Keeping time: could quantum beating in microtubules be the basis for the neural synchrony related to consciousness?

Receptor-Independent Therapies for Forensic Detainees with Schizophrenia-Dementia Comorbidity

Forensic institutions throughout the world house patients with severe psychiatric illness and history of criminal violations. Improved medical care, hygiene, psychiatric treatment, and nutrition led to an unmatched longevity in this population, which previously lived, on average, 15 to 20 years shorter than the public at large. On the other hand, longevity has contributed to increased prevalence of age-related diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders, which complicate clinical management, increasing healthcare expenditures. Forensic institutions, originally intended for the treatment of younger individuals, are ill-equipped for the growing number of older offenders. Moreover, as antipsychotic drugs became available in 1950s and 1960s, we are observing the first generation of forensic detainees who have aged on dopamine-blocking agents. Although the consequences of long-term treatment with these agents are unclear, schizophrenia-associated gray matter loss may contribute to the development of early dementia. Taken together, increased lifespan and the subsequent cognitive deficit observed in long-term forensic institutions raise questions and dilemmas unencountered by the previous generations of clinicians. These include: does the presence of neurocognitive dysfunction justify antipsychotic dose reduction or discontinuation despite a lifelong history of schizophrenia and violent behavior? Should neurolipidomic interventions become the standard of care in elderly individuals with lifelong schizophrenia and dementia? Can patients with schizophrenia and dementia meet the Dusky standard to stand trial? Should neurocognitive disorders in the elderly with lifelong schizophrenia be treated differently than age-related neurodegeneration? In this article, we hypothesize that gray matter loss is the core symptom of schizophrenia which leads to dementia. We hypothesize further that strategies to delay or stop gray matter depletion would not only improve the schizophrenia sustained recovery, but also avert the development of major neurocognitive disorders in people living with schizophrenia. Based on this hypothesis, we suggest utilization of both receptor-dependent and independent therapeutics for chronic psychosis.

Microtubules as a potential platform for energy transfer in biological systems: a target for implementing individualized, dynamic variability patterns to improve organ function

Variability characterizes the complexity of biological systems and is essential for their function. Microtubules (MTs) play a role in structural integrity, cell motility, material transport, and force generation during mitosis, and dynamic instability exemplifies the variability in the proper function of MTs. MTs are a platform for energy transfer in cells. The dynamic instability of MTs manifests itself by the coexistence of growth and shortening, or polymerization and depolymerization. It results from a balance between attractive and repulsive forces between tubulin dimers. The paper reviews the current data on MTs and their potential roles as energy-transfer cellular structures and presents how variability can improve the function of biological systems in an individualized manner. The paper presents the option for targeting MTs to trigger dynamic improvement in cell plasticity, regulate energy transfer, and possibly control quantum effects in biological systems. The described system quantifies MT-dependent variability patterns combined with additional personalized signatures to improve organ function in a subject-tailored manner. The platform can regulate the use of MT-targeting drugs to improve the response to chronic therapies. Ongoing trials test the effects of this platform on various disorders.

Consciousness, Cognition and the Neuronal Cytoskeleton - A New Paradigm Needed in Neuroscience

Viewing the brain as a complex computer of simple neurons cannot account for consciousness nor essential features of cognition. Single cell organisms with no synapses perform purposeful intelligent functions using their cytoskeletal microtubules. A new paradigm is needed to view the brain as a scale-invariant hierarchy extending both upward from the level of neurons to larger and larger neuronal networks, but also downward, inward, to deeper, faster quantum and classical processes in cytoskeletal microtubules inside neurons. Evidence shows self-similar patterns of conductive resonances repeating in terahertz, gigahertz, megahertz, kilohertz and hertz frequency ranges in microtubules. These conductive resonances apparently originate in terahertz quantum dipole oscillations and optical interactions among pi electron resonance clouds of aromatic amino acid rings of tryptophan, phenylalanine and tyrosine within each tubulin, the component subunit of microtubules, and the brain's most abundant protein. Evidence from cultured neuronal networks also now shows that gigahertz and megahertz oscillations in dendritic-somatic microtubules regulate specific firings of distal axonal branches, causally modulating membrane and synaptic activities. The brain should be viewed as a scale-invariant hierarchy, with quantum and classical processes critical to consciousness and cognition originating in microtubules inside neurons.

