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Quantum Models of Consciousness an Introduction
Disclaimer:
Those who claim to understand Quantum Physics,
Certainly do not understand it (Niels Bohr)
Roadmap
Why Quantum Physics? The Measurement Problem. Stapp’s dualistic model + experiment Penrose’s ORCH OR model + exp. Transcendental aspects of Consciousness
Why Quantum Physics?
ASPECT NEWTONIAN QUANTUM
Free Will Deterministic Probalistic
Unity of C. Atomistic Holistic
Computation Sequential Parallel
Baars, Trends in Cognitive Science, 61, jan. 2002
Conscious processing differs from non-conscious processing by the widespread connectivity of brain regions involved.
Simultaneity of brain signals
Brain signals from quite different brain regions sometimes show no phase difference (< 1msec) …
A crash course in Quantum Physics
photon
Half transparent mirror
Classical Physics:
It is |a> OR |b>
|a>
|b>
Quantum physics: It is |a> AND |b> !!!!!!!!! (superposition)
Measurement ‘causes’ the ‘collapse
Fotondetector triggers sound b
Fotondetector triggers sound a
The Measurement Problem
Bell proved that ALL local realistic theories give the wrong results (QP is complete)
So the measurement really does ‘collapse’ the superposition of states to one observed state.
Non locally! (Einstein Podolsky Rosen)
Non local correlations
photon
Half transparent mirror
|b>
Venus
Mars|a> +
|b>|a> +
Mirror
So what constitutes a measurement?1. Subjective Reduction
Consciousness is the crucial measurement device. (Wigner, von Neumann, Walker, Stapp)
Photon |a>
Photon |b>
So what constitutes a measurement?2. Objective Reduction
Quantum gravity constitutes the objective reduction criterium. (Penrose)
Number of particles in superposition * time
Time
Collapse
Stapp: Consciousness causes the collapse?
von Neumann argued that all measurement devices are physical and should be described quantum physically thus should also be in superposition
Consciousness may be non-physical? A dualistic perspective (Stapp)
Hall et al, Foundations of Physics 7 (1977), pp. 759-67
Experimental Set Up
Quantum Process
Measurement equipment
First Observer
Second Observer
The pre-observer experiment
photon
Half transparent mirror
|a>
|b>mixer
delay
switch
PRE-OBSERVATION
None
Conscious
I was first
Results of Hall et al
Dependent variable: guess by second observer if there was an early observer
9 series, total number of guesses: 554 50% correct (exact!)
But: delay was 1 microsecond
And : dependent variable was a conscious measure
The pre-observer experiment
photon
Half transparent mirror
|a>
|b>mixer
delay
switch
PRE-OBSERVATION
Tape
None
Conscious Evoked potential
Hoped for ERP results
With pre-observation
Without pre-observation
Nonconscious processing Conscious processing
|a> |a>
(|a> + |b>) |a>
Penrose’s ORCH OR model
• Mathematcal insight is non-computable• Collapse is non-computable• This moment = a moment of consciousness• Between these ‘collapses’, quantum computation for
about 100 msecs goes on till quantum gravity causes the next collapse.
• Main stream physics: It’s Impossible in the brain • Hameroff: screening & errorcorrection by special
structures (micro tubulin)
Visual Consciousness
Woolf & Hameroff, Trends in Cognitive Science5-11, nov. 2001
Quantum decoherence times in Brain
Tegmark (Phys.Rev. E 61, 4194, 2000) calculates : 10-12 seconds.
Hagan et al (in press) calculates 10-4 seconds. Can we measure these times? Foton echo technique:
2 laser pulses on a quantum system First creates superposition Second results in echo if superposition still exists
Empirically: photon echo exp.
laseraom
Timing generator
Sampling oscilloscope
aom
Retina
Eyediffuser
detector
pinhole
Pulse 1: excitation of Rodopsin into superpositionPulse 2: generates an echo if superposition still exists
Hoped for Results
Any echo time > 10 -6 sec should be considered to be a strong support for Penrose- Hameroff’s theory.
