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Visar inlägg med etikett brain. Visa alla inlägg

måndag 23 maj 2011

All in the mind.

BBC has a new serie of programs called All in the mind. Exploring the limits and potential of the mind. Link to ‘Medical Matters’ page where you can get the podcast.

2 Nov 10, Battlefield Mental Health, antidepressants and morality and Community Treatment Orders. Download.
The first program; War and ethics. The ethics of forcing psychiatric patients to take treatment in the community and whether antidepressants change our moral decision-making; military mental health, ‘community treatment orders’ or CTOs; the antidepressant research, that has found the SSRIs alter how people respond to moral dillemas like the ‘trolley problem‘, is also an intriguing look into the neurochemistry of ethical choice.
9 Nov 10, Brain injury in young offenders, an unusual case of memory loss, plus how to stop worrying. Download.
16 Nov 10, Forensic science and psychology; Testosterone and City traders; Suicide terrorism. Download.
23 Nov 10, how the senses effect memory, food and design. Download.
30 Nov 10, John O'Donoghue, Digital memories and the Work Capability Assessment. Download.
7 Dec 10, Mapping the brain, online psychological support for cancer. Download.
14 Dec 10, how social networking is changing adoption. Download.
21 Dec 2010, The 1:4 statistic; Falklands Diary & Ancestors and Intelligence. Download.

and on TV.
19 Apr 11: Anorexia and autism
26 Apr 11: Psychopathic brain
03 May 11: Personal space & claustrophobia
10 May 11: Ostracism

and

17.5.2011. Metin Basoglu,Ted Kaptchuk, and Irene Tracey.

Thousands of people across the world who survive devastating earthquakes are living with the trauma of the disaster compounded by the experiences of aftershocks. Claudia Hammond talks to Metin Basoglu, a psychiatrist who has developed a method of mass psychological treatment for survivors of disasters like these, based on his research with over 10,000 people who lived through the Turkish earthquake of 1999. Could a single session of this kind of therapy really make a difference?

How strong is the placebo effect? Can sugar pills make you feel better even when you know that's exactly what they are? Claudia talks to Ted Kaptchuk from Harvard University about his findings that for people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, knowingly taking a placebo pill twice a day improved their symptoms. But is it the placebo or the ritual that surrounds taking it?

Professor Irene Tracey, pain researcher at Oxford University, says the power of placebo is all about manipulating expectation of the person taking it. She believes this research still required deception. Her research on pain and the brain had led her to suggest that rather than using placebo, changing people's expectations of active drugs could be medically beneficial.

Also - why to read someone else's emotion your own face needs to minutely mimic their facial expressions. When the brain gets feedback from the face it gets information on what that person is feeling. And why Botox, which paralyses those muscles reduces the ability to understand emotion.

måndag 31 januari 2011

How brains are built.

Dana Foundation has an interesting article, How Brains are Built.

More information also at How Brains Are Built: Principles of Computational Neuroscience

“If I cannot build it, I do not understand it.” So said Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, and by his metric, we understand a bit about physics, less about chemistry, and almost nothing about biology.

Nima Arkani-Hamed is ready to throw Feynman in the ancient thinking garbage. How many fancy ideas are there? How long before we start to really consider also biological systems as effects of the physical reality, and LEARN from them? How many wrong assumptions in biology must go the same way as Feynmans famous ideas? Beginning from the physics of the nerves.

We must accept that much of what we 'know' is wrong, built on assumptions alone.

måndag 26 april 2010

Schrödingers cat. Dead and alive, body and mind.

The cat is in superposition, both dead and alive? A really good explination here of this complex problem.


Life is quantum mechanical? More and more evidence is accumulating. In a sense it would be the most natural explanation for our experiencies, the mind-body problem. It would even explain death as phenomen. In everyday life there are so many questions that would belong to our quantum being mirror. Perceptions, muscle work, nerve functioning, cell membrane functionings, chromosome functions, everything else but not brain (cortex?). In the ancient medicine brain was not considered as important at all, and maybe there is a point. Our brain is so very overestimated.

The acupuncture meridians make us living?, says Rakovic.
The acupuncture system is the only macroscopic quantum system in our body (while brain still seems not to be). This is the reason that consciousness is related to its MW ultralow-frequency-modulated EM field of the acupuncture system.



What is life?
Life is an ability to be deformed, stressed, and still be able to take back the former shape and function. Life is sensitiveness, perhaps most of all, and an ability to react on the stress. Life is growing, learning, accumulation of stress in memory, and an capacity to create new meaning from nonsense noise, through an ability to recognize patterns and codes (information).

If we compare to a piece of viscoelastic gel with a communicative system, what is the main difference? Both can be deformed, stressed, both can grow, both can perhaps learn something if the accumulation of energy is a 'memory'. But the gel cannot create something new out of old structures? The creeping can perhaps be seen as something new? The inherent self-organization? No, it is seen in viruses, proteins, etc. The replication? Can a replication be non-living? I think so, if the chrystallization is taken for a simple replication (many would not agree in this).

The main difference is the sensitivity for stress, and the fast relaxation, but still with a natural inertia inherent to the system (dissipative structure), creating a sence of coherence, consciousness, self and time. The coherence favour survival and it can extend also outside the organism to a superorganism, and a community. The only real big difference is the inertia and the delayed dissipation, together with superconduction minimized dissipation. 'I can decide, I feel myself a creator'. Time and consciousness belongs together very tightly. Time is measured in frequencies of dissipation? In a sence time is dissipation.

So, we have one system for creating dissipation (a string) and one for no dissipation (the bullet) at the same time. A string, for the robustness and criticality, a bullet for the possibilities and uncertainity, matter and wave. Is the Schrödinger cat both dead and alive at the same time? Are we real quantum mechanical beings?

The creation of complex superpositions in harmonic systems (such as the motional state of trapped ions, microwave resonators or optical cavities) has presented a significant challenge because it cannot be achieved with classical control signals here So, are the control then quantal?

Mae Wan Ho writes:
The vital energy, qi, of traditional Chinese medicine corresponds to coherent energy in living organisms, which is stored everywhere over the entire range of space-times. Consequently any subtle influence arising anywhere will propagate throughout the system and become amplified into global effects. In other words, the system, by virtue of being full of coherent energy, will be ultra-sensitive to very weak signals; and this may be the basis of all forms of subtle energy medicine including acupuncture.
The energy is the string, the coherence is the bullet?

She continues:
...instantaneous, noiseless intercommunication that enables the organism to function as a perfectly coordinated whole because it is liquid crystalline, containing 70% by weight of water, permeates throughout the connective tissues and into the interior of every single cell. The water molecules are aligned in ordered layers along the extensive surfaces of macromolecules and are an integral part of the liquid crystalline continuum. It makes the living matrix highly responsive to changes in pressure, temperature, pH, and electrical polarization. The ordered layers of water in the matrix also support a special kind of 'jump conduction' of protons (positive ion) that is much faster than nerve conduction and faster than ordinary electrical conduction through wires.
The macromolecules are the string, the coherent water (supraconduction?) the bullet.

Ho and Knight proposed as one of the first that the dynamically ordered layers of water molecules (bullet) associated with the oriented collagen fibres in the connective tissues (string) correspond to the acupuncture meridians, while acupuncture points correspond to gaps or junctions between the meridians (collagen fibres or connective tissue bundles).

Jumping charge of protons, that can be interpreted as magnetic holes? Are the charge induced from outside? These 'waves of holes' has a meaning for the DC-electricity, as well as 'waves of tops'; the electrons. (In spintronics even 'waves of spin' happen.)

The network effect of the tunneling between the 'patterns' is a stochastic process, the well-known 'random walk' process. The tunneling can interfere with the diff erent stochastic processes, and are eg. an activation process, and relaxing the inertia (velocity/time).


Acupuncture meridians have a double oscillating function.
Dejan Rakovic 2001:
Biophysical bases for acupunture based medicine is its resonance microwave/ultralowfrequency (MW/ULF) electromagnetic/ionic nature, as well as the quantum holographic 'electro-optical' neural-network-like-function of the acupuncture system, that is psychosomatically disordered, at the same time as the non-treshold gap-junction based self-assembling of the acupuncture system explains the extreme sensitivity on external MW/ULF EM fields.
The ionic acupuncture currents are both MW and ULF, and the longer, latter modulates MW, exactly as the windows in tissue interactions with weak EM fields. The resonance ULF (about 4 Hz) stimulate the endorphin mechanism, and the resonant MW (50 - 80 GHz) is efficient even in serious diseases. Earlier we saw that the meridians was capable to accumulate there resonant frequencies in the alpha region.

Rakovic cont.:
Acupuncture system is a dynamic structure differentiated at the locations of maxima loci of 3-D standing waves, formed as a result of coherent MW-reflexive Fröhlich excitations (up to about 100 GHz from 50 - 70 GHz) of molecular subunits in the cell membranes, proteins, microtubulis, etc. Differentiation of gap junctions with a higher density in acupuncture points (through which an evolutionary older type of inter-cell communications is achieved, including acupuncture, whose conductivity can be modulated by intra-cell pH-factor, Ca2+-ions, neurotransmitters and second messengers - and even by voltage), are slightly sensitive to voltage.
These gap junctions may function together as a 'superorganism-like' 'amplifying' junctions. Kind of a 'highway' or a zone.