Dynamics of Excitons in Conjugated Molecules and Organic Semiconductor Systems

The exciton, an excited electron-hole pair bound by Coulomb attraction, plays a key role in photophysics of organic molecules and drives practically important phenomena such as photoinduced mechanical motions of a molecule, photochemical conversions, energy transfer, generation of free charge carriers, etc. Its behavior in extended π-conjugated molecules and disordered organic films is very different and very rich compared with exciton behavior in inorganic semiconductor crystals. Due to the high degree of variability of organic systems themselves, the exciton not only exerts changes on molecules that carry it but undergoes its own changes during all phases of its lifetime, that is, birth, conversion and transport, and decay. The goal of this review is to give a systematic and comprehensive view on exciton behavior in π-conjugated molecules and molecular assemblies at all phases of exciton evolution with emphasis on rates typical for this dynamic picture and various consequences of the above dynamics. To uncover the rich variety of exciton behavior, details of exciton formation, exciton transport, exciton energy conversion, direct and reverse intersystem crossing, and radiative and nonradiative decay are considered in different systems, where these processes lead to or are influenced by static and dynamic disorder, charge distribution symmetry breaking, photoinduced reactions, electron and proton transfer, structural rearrangements, exciton coupling with vibrations and intermediate particles, and exciton dissociation and annihilation as well.

Crucial Development: Criticality Is Important to Cell-to-Cell Communication and Information Transfer in Living Systems

In the fourth paper of this Special Issue, we bridge the theoretical debate on the role of memory and criticality discussed in the three earlier manuscripts, with a review of key concepts in biology and focus on cell-to-cell communication in organismal development. While all living organisms are dynamic complex networks of organization and disorder, most studies in biology have used energy and biochemical exchange to explain cell differentiation without considering the importance of information (entropy) transfer. While all complex networks are mixtures of patterns of complexity (non-crucial and crucial events), it is the crucial events that determine the efficiency of information transfer, especially during key transitions, such as in embryogenesis. With increasing multicellularity, emergent relationships from cell-to-cell communication create reaction-diffusion exchanges of different concentrations of biochemicals or morphogenetic gradients resulting in differential gene expression. We suggest that in conjunction with morphogenetic gradients, there exist gradients of information transfer creating cybernetic loops of stability and disorder, setting the stage for adaptive capability. We specifically reference results from the second paper in this Special Issue, which correlated biophotons with lentil seed germination to show that phase transitions accompany changes in complexity patterns during development. Criticality, therefore, appears to be an important factor in the transmission, transfer and coding of information for complex adaptive system development.

Alzheimer's and Consciousness: How Much Subjectivity Is Objective?

Does Alzheimer Disease show a decline in cognitive functions that relate to the awareness of external reality? In this paper, we will propose a perspective that patients with increasing symptoms of AD show a change in the awareness of subjective versus objective representative axis of reality thus consequently move to a more internal like perception of reality. This paradigm shift suggests that new insights into the dynamicity of the conscious representation of reality in the AD brain may give us new clues to the very early signs of memory and self-awareness impairment that originates from, in our view the microtubules. Dialog between Adso and William, in Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, Third Day: Vespers. "But how does it happen," I said with admiration, "that you were able to solve the mystery of the library looking at it from the outside, and you were unable to solve it when you were inside?" "Thus, God knows the world, because He conceived it in His mind, as if it was from the outside, before it was created, and we do not know its rule, because we live inside it, having found it already made."