Such a result should be an incentive to search for the brain mechanisms that screen off decoherence in order to build better quantum computers.
QuickTime™ and aCinepak decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Transcendental aspects of Consciousness?
• Some, so called paranormal, phenomena seem to transcend space and time.
• These are very controversial.
• Nonetheless there is rather strong empirical evidence for phenomena like Extra Sensory Perception and Psychokinesis.
• And how about pre-sentiment?
What is presentiment?
Ask Ian Thorpe,
The world record holder 100 meter sprint. He visited New York…….
It is sept. 11, around 9h00. Ian takes the elevator to the upper floor of the WTC building to take some pictures…….
Half way up he suddenly realizes he has forgotten his camera.
So goes down to return to his hotel. When he leaves the building he looks back. It just after nine now. …...
Thanks for your concern and support following the New York tragedy ……
From Thorpe’s website
Was Ian just lucky?
Ed Cox (1960)
Compared train ridership on days with and without a train accident.
He found that on accident days there were significant less people on trains.
(Note: Utts redid the analyses and found a smaller effect after correction for holidays)
1996:Presentiment experiment
Presentiment is reported as the apparent psycho-physiological effect of a future emotional ‘cause’.
Procedure Presentiment ‘trial’
Time
SubjectHitsButton
0 5
OrCalm
Blank screen
baseline
Random!!
Skin C
onductance
Results First Subject (Radin-1)stimulus
Presentiment?
Calm
Emotional
Results all Subjects (Radin-1)
Emotional
Calm
Presentiment!
This should be everywhere!
Main stream emotion research Measure baseline of dependent var Present an emotional / calm event Measure response of dependent var
baseline event response
time
What did we do?
Search for main stream databases that Measure a BaseLine for at least 4 seconds. Use strong emotional events For which Data can be obtained
What did we find?
Hamm group: on the speed with which fear arises in animal phobic patients
Damasio group: on implicit emotional learning during Gambling task
Procedure Animal fear studyS
kin
Con
duct
ance
Fixation stimulus
7000 msec
time
6850 msec
Blank Screen
150 msec
Results re-analysis Hamm’s data
-20
0
20
40
60
80
100
Samplenumber (0.1sec)
calmeroticanimals
STIMULUS
Animal FearStudyALL DATAPOOLED:N = 38 Erotic
Calmpresentiment
Damasio: gambling procedure
• Participant gets initially $2000
• Draws cards from one of 4 different decks
• Card is either winning or losing
time
Preparation
Draws cardFeedback: win or loss
Ski
n C
ondu
ctan
ce
Damasio dataset analyses
• Damasio-analysis P = f (type of deck) !!! Advantageous vs non-advantageous
• Our Re-analysis: P = f(type of Card) Winning vs Losing
Winning vs. Losing Cards:
Quote from: Bechara, Damasio et al, Science, 275, 28 February 97, 1293-1295
: ….. “the players have no way of predicting when a penalty will arise…”
Results re-analysis Gambling experiment
0.500.400.300.200.100.00
0.400.48
SCR before Good and Bad Cards
Pos. Cards
Neg. cards
• t = 1.634; df=117 ; p =0.053
• Presentiment effect : 20%!!!!
So What Next?
•Can we differentiate between different emotions?
• Can we exclude possible artefacts?
•Can we locate the source of this phenomenon?
Hersenen na een geweldadige stimulus
Plakje 12
Average activation (BOLD) for 3 conditions
Stimulus
Neutral
Erotic
Violentanticipation
What has this to do with QP
Hooft (Dutch journal of physics, 2000):
Causality is the cornerstone of our worldview. Data that suggest otherwise MUST be incorrect….
However
Spooky twins survive Einsteinian torture I.e in relativistic framework still non-local
correlations But one can not say that one observation is
earlier than the other. Thus statevector collapse has atemporal
aspects.
Conclusion 2
Some hitherto controversial anomalous phenomena (transcending space and time) might become less obscure in the light of quantum models of consciousness.