Two different functions for nerve nets.
Neural and other associative nets can be seen as a deterministic system which assumes that the information processing (the dynamics) of the neural nets bears the classic-physical reality, determinism and locality. Or they can be modelled quantum-mechanically (solitonic). Or both. As the classic-physical systems, and with the quantum-mechanical corrections to their deterministic dynamics, coming from the well-known e ffect of quantum-mechanical tunnelling. It is the border territory between quantum world and classical world.

Quantum-mechanical tunneling in associative neural networks, describes the meridians as kind of 'random walk structures', requiring no energy exchange.
Being the relatively stable minima of the 'configuration-energy' space of the networks, the 'patterns' represent the macroscopically distinguishable states of the neural nets. Therefore, the tunneling represents a macroscopic quantum e ffect, but with some special characteristics. Particularly, we investigate the tunneling between the minima of approximately equal depth, thus requiring no energy exchange. If there are at least a few such minima, the tunneling represents a sort of the 'random walk' process, which implies the quantum fluctuations in the system, and therefore 'malfunctioning' in the information processing of the nets. Due to the finite number of the minima, the 'random walk' reduces to a dynamics. the quantum fluctuations due to the quantum-mechanical tunneling can be 'minimized' if the 'pattern'-formation is such that there are mutually 'distant' groups of the 'patterns', thus providing the 'zone' structure of the 'pattern' formation.

The black ball represents the 'particle' oscillating with a frequency around the bottom of the well. The presented 'con guration energy (q − V )' surface represents the 'patterns' {welldefi ned, macroscopically distinguishable physical states of the nets. Entropy represents a measure of ignorance about the physical state of the system. The density matrix is the knowledge, which represent the mutually distinguishable (i.e., orthogonal) states. That is, entropy is a measure of the classical indeterminism: a system is in a de finite state, but the state is not known with certainty, and increase of entropy coincides with the loss of the informations concerning the physical state of the system. In what state the system can be found {probabilistically) is measured by entropy (von Neumans entropy). The zones and wells need not to follow each other.


The healthy state.
Nature wants to be robust by 'minimizing' the quantum fluctuations due to the tunnelling. No disturbing jumps that distort the cell machinery! But the big number of the minima and their high 'density' or zones are necessary for enhancing the memory capabilities and conscious experience of the nets. The 'zone' structure is mutually distant groups of not-very-numerous densely packed minima, between which the information can jump.

Healthy state might be considered as an absolute minimum (ground state) of the non-local self-consistent macroscopic quantum potential of the organism (energy potential between the max and min degrees of freedom, stable and unstable conditions, in Popps terms); disorders corresponding to higher minima of the spatio-temporal changeable potential hypersurface in energy configuration (stressed condition) explains the higher sensory responses of the more excited acupuncture system. This is very close to an associative neural network and to pattern recognition as convergence of the neural networks to the bottoms of the potential hypersurface, being the attractors of neural networks memory patterns.

There are the two diff erent levels of the influence of the environment.
A. The e ffect of decoherence (decay), which destroys the quantummechanical coherence on a very short time scale. Quantum states inevitably decay with time into a probabilistic mixture of classical states.
B. The influence of the environment on the (approximately) deterministic behavior of the system {which has previously 'survived' the decoherence).

A mechanical non-living system is cooled (superconduction) to its quantum ground state, where all classical noise is eliminated. But in living systems noise cannot be eliminated.

Lubos also points out an important factor:
Von Neumann and Wigner actually argued that everything – including the macroscopic objects – evolves according to the Schrödinger equation, and the “collapse” is only done when you actually want to observe something which requires consciousness. Alternatively, you may imagine that even other people evolve into strange linear superpositions and it is just you who has the right to make the wavefunction collapse.

This has led to the anthrophic principle, evidently wrong, but in essence this statement is right. It is consciousness that collapse the random wave. This has been seen in PSI-research so many times.

September 10, 2009, a discussion on the Physics arXiv Blog
How to Create Quantum Superpositions of Living Things. Scientists try to create a quantum superposition of a living thing, such as a virus. The experiment will first involve storing a virus in a vacuum and then cooling it to its quantum mechanical ground state in a microcavity. Zapping the virus with a laser then leaves it in a superposition of the ground state and an excited one.

What could lead to the quantum ground state of a virus? The virus have the structure for it. Maybe it is because the host has a disorganized 'field' that viruses can attack?

But seen in the light of above Nature has not gone this path. In Nature it is the surroundings and the organism that do the constraints. The object is allowed to oscillate and have 'noise'.


Rakovic 2009: QUANTUM MEDICINE: PHENOMENOLOGY AND QUANTUM-HOLOGRAPHIC IMPLICATIONS
The necessity for application of Microwave Resonance Therapy (MRT) upon acupuncture points was discovered only in the early 1980's (Sit'ko et al in Kiev) as appearance of sharply-resonant characteristic eigenfrequencies of human organism - which successfully stimulated development of the second generation of coherent, the third generation of noise spectrum MW generators, and finally fourth generation of noise spectrum Controlled Energy Materials (CEM) MW generators with changeable therapeutic oscillators in mid-2000's. The coherent spectrum MW generators with manually changeable frequency (from 52 to 70 GHz) are far less suitable in practice, because of much longer seeking of the resonant frequency, dependent on individual properties of the organism and the subjective state of the patient, which can result in therapeutic mistakes and overdosing. On the other hand, the noise spectrum MW generators enable simultaneous excitation of all possibly therapeutic resonance MW frequencies (52-78 GHz), and an organism continuously resonantly responds to currently appropriate (and changeable during therapy) frequency. Finally, the noise spectrum CEM MW generators with changeable therapeutic oscillators provide unique possibility to initially record an biologically-active-zone (BAZ) MW spectrum (biologically resonant in both frequency and intensity) by BAZ-influenced changeable oscillator, and subsequently to re-emit the BAZ MW spectrum by the oscillator in this very zone - thus enabling resonant shallowing of the acupuncture disordered state in favor of deepening of the attracting acupuncture healthy state.

Rakovic:
By affecting the appropriate acupuncture points by MRT generators, remarkable clinical results of the treatment are being achieved in the prevention and therapy of stress, as well as in many psychosomatic disorders (cardiovascular, respiratory, gastro-intestinal, nefro-urologic, endocrine, gynecological, neurological, psychiatric, dermatological, orthopedic and traumatologic, ophthalmologic, ORL, stomatologic, pediatric, addictions ...) - with average efficiency of 82% in chronic and up to 100% in acute diseases, tested on population of several millions of patients of different pathologies in several thousands of MRT cabinets in Ukraine and Russia.

MRT is practical realization of the Prigogine theory of selforganization of living systems. In that context an explanation for efficiency of the MRT, as noninvasive non-pharmacological medical treatment, should be sought. So, some disorders in the organism give rise to deformation in the standing wave structure of electrical field of the organism in the MW region, which influences corresponding changes in the spatial structure of the acupuncture system, and consequently its resonant frequencies, resulting in some disease; during the therapy, applying the MW sound at corresponding acupuncture point the excited acupuncture system of the patient is relaxing to the previous healthy condition, while reaching normal resonant frequencies responses of its meridians upon the wide spectrum MW source - and following to physiological mechanisms of the acupuncture regulation the organism biochemically overcomes the disease.


Trapping light.
Mae Wan Ho: Organisms are thick with spontaneous activities at every level (100000/min?), right down to the molecules, and the molecules are dancing, even when the organisms sit still. The images obtained give direct evidence of the remarkable coherence (oneness) of living organisms. 1, 2, 3.

The macromolecules, associated with lots of water, are in a dynamic liquid crystalline state, where all the molecules are macroscopically aligned to form a continuum that links up the whole body, permeating throughout the connective tissues, the extracellular matrix, and into the interior of every single cell. And all the molecules, including the water, are moving coherent ly together as a whole.

The organism is creating and recreating herself afresh with each passing moment, recoding and rewriting the genes in her cells in an intricate dance of life that enables the organism to survive and thrive. The dance is written as it is performed; every movement is new, as it is shaped by what has gone before. The organism never ceases to experience its environment and registering its experience for future reference. The coordination required for simultaneous multiple tasks and for performing the most extraordinary feats both depend on a special state of being whole, the ideal description for which is “quantum coherence”. Quantum coherence is a paradoxical state that maximises both local freedom and global cohesion.

The organism is, in the ideal, a quantum superposition of coherent activities over all space-times, constituting a pure coherent state towards which the system tends to return on being perturbed.

An intuitive picture of the quantum coherent organism is a perfect life cycle coupled to energy (and material) flow. The perfect life cycle represents perpetual return and renewal. It is a domain of coherent energy storage that accumulates no waste or entropy within, because it mobilises energy most efficiently and rapidly to grow and develop and reproduce. Not only does it not accumulate entropy, but the waste or entropy exported outside is also minimised.