Internal Clocks, mGluR7 and Microtubules: A Primer for the Molecular Encoding of Target Durations in Cerebellar Purkinje Cells and Striatal Medium Spiny Neurons

The majority of studies in the field of timing and time perception have generally focused on sub- and supra-second time scales, specific behavioral processes, and/or discrete neuronal circuits. In an attempt to find common elements of interval timing from a broader perspective, we review the literature and highlight the need for cell and molecular studies that can delineate the neural mechanisms underlying temporal processing. Moreover, given the recent attention to the function of microtubule proteins and their potential contributions to learning and memory consolidation/re-consolidation, we propose that these proteins play key roles in coding temporal information in cerebellar Purkinje cells (PCs) and striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs). The presence of microtubules at relevant neuronal sites, as well as their adaptability, dynamic structure, and longevity, makes them a suitable candidate for neural plasticity at both intra- and inter-cellular levels. As a consequence, microtubules appear capable of maintaining a temporal code or engram and thereby regulate the firing patterns of PCs and MSNs known to be involved in interval timing. This proposed mechanism would control the storage of temporal information triggered by postsynaptic activation of mGluR7. This, in turn, leads to alterations in microtubule dynamics through a "read-write" memory process involving alterations in microtubule dynamics and their hexagonal lattice structures involved in the molecular basis of temporal memory.

The finer scale of consciousness: quantum theory

Consciousness is a multidisciplinary problem that has puzzled all human beings since the origin of human life. Being defined in various pointcuts by philosophers, biologists, physicists, and neuroscientists, the definitive explanation of consciousness is still suspending. The nature of consciousness has taken great evolution by centering on the behavioral and neuronal correlates of perception and cognition, for example, the theory of Neural Correlates of Consciousness, the Global Workspace Theory, the Integrated Information Theory. While tremendous progress has been achieved, they are not enough if we are to understand even basic facts-how and where does the consciousness emerge. The Quantum mechanics, a thriving branch of physics, has an inseparable relationship with consciousness (e.g., observer effect) since Planck created this subject and its derived quantum consciousness theory can perfectly fill this gap. In this review, we briefly introduce some consciousness hypotheses derived from quantum mechanics and focus on the framework of orchestrated objective reduction (Orch-OR), including its principal points and practicality.

Oxidative species-induced excitonic transport in tubulin aromatic networks: Potential implications for neurodegenerative disease

Oxidative stress is a pathological hallmark of neurodegenerative tauopathic disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease-related dementia, which are characterized by altered forms of the microtubule-associated protein (MAP) tau. MAP tau is a key protein in stabilizing the microtubule architecture that regulates neuron morphology and synaptic strength. When MAP tau is degraded in tauopathic disorders, neuron dysfunction results. The precise role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the tauopathic disease process, however, is poorly understood. Classically, mitochondrial dysfunction has been viewed as the major source of oxidative stress and has been shown to precede tau and amyloid pathology in various dementias, but the exact mechanisms are not clear. It is known that the production of ROS by mitochondria can result in ultraweak photon emission (UPE) within cells. While of low intensity, surrounding proteins within the cytosol can still absorb these energetic photons via aromatic amino acids (e.g., tryptophan and tyrosine). One likely absorber of these photons is the microtubule cytoskeleton, as it forms a vast network spanning neurons, is highly co-localized with mitochondria, and shows a high density of aromatic amino acids. Functional microtubule networks may traffic this ROS-generated endogenous photon energy for cellular signaling, or they may serve as dissipaters/conduits of such energy to protect the cell from potentially harmful effects. Experimentally, after in vitro exposure to exogenous photons, microtubules have been shown to reorient and reorganize in a dose-dependent manner with the greatest effect being observed around 280nm, in the tryptophan and tyrosine absorption range. In this paper, recent modeling efforts based on ambient temperature experiment are presented, showing that tubulin polymers can feasibly absorb and channel these photoexcitations via resonance energy transfer, on the order of dendritic length scales and neuronal fine structure. Since microtubule networks are compromised in tauopathic diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's dementias, patients with these illnesses would be unable to support effective channeling of these photons for signaling or dissipation. Consequent emission surplus due to increased UPE production or decreased ability to absorb and transfer may lead to increased cellular oxidative damage, thus hastening the neurodegenerative process.

