness?
Where’s the BING?
EEG measures post-synapticdendritic integration(not axonal firings)
Synchrony comes fromdendrites
Two types of synapses1) Chemical synapses 2) Electrical (gap junction) synapses
B I N G ! !
BING!! BING!!
B I N G ! !
Nancy Woolf
Normal Alzheimers
Mind Matter
Deeper reality
Neutral Monism
Reality is described by two distinct sets of laws, forming two worlds:
The quantum world and the classical world.
Classical
Quantum
Classical(large scale, observable)
Quantum (small scale, unobservable)
Classical(large scale, observable)
Consciousness
Quantum (small scale, unobservable)
Four features of the quantum world:
1) Particles can exist in multiple possible states or locations simultaneously: “superposition”
2) Unified particles which become separated remain connected over distance and time: “quantum entanglement”
3) Multiple particles can condense into one unified entity: “quantum coherence”
4) Precise location AND momentum of quantum particle are indeterminate: “uncertainty”
Quantum superpositionIn the quantum world, particles/objects….
1) Behave like waves……
Exist in two or more locations or states simultaneously (quantum superposition), Electron spin up and spin down
Quantum entanglementIn the quantum world, particles/objects….
2) Remain intimately connected when spatially separated (quantum entanglement – Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance”).
Quantum coherenceIn the quantum world, particles/objects….
3) Condense into unitary objects (quantum coherence, Bose-Einstein condensation) governed by one wave function. If one component is perturbed, others “feel it”.
Quantum effects are used in quantum information technology
• Quantum computers – Information represented as “bits” of 1 or 0 as in conventional computers, but also as quantum bits, “qubits” of superpositions of both 1 AND 0. Qubits communicate/compute by entanglement, collapse/reduce to answer.
• Quantum cryptography – Quantum states transmitted by nonlocal entanglement; eavesdropping alters message, hence secrecy insured. Now used commercially!
• Quantum teleportation – States of particles communicated by nonlocal entanglement, resulting in destruction/exact duplication elsewhere. Beam me up, Scotty!!!
Why don’t we see quantum superpositions in our world?
1) Consciousness collapses the wave function: Schrodinger’s cat
2) Superpositions are separations in reality: multiple worlds
3) Decoherence: Superpositions persist until interaction with classical environment at the border between quantum and classical worlds. (But this doesn’t explain isolated superpositions)
4) David Bohm’s Quantum potential: Underlying pilot waves (“Implicate order”)guide quantum particlesto choose/“unfold to” classical states (“explicate order”)
Sir Roger Penrose
Consciousness is an actual physical process, a sequence of quantum state reductions connected by E=h/t to an objective threshold inherent in spacetime geometry (objective reduction, OR)
Bing!!!
Penrose: underlying structure of the quantum world embeds Platonic information and precursors of life and consciousness
Freeman Dyson: “Mind and intelligence are woven into the fabric of the universe”
(The quantum world is NOT random/uncertain; randomness/uncertainty introduced in measurement/decoherence. Einstein: “God does not play dice with the universe!”
Einstein: Matter is equivalent to curvature in spacetime - not only at large scales, but at infinitesimally tiny scales – the basement level of the universe at the Planck scale…10-33 cm
Penrose observed that quantum superposition – an object in two places/states simultaneously – equated to two spacetime curvatures in different directions:
a bubble or separation in the fabric of reality
But the separations are unstable, and after a time t (given by E=h/t) will spontaneously self-collapse to one curvature or the other (an “objective reduction” – O.R.).
Q uantum Inform ation Q uantum Inform ation Q uantum Inform ation Q uantum Inform ation
C lassica l In form ation C lassica l In form ation C lassica l In form ation C lassica l In form ation(M em ory) (M em ory) (M em ory) (M em ory)
0 25 50
O RC onscious
"N O W "
O RC onscious
"N O W "
O RC onscious
"N O W "
O RC onscious
"N O W "
O RC onscious
"N O W "
ClassicalInform ation
C lassicalInform ation
C lassicalInform ation
C lassicalInform ation
C lassicalInform ation
E( S u p e r p o s i t i o n /
S e p a r a t i o n )
7 5 1 0 0
T i m e ( T ) m s e c
Pre-conscious
quantumsuperposition
Pre-conscious
quantumsuperposition
Pre-conscious
quantumsuperposition
Pre-conscious
quantumsuperposition
Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing
Orch OR conscious events - Ripples in quantum spacetime geometry occurring at gamma synchrony
Penrose-Hameroff 1995Quantum computations in microtubules reduce by OR, orchestrated by synapses - Orch OR
Penrose-Hameroff Orch OR model
1995/1996 original publications1995 to present – criticism, no refutation1998 – 20 testable predictions publishedValidations: 1) coherent megahertz excitations in microtubules (Pokorny 2004) 2) warm quantum coherence in biology (Engel et al, 2007) 3) topological quantum error correction 4) ballistic conduction in microtubules at megahertz (Bhadyapatyay) 5) gap junctions mediate neural correlate of consciousness (1999-2003)
Conscious pilot/Orch OR is the most complete theory of consciousness
Hameroff and Penrose 96 –Precursors of conscious experience embedded in the fabric of spacetime, fundamental spacetime geometry at the Planck scale
Loop quantum gravity/quantum geometry String theory, Calabi-Yau space
Consciousness, information in the fabric of spacetime geometry?
Where’s consciousness? Where’s the BING?
Our choices, actions and perceptions may be influenced by quantum Platonic values at the Planck scale (e.g. The “Way of the Tao”)
Mind Matter
Quantum spacetime geometry
Ground of being
NondualityNeutral Monism
Mind Matter
Quantum spacetime geometry
Ground of being
NondualityNeutral Monism
Penrose Objective Reduction decoherenceOrch OR measurement
Conclusions
Consciousness is a sequence of discrete quantum events at the fundamental level of spacetime geometry Such events are connected to the brain via quantum processes in microtubules Conceivably, when brain metabolism ceases, quantum information in spacetime geometry can persist, and remain entangled as a ‘soul’ Soul-like quantum information could return to the body (NDE/OOB), or an embryo or zygote (reincarnation)
Toward a Science of Consciousness 2010April 12-17, Tucson, Arizona
www.consciousness.arizona.edu
www.quantumconsciousness.org