To be quantum coherent above all, is to be most spontaneous and free.

Ho:
The wave function that describes the system is also a superposition of all possibilities. It implies that the future is entirely open, and the potentials infinite. Quantum coherence is the prerequisite for conscious experience
It is why each and every one of us thinks of ourselves as “I” in the singular even though we are a multiplicity of organs, tissues and cells, and astronomical numbers of molecules. We would have a wave function that evolves, constantly informing the whole of our being, never ceasing to entangle other quantum entities, transforming itself in the process to mobilize energy most rapidly and efficiently, to intercommunicate nonlocally and instantaneously, transcending the usual separations of space and time. That’s why a ‘being’ can be in two places at the same time and different beings far, far apart can exchange information instantaneously.
- No time, no 'meter', all information in the Universe, every quantum jump is saved and the Universe is recreated (for the 'I') all the time with every jump.

Quantum information processors exploit the quantum features of superposition and entanglement for applications not possible in classical devices.

Friedman et al. go some way to answering this fundamental question by confirming that quantum superposition works as well in the macroscopic world of superconducting rings as it does in the microscopic world of photons, electrons and atoms. A macroscopic system could behave quantum mechanically if it was suitably decoupled from its environment, as in a SQUID. The question was whether a 'persistent' electric current in the ring would decay in a quantum-mechanical way, which has been shown to happen by quantum tunnelling.


At the midpoint of the figure, the measured tunnel splitting energy between the two states. The particle is creating a wave too. From Friedman et al.

Gianni Blatter in Schrödinger's cat is now fat, 2000:
If a macroscopic system can decay by quantum tunnelling, the next question to ask is whether it could also oscillate back and forth between two states. would the macroscopic state tunnel back and forth sequentially, forgetting about its quantum-mechanical make-up after each hop, or would it oscillate coherently, preserving its quantum state throughout the hops? The second process goes under the name of 'macroscopic quantum coherence' and has been something of a holy grail in this field since the 1980s — it is the coherent superposition between the two current states in the ring that corresponds to the indeterminate state of Schrödinger's dead-and-alive cat. Quantum theory predicts that if such a system is strongly coupled to the environment, it remains localized in one state and so behaves classically. At low coupling, the system follows damped, coherent oscillations between the states, with the damping rate vanishing as the coupling to the environment goes to zero (death?). This quantum mixing of the two states leads to a so-called coherence gap separating the energies of the superposition states.

The Scrödinger cat is alive because of its entanglement with the environment. It is dead because it detaches from environment. We know that, everyone knows that.

The true 'symmetric state' (the bullet) is quantal? The energy is the string?


Can living things be quantal?
This subject has been discussed extensively on the web this month. Here a video. BBC News, a photonic cluster, a tiny resonating strip of metal – only 60 micrometres long, but big enough to be seen without a microscope – can both oscillate and not oscillate at the same time, NewScientist, etc.


The coherence gap. Blatter:
One explanation for this coherence gap is as follows. Consider a particle trapped in a potential well with two minima (a double-well potential). As the particle tunnels between the two wells, it lowers its kinetic energy because of the spreading of its wavefunction over both wells. As a result, the new mixed ground state is shifted down with respect to the energy of the individual wells. This 'symmetrical' state always comes with an 'antisymmetric' partner state, which is slightly higher in energy. In fact, this excited state comes to lie at an energy above the original well energy, resulting in an excitation gap of 2*the energylevel. This phenomenon is well known in chemistry, where the two mixed or superposition states correspond to the bonding and antibonding states of a diatomic molecule.
This probability peaks when the microwave frequency matches up with the two superposition states, allowing them to identify a coherence gap. Then they 'surf the wave'.

The challenge in future experiments will be to track the appearance of this coherence gap when probing lower-energy (semiclassical) states deeper in the well. Another possibility would be to make the coherence gap vanish by introducing artificial decoherence into the system, for example by coupling the SQUID to a metallic reservoir.


The coupled qubit-resonator experiment.
http://io9.com/5497720/first-quantum-effects-seen-in-visible-object
Proving that all objects, whatever their size, obeys the same rules has long been a goal of physicists. But with quantum mechanics it is no trivial matter: the larger an object, the more easily its fragile quantum state is destroyed by the disruptive influence of the world around it. O'Connell's experiments required delicate control and a temperature of just 25 millikelvin to measure the state in the few nanoseconds before it was broken down by disruptive influences from outside.

"It was a close call, but sufficient to see a first quantum signature" "The qubit acts as a bridge between the microscopic and the macroscopic worlds," says O'Connell. By tuning the frequency at which the qubit cycled between its two states to match the resonant frequency of the metallic strip, the qubit's quantum state could be transferred to the resonator at will.the resonator was sometimes in its non-oscillating ground state and sometimes in an oscillating "excited" state. The number of times it was measured to be in each state followed the probabilistic rules of quantum mechanics.now the spooky influence of quantum physics on visible objects has been proved, can we expect to be putting an object as large as a real child's swing into an indeterminate quantum state any time soon? O'Connell thinks so. "I'd say in the near future – in the next 20 years."

Markus Aspelmeyer
Researchers have long wanted to be able to control macroscopic mechanical objects in their smallest possible state of motion. Success in achieving that goal heralds a new generation of quantum experiments.

Dead silence — and then roaring applause. I still remember that brief moment that revealed the astonishment of everyone in the audience


Preparation and detection of a mechanical resonator near the ground state of motion.
Rocheleau et al. 2010: Cold, macroscopic mechanical systems are expected to behave contrary to our usual classical understanding of reality; the most striking and counterintuitive predictions involve the existence of states in which the mechanical system is located in two places simultaneously. Various schemes have been proposed to generate and detect such states, and all require starting from mechanical states that are close to the lowest energy eigenstate, the mechanical ground state. Here we report the cooling of the motion of a radio-frequency nanomechanical resonator by parametric coupling to a driven, microwave-frequency superconducting resonator. Starting from a thermal occupation of 480 quanta, we have observed occupation factors as low as 3.8 +/- 1.3 and expect the mechanical resonator to be found with probability 0.21 in the quantum ground state of motion. Further cooling is limited by random excitation of the microwave resonator and heating of the dissipative mechanical bath. This level of cooling is expected to make possible a series of fundamental quantum mechanical observations including direct measurement of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and quantum entanglement with qubits. A widely applicable model of weakly but otherwise arbitrarily coupled two-level systems, and use quantum gate design techniques to derive a simple and intuitive CNOT construction, see Quantum logic with weakly coupled qubits.


Islands of life?
"There is this question of where the dividing line is between the quantum world and the classical world we know"

There is a problem of scaling. Pitkänen suggested a solution with 'Life as islands' in a mathemathical concept.

Rakovic.
Quantum interference effects can, in theory, lead to the emergence of new particles carrying exotic quantum numbers at a critical point.

Quantum systems with fluctuating spacetime field configurations map onto field theories in one extra dimension.

Several thermodynamic properties are shown to exhibit logarithmic corrections to scaling. In the renormalization group theory of phase transitions, such logarithmic corrections arise only in very special cases.

It is not easy to drive experimental systems through a phase transition at T=0 without impurities, doping, or magnetic fields, each of which brings in additional features. Perhaps organic molecular crystals, which are very sensitive to pressure, are the most promising candidates.

Feynman put it best: "If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics"


References.
Gianni Blatter, 2000: Schrödinger's cat is now fat. Nature 406, 25-26(6 July 2000). doi:10.1038/35017670 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v406/n6791/full/406025a0.html

M. Dugic and D. Rakovic,: Quantum-mechanical tunneling in associative neural networks. Eur. Phys. J. B 13, 781{790 (2000). http://www.dejanrakovicfound.org/papers/2000-EUR-Phys-J-B.pdf

Friedman, J. R. , Patel, V. , Chen, W. , Tolpygo, S. K. & Lukens, J. E. Quantum superposition of distinct macroscopic states. Nature 406, 43– 46 (2000). doi:10.1038/35017505 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v406/n6791/full/406025a0.html#B2

A. D. O’Connell, M. Hofheinz, M. Ansmann, Radoslaw C. Bialczak, M. Lenander, Erik Lucero, M. Neeley, D. Sank, H. Wang, M. Weides, J. Wenner, John M. Martinis & A. N. Cleland. Quantum ground state and single-phonon control of a mechanical resonator. Nature 464, 697-703(1 April 2010) doi:10.1038/nature08967 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v464/n7289/full/nature08967.html NPR
BBC

D. Raković, "Acupuncture-based biophysical frontiers of complementary medicine", Proc. 23rd Ann. Int. Conf. IEEE/EMBS, Istanbul, Turkey (2001). http://www.dejanrakovicfound.org/papers/2001-IEEE-MBE-TURKEY.pdf