Anesthetic Alterations of Collective Terahertz Oscillations in Tubulin Correlate with Clinical Potency: Implications for Anesthetic Action and Post-Operative Cognitive Dysfunction

Anesthesia blocks consciousness and memory while sparing non-conscious brain activities. While the exact mechanisms of anesthetic action are unknown, the Meyer-Overton correlation provides a link between anesthetic potency and solubility in a lipid-like, non-polar medium. Anesthetic action is also related to an anesthetic's hydrophobicity, permanent dipole, and polarizability, and is accepted to occur in lipid-like, non-polar regions within brain proteins. Generally the protein target for anesthetics is assumed to be neuronal membrane receptors and ion channels, however new evidence points to critical effects on intra-neuronal microtubules, a target of interest due to their potential role in post-operative cognitive dysfunction (POCD). Here we use binding site predictions on tubulin, the protein subunit of microtubules, with molecular docking simulations, quantum chemistry calculations, and theoretical modeling of collective dipole interactions in tubulin to investigate the effect of a group of gases including anesthetics, non-anesthetics, and anesthetic/convulsants on tubulin dynamics. We found that these gases alter collective terahertz dipole oscillations in a manner that is correlated with their anesthetic potency. Understanding anesthetic action may help reveal brain mechanisms underlying consciousness, and minimize POCD in the choice and development of anesthetics used during surgeries for patients suffering from neurodegenerative conditions with compromised cytoskeletal microtubules.

Common general anesthetic propofol impairs kinesin processivity

Propofol is the most widely used i.v. general anesthetic to induce and maintain anesthesia. It is now recognized that this small molecule influences ligand-gated channels, including the GABA_A receptor and others. Specific propofol binding sites have been mapped using photoaffinity ligands and mutagenesis; however, their precise target interaction profiles fail to provide complete mechanistic underpinnings for the anesthetic state. These results suggest that propofol and other common anesthetics, such as etomidate and ketamine, may target additional protein networks of the CNS to contribute to the desired and undesired anesthesia end points. Some evidence for anesthetic interactions with the cytoskeleton exists, but the molecular motors have received no attention as anesthetic targets. We have recently discovered that propofol inhibits conventional kinesin-1 KIF5B and kinesin-2 KIF3AB and KIF3AC, causing a significant reduction in the distances that these processive kinesins can travel. These microtubule-based motors are highly expressed in the CNS and the major anterograde transporters of cargos, such as mitochondria, synaptic vesicle precursors, neurotransmitter receptors, cell signaling and adhesion molecules, and ciliary intraflagellar transport particles. The single-molecule results presented show that the kinesin processive stepping distance decreases 40-60% with EC₅₀ values <100 nM propofol without an effect on velocity. The lack of a velocity effect suggests that propofol is not binding at the ATP site or allosteric sites that modulate microtubule-activated ATP turnover. Rather, we propose that a transient propofol allosteric site forms when the motor head binds to the microtubule during stepping.

Stream of consciousness: Quantum and biochemical assumptions regarding psychopathology

The accepted paradigms of mainstream neuropsychiatry appear to be incompletely adequate and in various cases offer equivocal analyses. However, a growing number of new approaches are being proposed that suggest the emergence of paradigm shifts in this area. In particular, quantum theories of mind, brain and consciousness seem to offer a profound change to the current approaches. Unfortunately these quantum paradigms harbor at least two serious problems. First, they are simply models, theories, and assumptions, with no convincing experiments supporting their claims. Second, they deviate from contemporary mainstream views of psychiatric illness and do so in revolutionary ways. We suggest a possible way to integrate experimental neuroscience with quantum models in order to address outstanding issues in psychopathology. A key role is played by the phenomenon called the "stream of consciousness", which can be linked to the so-called "Gamma Synchrony" (GS), which is clearly demonstrated by EEG data. In our novel proposal, a unipolar depressed patient could be seen as a subject with an altered stream of consciousness. In particular, some clues suggest that depression is linked to an "increased power" stream of consciousness. It is additionally suggested that such an approach to depression might be extended to psychopathology in general with potential benefits to diagnostics and therapeutics in neuropsychiatry.