D. Raković, "Quantum medicine: Phenomenology and quantum-holographic implications", Med Data Rev, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 71-73 (2009). http://www.dejanrakovicfound.org/papers/2009-MED-DATA-REV.pdf

D. Raković, M. Dugić, and M.M. Ćirković, "Macroscopic quantum effects in biophysics and consciousness", NeuroQuantology (www.NeuroQuantology.5u.com) Vol. 2, Issue 4, pp. 237-262 (2004). http://www.dejanrakovicfound.org/papers/2004-NEUROQUANTOLOGY.pdf

Dejan Rakoviv, 2009: QUANTUM MEDICINE: PHENOMENOLOGY AND QUANTUM-HOLOGRAPHIC IMPLICATIONS. Medical review UDC: 616. http://www.dejanrakovicfound.org/papers/2009-MED-DATA-REV.pdf

Dejan Rakovic, 2003: THINKING AND LANGUAGE: EEG MATURATION AND MODEL OF CONTEXTUAL LANGUAGE LEARNING. Speech and Language 2003, IEFPG, Belgrade. http://www.dejanrakovicfound.org/papers/2003-IEFPG.pdf

Wae Wan Ho:
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/QuantumJazzTaoofBiology.php
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/NTEFE.php
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/trappingLight.php

Rajiv R. P. Singh, 2010: Does quantum mechanics play a role in critical phenomena? Physics 3, 35 (2010) DOI: 10.1103/Physics.3.35 http://physics.aps.org/articles/v3/35

H. Wang, M. Hofheinz, M. Ansmann, R. C. Bialczak, E. Lucero, M. Neeley, A. D. O’Connell, D. Sank, M. Weides, J. Wenner, A. N. Cleland and John M. Martinis, 2009: Decoherence Dynamics of Complex Photon States in a Superconducting Circuit. arXiv:0909.4585v1

lördag 3 april 2010

Magnetoreceptors. Brain modelling VI.

The effects of magnetic fields have given inconclusive results. In some cases the growth is accelerated, but more often inhibated (the mitotic cycle). It also act on the metabolic rate (diffusion, migration of molecules) to complex adaptive biological processes including magnetic alignment and orientation. Cancer research has neither given any conclusive results. Sometimes a regression is seen, more often an acceleration, as if some inhibition would be taken away, often permanently (a memory function, accumulated effect?). Static fields and pulsated fields are both used, and both give effects. Those windows are different for different shapes, ages, genders, differential steps, sizes as cells, cellparts... There are a time window, and a spatial window, an entropic window and a negentropic window. A 4-D window? Moreover both electric effects and gravity effects invoke on the magnetic field. Time is very important for the function too.

Fractality and networking.
Presman also points to different functions (inhibitory for CNS) for different parts of our nervous system. CNS ought to be kept apart from peripheral nerves. In terms of subselves ('maps' = topological fractality?), seen in TGD, this maybe make sense? CNS is at a higher level than perifer nerves and autonomic nerves. It is also a phylogenetically later construction. Also different parts of CNS have different levels, with the frontal cortex at yet highest level. Is it then left or right frontal cortex that is the highest phylogenetic level? Left hemisphere has a wider network with more couplings, and Mae Wan Ho pointed to the importance of oxygen for the networks and the phylogenetic evolution. Oxygen is mostly 'in jail' in a stable triplet-molecule, but get freedom by oxidation. More branches, more differentiation, more information, is the result of the 'jail'. In lipids the C=O bonds are very important. The other signatures for life C, N, P are important for the branching, and also H, S, Fe, Ca, K, Na through their cyclotrone frequencies and resonances.

Maybe if we make these distictions the results begin to make sense?

We know very little about magnetoreception mechanisms. Magnetic fields of the properties of the geomagnetic field penetrate living matter and a receptor can thus be located anywhere in the body. Indeed, there seems to be no conclusive large organ specialized in magnetoreception, the only candidate is the pineal gland. This fact makes it very difficult to find possible magnetoreceptors and might be one reason for the very limited knowledge in this field.

Behavioural experiments have helped to characterize the magnetoreception systems in some animal groups and physiological studies have revealed some indications how animals could perceive the geomagnetic field, but with the exception of the magnetotactic bacteria, we still do not know the details of how magnetoreception works in most animals. The variety of presented magnetoreception models illustrates in how many different ways animals could perceive a magnetic field. In practice, the different models are difficult to separate, especially with behavioural studies and might not be exclusive as well. There are always a 'black box'?

At least three different principles of how animals detect magnetic fields of the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field can be distinguished. Proposed mechanisms are based on
1. permanent magnetic material like magnetite,
2. magnetically sensitive chemical reactions
3. detection of electromotive forces generated through magnetic induction.

Magnetoreception models was divided this way by Muheim in 'Animal Magnetoreception' 2001:
Biogenic magnetite
- Models based on SD magnetite
- Models based on superparamagnetic magnetite
Biochemical magnetoreception models
- Radical-pair Reactions
- Resonance Models
Induction

Quantum tools for biocontrol and -coordination.
According to Pitkänen we should distinguish also between entropic and negentropic levels. He writes in 'Quantum Model for sensory representation' p 18:
"Coordination and control are the two fundamental aspects in the functioning of the living matter. TGD suggests that at quantum level deterministic unitary time evolution of Dirac equation corresponds to coordination whereas time evolution by quantum jumps corresponds to quantum control. More precisely, the non-dissipative Josephson currents associated with weakly coupled super conductors would be the key element in coordination whereas resonant dissipative currents between weakly coupled super conductors would make possible quantum control."

Coordination, communication: superconductors,(Josephson oscillations, non-dissipative, negentropic functions)
- biological clocks, oscillators coupled to the biological activity of the organ. As clocks coordinating the brain activity, respiration and heart beat
- synchronization, the muscle contractions in various parts of heart occur in synchronized manner with well defined phase differences. Various functional disorders, as heart fibrillation, result from the loss of
- spatial coherence. And temporal coherence, I must add. Defibrillation of the heart is very much about the temporal aspects.

Control:, resonance (entropic, temporal peaks, inductors, invokes on programs for developement, enzymes.)
- biological alarm clocks are needed to tell when
- replication, the mitotic cycle rate, the proliferation degree, this is the accumulation stage, the memory stage, say when the time is ripe for the cell to replicate, hexameric rings and other rings may be of special interest
- morphogenesis, some signal (mass/energy?) must tell that it is time to begin
- differentiation to substructures during morphogenesis: for example, in case of the verterbrates the generation of somites is a very regular process starting at certain phase of development and proceeding with a clockwise precision. And I add to Pitkänens list:
The embryogenesis is one particularly sensitive developement stage. Organogenesis is more local.
Organizing centers. A signal for shape.
Phyllotaxis, is maybe one type, that is depending on dissipation (velocity differences).
-biological alarm signals, as seen in negative feedback responses (stress reactions). For this latter type the entropic message is more clear. Also plasticity, adaption to stress and changes.
- biological feed forward loops (stimulations?), seen as a preparement for action, as the bloodflow in the brain starts before the actionpotential begins. This is seen as instance in the readiness potential by Libet. Here do not belong self-organizing signals, that also can be seen as feed-forward programs.
The signal reaching the promoter first reach he signal recognition particle (SRP),where RNA is a non-coding RNA that is part of the signal recognition particle. The signal recognition particle is a universally conserved ribonucleoprotein involved in the co-translational targeting of proteins to membranes. The human genome in particular is known to contain a large amount of SRP RNA related sequence. This signal is clearly entropic.
Apoptosis.

Andersen et. al 2006. The human SRP RNA. See the many loops and hairpin structures, ideal for recieving a magnetic signal? It recognizes and targets specific proteins, pauses translation temporally. The signal sequence is eight or more nonpolar amino acid residues at its center, or six polypeptides with GTPase activity. The functional retinoic acid response element hexamer sites overlap the promoter. Retinoic acid is photon sensitive ('an eye?'). Methylation closes the eye?

I want to compare to the chinese Yin/Yang metaphor. These entropic or negentropic states are never pure, but always blended. They are also very much depending on the degrees of freedom. The holographic principle is often brought forth as some kind of solution.

Popp in his 'Biophysical aspects of the psychic situation', has an interesting wiev on this energy question for living systems.
Living systems are open systems with no energy balance, so the entropy is always maximal. Metabolic activity is dependant on temperature, but still more on the 'biophotons' for their triggering of the necessary transition states that get activation states in ELF-range. Also optical. Regulatory activity is neither chaotic, but very highly ordered with impacts on the right functions, the right time and position. But the photonic import is not high at all; one photon can handle many reactions, because is is backcreated and not longterm changed through the temperauture. One photon can trigger almost 10^9 reactions per second, provided it is synchronized (max reactions 10^5 per sec). This is also information necessary to distribute the energy in proper way; biophotons dirigate the biological functions.

One expects that the order in living matter is higher the lower the entropy,but this is then too a low energy level. How could this happen, when maximation of energy is essential for governing the dynamics? As soon as a closed system is not governed by energy conservation the entropy (or probability) grows, and it is maximized if all the available quantum states are occupied with just the same probability, instead of Bolzmann distribution. So, with increasing activation energy it is not the photons that vary, but all different energy levels contain the same numbers of photons. The energy is always enough for creation, and so there is then too a permanent photonic outflow from living matter; the matter is 'flooded' by photons and the entropy is maximized. The maximum entropy law is not violated in living matter.

The biophoton field is not heat radiation. Rather, this field stabilizes far from thermal equilibrium It corresponds to a system where phase space cells are occupied with the same probability, taking the absolute highest possible value of entropy. This distribution is far from the Boltzmann distribution of a closed system. Popp. Introduction and Physical Background.

Cooperative interactions between quantum states reduces dramatically the degrees of freedom through formation of Bose Einstein condensates and other coordinative, non-dissipative, negentropic actions. The extreme limit has only one degree of freedom, one choise, with entropy 0. So it is the degrees of freedoms that vary, the choises, not the energy. Or said in another way, the negentropic entanglements is what governs living systems. Popp say this is an ideally open system, with highest possible sensitivity, because smallest amounts of energy uptake/removal will induce dramatic changes in entropy as degrees of freedom.


Compared to the entropy S of a closed system (dotted line), the entropy S of a living system (continous line) at constant energy E is rather variable. The entropy of animated matter is always an absolute maximum, where only the number F of degrees of freedom changes between complete separation (where the entropy is even higher than for the case of thermal equilibrium) and complete coupling (where the entropy can take even the value 0). Popp, Introduction and Physical Background. This curve can quite easily be written as a sine curve, exactly as the Yin/Yang variables can be. This is one explanation of the Chi-energy? The wheel of choises.

In a music metaphor: The coordination is the string, the control is the energy moving the string?

Dissipation - non-dissipation, the chaos:order problem.
This problem is essential for the receptors and the biology. How can they distinguish the signal from the noise? How can they detect a weak change in the magnetic signal? The activation energy becomes important, and coenzymes that give a change in free energy demand (a negentropic entanglement, superposition?). Methylation would be the opposite? In this function is also some kind of memory, through the epigenetic mechanism.

Entropy is about change in energy levels, and dissipation 'eats' enegry, while negentropy and non-dissipation 'gives' or do not need energy. So one signal is a maximation of entropy, another maximation of negentropy?

Pitkänen say: "understanding the role of various frequencies in the higher level sensory representations at magnetic bodies by bringing in zero energy ontology and causal diamonds, hierarchy of Planck constants, and negentropic entanglement". And "In zero energy ontology zero energy state is quantum superposition over states with different energies of the positive energy state and of coherent state of Cooper pairs, thermal equilibra are squared roots of energy states. the energy feed to the system means that the quantum superposition changes in such a manner that the average energy of the positive energy state increases. This excites new degrees of freedom and makes the system more complex. The dissipation caused by quantum jumps reducing entanglement entropy tends to reduce the average energy and this tendency is compensated by the energy feed selecting also the most stable self-organization pattern as a flow equilibrium."

Zero energy ontology could be understood as this oscillation between entropy and negentropy states, the change in the degrees of freedom? See the updated version of Quantum Model of Sensory Representations.

The sensory representation would be a higher level signal, an entangled, negentropic signal? How would it look like? What would bring in the negentropy?

Mae Wan Ho writes in her Biological theory of everything: "branching structures are optimised for their task, maximising the area across which they can take up and release resources and minimising the energy needed to transport those resources through the organism. Mathematically, such networks have fractal, self-similar geometry, i.e., they have fractional dimensions between the usual 1, 2, or 3; and the same or similar structure over many scales, from less than a micron to tens of metres.

Filling a three-dimensional volume with a network that maximises surface area available for capturing and releasing resources creates a four-dimensional geometric entity, and that is essentially why biological variables scale as quarter powers of the body weight.

It is interesting that self-similar fractal networks give minimum energy dissipation."
She proposed that organic space-time is fractal because it optimises energy transfer, based on thermodynamic arguments "Why are organisms so complex?"

... found that metabolic rates, expressed per unit body weight, and plotted against temperature, resulted in very similar straight lines across the whole range of species. Data from 250 species, including copepods, sycamores, bananas, peas and fish were plotted, and each species closely resembled all the others, revealing a universal metabolic rate.

Actually, they did not all have exactly the same resting metabolic rate, but the maximum difference separating any of the groups, is only about 20-fold. This is smaller than the variation in metabolic rate that can occur between exercise and rest in a single organism.


Life of islands? That have to be fractal and p-adic by force? Great.


References.
Jose' M. R. DELGADO, JOCELYNE LEAL, Jose' LUIS MONTEAGUDO AND MANUEL GARCi'A GRACIA, 1982: Embryological changes induced by weak, extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields. J. Anat. (1982), 134, 3, pp. 533-551. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1167891/pdf/janat00219-0119.pdf

Mae Wan Ho, 2004: Biology’s Theory of Everything? ISIS Report 01/02/04. http://www.i-sis.org.uk/biologysTheoryOfEverything.php

Mae Wan Ho, 2009: Living with oxygen. ISIS. Report 08/06/09 http://www.i-sis.org.uk/livingWithOxygen.php

Rachel Muheim 2001: Animal Magnetoreception - Models, Physiology and Behaviour. Lund. http://www.angel.ekol.lu.se/~rachel/publications/Introductory%20Paper%20def.pdf

M. Pitkänen 2010: Quantum model for sensory representations, in: TGD INSPIRED THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS, PART I: BASIC IDEAS OF TGD INSPIRED THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
http://tgd.wippiespace.com/public_html/tgdconsc/tgdconsc.html#expc

Fritz-Albert Popp, Biophysical Aspects of the Psychic Situation. International Institute of Biophysics (Biophotonics). http://www.lifescientists.de/ib0203e_1.htm (out of function)

onsdag 31 mars 2010

Quantum observer theory. Brain modelling V.

There is going on a paradigm shift in biosciences that is as revolutionary as when Earth once was put aside from the center of Universe. This time it is our Selves that must be divided from our bodies. Our self is no longer in our brain, but outside it, orchestrating the body. This is done through a window of awareness, creating the illusion that it is our body doing all these things. But the curtain is not tight. We can see through it, if we only realize it is that we do. Some of those phenomen are as simple as dreaming, other are paranormal as psychokinesy and poltergaist phenomen. Time concept changes and many-world concepts arrive. One of the earliest to understand this was Evan Harris Walker.

Walkers consciousness theory.
In his book, The Physics of Consciousness, Walker quoted Einstein as follows: Warning: In Quantum Mechanics, the results of any action are determined by the observer rather than any Newtonian law of physics and, if this phenomenon is true in three dimensions, it must also be true in the fourth! how we would know if someone ever actually changed history retroactively as that new history would be all we remember. He said there would be some subtle indicator or something that looked like a coincidence.

He originated the ‘Quantum Observer Theory’ relating to state vector collapse that is of significance to parapsychology. Both of these theories have been supported by extensive and predicted experimental results. He has also contributed to the fields of neurophysiology, specifically to the mechanism of synaptic functioning, and in psychology to understanding optical illusion phenomena.

What is consciousness and psi phenomena?
Who are we; what are we; why are we here?” When we ask, “What is the nature of consciousness"; can neither science nor religion explain who am I? In Walker’s opinion, his answer to this question incidentally also answers the question: what are psi phenomena; what are their cause? Psi phenomena have been incorporated into a theory known as the Quantum Observer Theory of Psi Phenomena.

Walker insist on the importance of looking beyond materialism. Through the development of physics, from Newton's laws to Bell's inequalities and EPR paradox he argues for the importance of consciousness for the understanding of quantum theory, and especially for the measurement problem. New solutions to problems within physics might help resolve philosophical problems with materialism; perhaps, for example, by radically altering the physical terms, and especially the time concept is a reason to stagging developement. The many-worlds idea needs also attention. He underline the primacy of the subjective over the objective, a new, radical idea. This has relevance for the time concept, as well as for the consciousness and self. Ego and matter are important as entangling tools?

There is nothing new in the suggestion that there are difficulties with quantum mechanics and that those difficulties may have something to do with the idea of an "observer". But there we stagger, it is not so easy to go further. We have to look at things with new eyes. Let's give it a try.

"Only in the most exceptional circumstances do we ever find quantum mechanical effects entering the macroscopic world", is his statement, and in fact, if the fundamental laws of physics are quantum mechanical, then every physical effect is quantum mechanical to some degree. Quantum mechanics infects every physical structure at every level.

Walker attempts to tie together quantum theory and neuroscience by arguing that quantum tunnelling has a vital role in synaptic transmission. The synaptic vesicle release is an ordinary biochemical process triggered by an electrochemically-driven influx of calcium into the pre-synaptic neuron , calciumwaves (Suedhof & Scheller, 2001), and its effectivity is bound to magnetic fields through the cyclotrone frequencies (Liboff). In photosynthesis we have also seen that quantum tunnelling is at work. In ATPase there are proton transfer, and the chirality is one regulator (electrostasis). Enzymes are particularly important for this regulation, often coupled to vitamins and coenzymes.