The quantum basis of spatiotemporality in perception and consciousness

Living systems inhabit the area of the world which is shaped by the predictable space-time of physical objects and forces that can be incorporated into their perception pattern. The process of selecting a "habitable" space-time is the internal quantum measurement in which living systems become embedded into the environment that supports their living state. This means that living organisms choose a coordinate system in which the influence of measurement is minimal. We discuss specific roles of biological macromolecules, in particular of the cytoskeleton, in shaping perception patterns formed in the internal measurement process. Operation of neuron is based on the transmission of signals via cytoskeleton where the digital output is generated that can be decoded through a reflective action of the perceiving agent. It is concluded that the principle of optimality in biology as formulated by Liberman et al. (BioSystems 22, 135-154, 1989) is related to the establishment of spatiotemporal patterns that are maximally predictable and can hold the living state for a prolonged time. This is achieved by the selection of a habitable space approximated to the conditions described by classical physics.

The quantum mitochondrion and optimal health

A sufficiently complex set of molecules, if subject to perturbation, will self-organize and show emergent behaviour. If such a system can take on information it will become subject to natural selection. This could explain how self-replicating molecules evolved into life and how intelligence arose. A pivotal step in this evolutionary process was of course the emergence of the eukaryote and the advent of the mitochondrion, which both enhanced energy production per cell and increased the ability to process, store and utilize information. Recent research suggest that from its inception life embraced quantum effects such as 'tunnelling' and 'coherence' while competition and stressful conditions provided a constant driver for natural selection. We believe that the biphasic adaptive response to stress described by hormesis-a process that captures information to enable adaptability, is central to this whole process. Critically, hormesis could improve mitochondrial quantum efficiency, improving the ATP/ROS ratio, whereas inflammation, which is tightly associated with the aging process, might do the opposite. This all suggests that to achieve optimal health and healthy aging, one has to sufficiently stress the system to ensure peak mitochondrial function, which itself could reflect selection of optimum efficiency at the quantum level.

Classical analysis of time behavior of radiation fields associated with biophoton signals

BACKGROUND

Propagation of photon signals in biological systems, such as neurons, accompanies the production of biophotons. The role of biophotons in a cell deserves special attention because it can be applied to diverse optical systems.

OBJECTIVE

This work has been aimed to investigate the time behavior of biophoton signals emitted from living systems in detail, by introducing a Hamiltonian that describes the process. The ratio of the energy loss during signal dissipation will also be investigated.

METHOD

To see the adiabatic properties of the biophoton signal, we introduced an adiabatic invariant of the system according to the method of its basic formulation.

RESULTS

The energy of the released biophoton dissipates over time in a somewhat intricate way when t is small. However, after a sufficient long time, it dissipates in proportion (1+λ_0t)^2 to where λ_0 is a constant that is relevant to the degree of dissipation. We have confirmed that the energy of the biophoton signal oscillates in a particular way while it dissipates.

CONCLUSION

This research clarifies the characteristics of radiation fields associated with biophotons on the basis of Hamiltonian dynamics which describes phenomenological aspects of biophotons signals.

Understanding schizophrenia as a disorder of consciousness: biological correlates and translational implications from quantum theory perspectives

From neurophenomenological perspectives, schizophrenia has been conceptualized as "a disorder with heterogeneous manifestations that can be integrally understood to involve fundamental perturbations in consciousness". While these theoretical constructs based on consciousness facilitate understanding the 'gestalt' of schizophrenia, systematic research to unravel translational implications of these models is warranted. To address this, one needs to begin with exploration of plausible biological underpinnings of "perturbed consciousness" in schizophrenia. In this context, an attractive proposition to understand the biology of consciousness is "the orchestrated object reduction (Orch-OR) theory" which invokes quantum processes in the microtubules of neurons. The Orch-OR model is particularly important for understanding schizophrenia especially due to the shared 'scaffold' of microtubules. The initial sections of this review focus on the compelling evidence to support the view that "schizophrenia is a disorder of consciousness" through critical summary of the studies that have demonstrated self-abnormalities, aberrant time perception as well as dysfunctional intentional binding in this disorder. Subsequently, these findings are linked with 'Orch-OR theory' through the research evidence for aberrant neural oscillations as well as microtubule abnormalities observed in schizophrenia. Further sections emphasize the applicability and translational implications of Orch-OR theory in the context of schizophrenia and elucidate the relevance of quantum biology to understand the origins of this puzzling disorder as "fundamental disturbances in consciousness".