The unpredictability comes from the entire history of uncertain scatterings and interactions at the molecular level and below. In conventional quantum-mechanical terms, if it never "collapsed" at any other moment, the quantum state of the brain would have to "collapse" at a great number of synaptic firings (synchronously?) in order to make each of those firings definitely happen at moments definite in biological terms. In this task is the inhibition very important, creating some kind of resistance in the tissues. Non-linear, non-dissipative states arise; the hallmark of life?

He wanted to "integrate synaptic firings into a single quantum mechanical conscious existence". To do this, he built on the idea of quantum tunnelling at synapses. "This requires the electrons which are involved in synaptic tunnelling, going on to jump from synapse to synapse using soluble RNA molecules as stepping stones". The classical picture of an electron as a hopping object and a quantum picture of its wavefunction are both invoked in the picture. The electron wavefunction in the brain is an irreducibly many-body object that reduce the degrees of freedom very strongly. Neural electrons are indistinguishable not just in the sense that they are all identical, but also in the sense that, on biological timescales, they are inseparably entangled. Walker refers to "interlaced collections of quantum potentialities weaving together the possibilities". He has also a non-linear modification to the Schroedinger equation. The cat cannot be both dead and alive in biology.

The theory of consciousness proposed by Eccles (1986) also suggests an influence of mind on quantum uncertainties at synapses.

Free will.
Walker claims that quantum possibilities allow us a non-illusory free will, stating that "for will to have any meaning, it must be possible for the mind to affect events - for the mind to control the body".
Mind decides among the elements of a quantum superposition, say in a receptor. Where do the mind keeps the computational power required for this decision making? If in the brain, the brain should be capable of detecting and analysing the structure of an uncollapsed superposition so as to match the willed choice to the collapsed outcome. Maybe that is the readiness potential? The choice seems to be made before that interaction comes into play. If the decision making is extra-bodily, then we have a new homunculus problem? We have transported the observer outside our body? If it is "observers" who bring about "collapses", then our conventional picture of the universe may be radically incorrect.

Evolutionary forces wrong too?
The universe could have continued as a vastly complicated superposition (implicit order by Bohm) until such time as entirely physical processes allowed observers to evolve within some part of that superposition. Not until that time would it seem to be necessary for any "collapse" to occur (explicit order). The materialization and evolution can go very fast then. Evolution jumps. What drives the jumps? When we look at that question we see that the physics need to be renewed too. It is the Physics in the boundary of life that is so otherwise, the physics at low temp., near 0 Hz magnetic frequencies, the Planck constant and cosmological constant problem etc. A new world will rise from the ruins of our old reductionistic science. A quantum world?


There is a hierachical order of terms which may describe the organization of living systems. On the base, is matter itself, then energy, then the distribution of energy over the matter (entropy). This induces and describes what we call "potential" information, after which we arrive at its highest organizational form, what we call "consciousness" Popp, F.A. Memory and morphogenic fields are somewhere in between.

A central task of an interpretation of quantum mechanics is to explain how and at what level quantum unpredictability is resolved. Here TGD has done a great job.

Macroscopic systems, and microscopic.
When we look at macroscopic systems we use a measure apparatus, also macroscopic, that only sample in quite big bits, and we have no tool to look at those measurement results further. We only have to accept them. The wavefunction is not usually seen. Only in certain conditions we can see it, as in low temp. physics. Supratransition also happen at higher temp. Von Neumann has talked about this problem. EPR paradox and Bells inequalities are also effects of this kind. In nature we usually see a Gaussian distribution that reflects the quantum basic physic? A big part of the problem is our measurement technique, and its low resolution properties. It has no transparency. It is not necessarily the nature that don't respond, it is we that don't percieve it.

Quantum consciousness in metaphysics and altered state consciousness.
In metaphysics are the chakras as instance. They are not material, and they can be experienced. Different chakras has a different frequency, and that would mean a different 'memory' or 'message', also experienced as emotion. Emotions are cognitions. I have experienced those chakras, and when I come to number 6 and 7 (especially) I clearly can feel how my face fleet in waves. It is a very sweet feeling. Some day ago I realised that Shivas dance was just this experience of a fleeting, wavelike existence. Let a magnetic wave go through your body (transverse) and you can imagine the effects.

Also out of body experience is about this. The peculiar thing is that you can actually see. Without brain? You can see yourself sitting there on the chair and the one sitting there know of nothing. While you are up there levitating, and know everything, and it is too a floating existence I have experienced myself.

When something bad happens you can feel this too. Suddenly your feet doesn't obey you. You simply sack and fall. You don't swim, don't get an epileptic attack, but something like that.

Time is also like this. It comes and goes. In trauma situations a second is so long, or the opposite. Flow is when time feels as nothing at all. Your inner, personal, subjective clock doesn't always follow the official, objective time. Time may also go in 'slow motion'. Yet we can have a very fast transmission of cognitions in these moments. Subjective time may also go to 'the dark quantum side'? Time is a trickster. Everyone has experienced this. Or take an animal that with an accuracy of minutes can know when it is time for dinner, or when you come home. How is that done?

What part has the consciousness in this? Is it quantum mechanical and non-local entanglement? Correlations are results of that kind of entangled systems, as Walker said. The correlations can be spatial or temporal. Or non-tidal, eternal. This is very much like the psi phenomenon. In fact psi would be predicted by quantum mechanics,if we would not have knownof them before. Psi phenomen is obligatory, in fact.

Michael Persinger, Todd Murphy, etc. has done research on this.

We experience consciousness and self diffusely, and empathy and compassion often goes outside our bodies, when we feel how it would be to be 'in their shoes' (mirrorneurons). In out of body experiences we levitate up in space, and the picture of God is often as Gods eye above us. God can be thought of as looking into the world from all angles around the room, and be different from the system within which we are acting.

The use of vision as a metaphor (I like that particularly well) for knowing and consciousness creates a distance or split between what is called the subjective I (a disembodied consciousness) and one or more selves. We can also locate self-consciousness in a place one imaginatively steps back to, or up to. The feelings and emotions going on in one's bodily self can be displyed or hided, taken a distance to (disentangle from), or it can extend compassion to parts of the self. As instance in an accident sometimes happen that people gets incredible strength,or pain can be left in emergency situations, giving mor energy for other things. Compassion can be given to the abused child that I was once. Forgiveness can be given to already dead parents etc.

In this disentangled state (from our subselves) we can 'look around' and notice other systems, imagine other ways of doing things and ask, "What if...?" This wider consciousness opens up the possibility of making other choices or actings according to different principles, that is, the possibility of having free will.

Chaos can also achieve a disentanglement through forceful fields that break the entanglements. This is done through strong emotions, pain, psychoses etc. The emotions widen the behavioral field (inhibition loss), often with bad consequences. In the oppurtinities to make different choices Walker saw the brain as a chaos-operator. Some few random-processes in the braincircuits can give a cascade of different new effects and in that way amplify and give forceful effects on the consciousness. In states of strong entanglement no such effects are seen, but brain inhibits changes and acts as a stabilizer. Personality and ego is also stabilizing.

In schizophrenia is seen that a weak ego sometimes is strongly correlated to psychoses. The ego is the degree of entanglement between the subselves. In cases of a bipersonal disorder there has chrystalized two different persons, often radially different, as in 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'.

The analogy to 'the third eye' is very close. It is a diffuse eye; ordinary eye is a very strict sense. Also chakras are outside the body, where a wider consciousness is described.

40 Hz consciousness depends on inhibition, but if that is disturbed then we experience altered consciousness? Also the other way, we don't use brain much at all. So brain consciousness is experienced as awareness in a window 7 - 40 Hz, outside that is altered state consciousness. What about the hippocampal 600 Hz pulse then? Has it something to do with the structure of hippocampus? And the function? Hippocampus make superpositions. It is a formidabel black hole machine. The weaver?

Is that to experience the dimensions?



References.
Matthew J. Donald, 2001: A Review of The Physics of Consciousness by Evan Harris Walker. PSYCHE, 7(15), October 2001. http://www.theassc.org/files/assc/2493.pdf

Eccles, J.C. 1986: Do mental events cause neural events analogously to the probability fields of quantum mechanics? Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 227, 411-428.

O.I. Fisun , a & A.V. Savina, 1992: Homochirality and long-range transfer in biological systems. Biosystems Volume 27, Issue 3, 1992, Pages 129-135 doi:10.1016/0303-2647(92)90068-A

F. A. Popp, 2001: Biophysical Aspects of the Psychic Situation, http://www.lifescientists.de/ib0203e_1.htm (this site is out of function.)

Suedhof, T.C. & Scheller, R.H. 2001: Mechanism and regulation of neurotransmitter release. Chapter 4 of Cowan, Suedhof, and Stevens (2001).

Evan Harris Walker 2000: The Physics of Consciousness. The Quantum Mind and the Meaning of Life. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.

http://www.bss.phy.cam.ac.uk/~mjd1014/
http://www-physics.lbl.gov/~stapp/stappfiles.html
http://www-physics.lbl.gov/~stapp/QMA.doc

fredag 26 mars 2010

Magnetobiology. Brain modelling IV.

There is still no magnetobiological theory, says Binhi 2002. This is due to the paradoxal nature of the biological action of weak low-frequency electromagnetic fields, whose energy is incomparable by far with the charachteristic energy of biochemical transformations. This all makes the very existence of the domain quite dubious with most of the scientific community, despite a wealth of experimental evidence.

Some EM-fields may be a hazard to human health, other invoke on the climate, as significant as temp, humidity.

Biological magnetoreceptors are not recognized yet, but it is important to percieve the way in which the signal of a magnetic field is transformed into a response of a biological system. Libhoff, 1997: Magnetic reversals may have also helped determine the nature of the interaction mechanism between GMF and living systems. Mechanisms based on fixed magnetic moments may not be capable of adapting to the reversal process. A better case can be made for an ion cyclotron resonance interaction. Direct involvement in the cell-signaling activities of biological ions would provide such flexibility, and also point to a broader role for the GMF in modulating CNS function. This has also implications for the memory. Gravity as gravitomagnetism maybe too is a factor.

The body is no barrier for the magnetic field, and all particles in the tissues will be affected. But not all particles are involved in transferring the signal. Primary processes of the interaction - magnetic field:matter - is pure physical in electrons, atoms, molecules. Charged particles seem to be intermediary between field and next biochemical level. Proteins, especially enzymes are regulated in that way, at a subtle level. Interim ions may shift the metabolism. The effect of the field is seen in the densities of metabolic products. Means the interaction hits somewhere in between - on the phase transitions?

Life-support parameters and behavior of individuals and populations, that is collective transformations, a correlating signal (the fish-stim effect; collective consciousness at population level?). Intermediary levels of the organization of a living system, such as biophysical, biochemical and physiological levels are often not considered in experiments, although they affect the experimental results. Magnetism is therefore an uncontrolled cause-and-effect black box. The results we get are not complete.

The quantum ion state can also interfer on protein cavities. Magnetic and electric fields (DC, AC) can be combined in so many different ways. Magnetic momentum, nuclear spin and non-linear response of a protein to the redistribution of ion probability density are other problems. Dissociation probability in ion-protein complex, ion cyclotron frequencies, dimensionless frequencies, amplitude of the variable components of a magnetic field and pulsed and 'vacuum' magnetic fields, so the problem is very complex. Molecules rotating inside protein complexes give molecular gyroscopes and non-thermal resonance effects. Amplitude interference spectra are very important. I just point to these factors, I'm far from qualified to get a grasp on them.

Biomagnetism is the magnetic fields produced by various biological systems, and nanoparticles within.
Magnetobiology is about biological mechanisms, effectiveness and reactions of the action of a weak magnetic field < 1 mT. It is believed that the action of such lies below the trigger threshold for protective biological mechanisms, and are therefore prone to accumulate at biological subcellular and genetical level (Binhi p. 3.).

Libhoff writes 2007: "Based on decades of experimental evidence an excellent argument can be made for the existence of a fundamental functional relationship between living systems and electromagnetic fields. We have previously hypothesized that this relationship can be expressed in terms of a field vector whose source is the distribution of electric polarization within the system and which has both a phylogenetic and ontogenetic time dependence. Ion cyclotron resonance (ICR)-like magnetic signals have resulted in physiologic changes in many in vitro and in vivo model systems and have been applied medically with success to bone repair and spinal fusion. This type of local ICR-like therapy has recently been broadened into a holistic application following the remarkable discovery that the whole-body bioimpedance is sharply dependent on ICR signals. We relate this observation to the integrated electric polarization vector, in turn a measure of the double layer charge distribution at the cell membrane. This discovery, already being applied to a number of clinical problems, lends strong support to the concept of an overarching electromagnetic framework for living systems."


Artificial magnetic fields.
Municipal magnetic noise with its discrete components 60 (50) Hz and harmonics, is one or two orders of magnitude higher than natural background. It was called EM-pollution first time by Becker. Small hyperweak signals are inconsistent with current-wiev - a 'that's impossible type'. Some of these effects are only found at ultra-low AC magnetic intensities, on the order of .05 μT. Low frequency range for households and normal industry are 10 - 100 Hz, the same as in medicine. Still this range is thought to be safe. These fields show often a delayed, accumulating effect months and even years later. The problem is that these fields are also the 'service' fields hard to do without; power transmission lines, cars, TVset, industries, computers, mobile phones, especially 3G-phones. Sensitive people may react at these levels.

Half a meter (the force field diminish rapidly with distance) from apparatuses can the following fields be measured, in μT:
Washing machine, 5
Refrigerator, 0,1
Conditioner 1
Electric meat grinder 2
Vacuum cleaner 2
Majority of office and public vehicles, 0,1 - 1, peak values may be three orders of magnitude higher. Topp values may be 2000 Hz. (p. 6.)

Standing waves from artificial ambient fields due to badly earthed electrical loops, inductions etc. is also a problem. They can be very powerful, as seen from Muncaster Castle in England.

Hallucinations from these fields are reported by Persinger etc.. Hallucinations have come from what could be broadly described as weak, complex, time-varying magnetic fields, called EIFs, very difficult to measure, because the equipment is not good for it. They are low frequency (approx 0.1 to 30 Hz, and certainly under 50Hz) and a moderate intensity (from 100 to 5000 nT) or amplitude (or, more correctly, flux density). Pulse frequence may be in msec or sec, up to minute. In the laboratory, complexity has been implemented in a number of ways, including (1) increased varying amplitudes and amplitude modulation, (2) varying frequencies and frequency modulation, (3) using patterned amplitude-modulated fields, (4) using complex patterns of pulsed fields, and (5) using rotating fields.

Maurice Townsend has written about 'Artificially Occurring EIFs' and reports that in Moscow "the magnetic fields at frequencies around 1 Hz were around 10 times higher in the suburbs, and 100 times higher in the city centre, compared to the countryside. In the city centre fields up to 250 - 300 nT at a frequency of 0.5 Hz were measured. These are strong enough to constitute EIFs. The fields were attributed, unsurprisingly, to electrical equipment in the city." But one must remember that the biological sensitivity is bigger in lower background fields, too.

In the construction of buildings this is known, but surprices may still arise. The environment change all the time, and magnetic waves are holistic and complex.

Townsend continues: "the 0.1 to 30 Hz frequency range of varying fields is generally quiet. This is because most electrical and electronic devices operate using a mixture of DC (for motors, electronic power supplies, etc.), mains frequency (AC 50/60 Hz) and higher. The DC (static) element is rarely pure, being derived from mains supply with rectifiers (often accompanied by transformers). The resultant DC current has a slight voltage ripple on it. However, due to the way rectifiers are designed, this ripple will typically be at mains frequency or above and so not contribute to EIFs. Similarly, the mains supply itself can be distorted by the electrical loads placed on it by various bits of electrical equipment. This gives rise to harmonics but these, too, have a higher frequency and lower amplitude than the mains fundamental frequency. So most domestic electrical appliances, as well as the mains supply itself, will not contribute to EIFs." The static fields are more important; they give a more stable signal? DC-current is 'the current of injury'; a signal for regeneration and consciousness (Becker).

Probably the most important source of low frequency magnetic fields is the simple movement, or mechanical vibration, of magnetic materials, especially metals. All objects with high magnetic permeability distort the earth’s magnetic field around them, although they may not be magnetised. When objects containing especially iron are vibrated, they drag the magnetic field distortion around with them. Vibration at a rate of between once every ten seconds (0.1 Hz) and thirty times a second (30 Hz) will cause an EIF. It doesn’t need to be a constant frequency motion since, as we have seen, varying fields actually work better! Most motors in domestic use are likely to produce rotating fields at EIF frequencies. They commonly occur in such things as pumps (central heating, fridges, air-conditioning), fans (computers, air-conditioning, some ovens), washing machines, vacuum cleaners, even hi-fi equipment and hair dryers. Such appliances can produce quite powerful rotating magnetic fields.

This is valid also to the brain containing iron. Also big joints halt the signal and make barriers for the energy transfer (Presman).

Zones, time, distortions, changes.
There is bound to be some critical distance, or zone, away from the source where the field amplitude will be correct. All you have to do is stay in that critical area for long enough and, if you are susceptible and the field varies enough over time, you may well get hallucinations. EIFs would probably extend no further than a metre or two from a source if the background is normal.

If there was a higher than usual ambient magnetic field, the range would decrease. Conversely, in an area of lower than usual ambient field, the range would increase (compare to Moscow). One might reasonably ask, how can you live in an area of lower than normal geomagnetic field? Metals can distort the local magnetic field, as we have seen, and create areas where the local magnetic field is actually lower than average. These are also important hallucinatory areas, and need not to be moving. Shape of the source, and different angles are important.

The way in which the localized fields are varying and changing (i.e., their complexity) are crucial rather than overall ambient frequencies, acc. to Townsend. Studies have also argued that large transient magnetic pulses and tectonic events could be associated with instantaneous experiences and events in brain. Some studies failed to find any noticeable magnetic signature of spontaneous cases. EIFs could be transient, volatile instances that may accompany an experience or event more or less instantaneously (such as a pulse or train of pulses). Measuring the area at any given time may actually miss the important characteristics. Magnetic shifts may come and go or exist as a kind of constantly available distorted undercurrent that is more or less present all of the time (in a modulated wave).

Human movements across fields.
Another interesting source of EIFs is human movement! Although you may not have any moving fields within your home, you might move through reasonably strong, complex static fields sufficiently often to produce an EIF in your brain. If you think about it, walking between two areas of high magnetic field, with a low area in between, is no different from having a varying field pass through your head as you sit still. Laboratory studies suggest that (artificial) magnetic fields can induce potent hallucinatory perceptions in certain observers.

Infrasound and magnetic fields.
Infrasound is just like audible sound (a compression wave going through the atmosphere). Acoustic gravity waves are named so because they oscillate between gravity and the elasticity (compressibility)of the Earth. Temperature zones (density zones) are important. Ocean waves, avalanches, earthquakes and certain wind conditions (eg. storms, hurricanes and wind shear around mountain ranges) etc. can produce infrasound. Anything with an engine in it can induce infrasound too, particularly any form of transport and movement.

Typically, background infrasound may enter a resonant 'cavity' and be amplified. A resonant cavity, in this case, is a closed volume of space whose dimensions cause the waves to bounce backwards and forwards (or resonate). Tao hum? A room in a building may be of a suitable specific dimensions (which depends on the wavelength of the infrasound) to cause such resonance.

Pigeons can hear infrasound down to 0,05 Hz, and an acoustic avian map for accurate navigation is proposed consisting of infrasonic cues radiated from steep-sided topographic features. The source of these infrasonic signals is microseisms continuously generated by interfering oceanic and atmospheric waves. Having an acoustic map might also allow clock-shifted birds to test their homeward progress and select between their magnetic and solar compasses.

One confounding problem with infrasound is that it operates at the same frequencies as EIFs and also can induce hallucinations. In fact, infrasound and magnetism may have the same source. Schmitter, 2010, writes: "Our model calculations show the existence of pressure resonances characterized as acoustic duct modes with well defined frequencies. These resonances not only generate infrasound but also modulate the charge density and the velocity field and in this way lead to electric and magnetic field oscillations in the 0.5–20-Hz range that can be monitored from a distance of several kilometers." As seen earlier the infrasound could be linked to plasmoids too. Gravity effects must also be considered.

Spots and persons. Location influence the perception.
There are differences between places, often rooms, spots in rooms and also between different persons, their gender and age and constitution. Not everyone experience hallucinations. Factors may also interfere with the interaction environment:individ.

Many studies have carried out detailed surveys of such locations and revealed potential contributing influences from (1) contextual and situational specific factors, (2) diverse lighting levels, (3) drafts, (4) infrasound levels, (5) the localized distribution and changes in geomagnetic fields (GMFs), (6) time-varying electromagnetic fields (EMFs), and (7) transient tectonic events, (8) accumulation with time, to name but a few.

Hallucinations and misperceptions, see Townsends excellent article. A degree of increased neuronal hypersensitivity and susceptibility to these fields have been shown (as instance as induced epileptiform activity) ranging from nebulous and ambiguous sensations to extreme and complex hallucinations, also spontaneously occurring magnetically induced hallucinations. Here discrete shifts and changes in the localized magnetic field would correlate with sympathetic changes (galvanic skin response, ANS-response) and shifts in the neurophysiology, perception, and behavior and one need not necessarily assume any degree of paranormality involved in the experience or event, although it is often interpreted as a paranormal or sacred experience.

The discussion outlined above is analogous to that of searching for seizure-type patterns that may indicate neural storms in an EEG (electroencephalograph) scalp recording of a suspected epileptic patient. In some patients, seizures can only be distinguished around the time of the ictal event. In others, there can be a more constantly available abnormality in the EEG, which can be picked up during inter-ictal periods. In both cases the researcher is interested in the underlying mechanisms mediating how and where the anomalies occur, how they are sustained, how they propagate, and how they disappear--if indeed they do. The EEG has been an invaluable tool to the researcher interested in detailing cortical electrical anomalies and how these relate to neuro-cognitive processes. In essence the task is no different from that of detailing magnetic anomalies, which may exist as invisible thunderstorms (neural storms) in certain locations that may occasionally strike at vulnerable brains.

Hallucinations from Muncaster Castle, England
Braithwaite et al. reported hallucinations and related physiological components included (1) sudden headaches/migraines, (2) eyes watering, (3) runny nose, (4) ringing in the ears, and (5) bouts of dizziness. These reported sensations can occur alone or can be accompanied by other haunt-type components in some instances. Some observers have reported the strong feeling of a "sensed presence," being watched, hearing footsteps, distinct sounds of children crying/screaming and a periodic feeling of foreboding. Also that the old heavy door opened abruptly and apparently of its own accord. As these experiences often happen while in the center room, one typically attribute the sensations to the room, often with a paranormal interpretation concerning it.

For this room a large and significant difference in magnetic field amplitude was measured between the sensors. This difference was in the region of 47,000 nT; the fields measured by the baseline sensor were far higher (in the region of 77,000 nT) than what would be predicted for the castle area (49,000 nT: British Geological Survey data), and the fields measured in the pillow region of the bed were lower (around 30,000 nT). To account for the increased fields measured in the baseline area, Braithwaite suggested contributions from both man-made and local geological sources combined.

The reduction in amplitude in the pillow area was attributed primarily to a possible localized anomaly created by the heavy metal/iron lattice bed supports underneath the mattress. This lattice did not extend to the pillow area, but covered an area approximately from the ankles to the upper shoulders/chest area. The presence of such a magnetically permeable object may well have been distorting the background field away from the pillow area (which is supported by wood) and thus reducing the amplitudes in that area. There was a significant difference between the magnitudes of variance measured by the sensors. The variance in the crucial pillow area was far greater than that measured on the nearby baseline sensor placed in the same room a number of meters away. This difference occurred throughout the measuring period (4 hr) and appeared to be a constant component of the background variance.

The range of variability encountered was not far from that used in laboratory studies of brain stimulation. They are also similar to, and above, the levels of variability measured in other field studies that were directly linked with questionnaire responses of strange perceptions and feelings. Baseline measurements across both this and the original study have revealed a standard deviation of magnetic variability in the region of 15 nT to 20 nT, increasing to 30 nT to 50 nT in areas associated with anomalous reports. These values are comparable to other field studies. For instance, Wiseman et al. 2003 measured fields varying from around 11 nT, which were also linked to concurrent increases in anomalous interpretations given in questionnaire responses from individuals at that time. Sensitive people show increased signs of temporal-lobe instability or particular forms of attentional biases.

Internal background varied between 5 nT and 50 nT, with variations within this range. An average standard deviation would be around 2 to 8 nT. Transient pulses very similar to those reported here have also been documented in the region of around 50 nT to 100 nT.

Note also that in the laboratory it is typical for participants to undergo at least 20 to 30 brain exposure before any experiential effects take place and are reported. This highlights a possible indirect mechanism that requires a more prolonged period of exposure before such energetic components are fully recruited into the experiential gestalt. In the natural setting, as long as the varying fields are readily available, it is likely that at some point favorable positions, level of arousal, and an appropriate degree of susceptibility could co-occur, the consequence of which could be some form of anomalous experience or interpretation.

In certain circumstances, it may not be necessary for the magnetic anomaly to be present to set up and sustain its experiential influence. Instead, merely being present for a period sufficient to initiate a process--which can then be continued, amplified, and propagated within neural structures--may be enough.

Common bereavement apparitions are hallucinatory experiences evoked by transient electrical instability within the (glucocorticoid) sensitized mesiobasal temporal lobes. All first hand reports of ‘postmortem apparition’ experiences were collected by Persinger 1988, from a published data base. The days on which the experiences occurred displayed significantly greater (mean increase = 10 gamma) geomagnetic activity compared to the days before or afterwards. These results suggest that bereavement apparitions are situation-specific hallucinations evoked by microseizures within sensitized temporal lobe structures; the occurrence of these microseizures might be facilitated by suppression in melatonin levels that could accompany sudden increases in geomagnetic activity.

Perceptions are very much correlated by both brain activity and environmental activity.

Binhi & Rubin 2007, discusses the 'kT problem paradox' and magnetic nanoparticles found in many organisms, long-lived rotational states of some molecules within protein structures, spin magnetic moments in radical pairs, and magnetic moments of protons in liquid water. In a later article he puts this in relation to cancer and leukemia in children. This is very much debated after the power-line report hinting at the same thing. Stress is also seen diminishing the cancer frequency. Here is some relation?

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