Ion Channels as the Gates to Consciousness

Posted by Simon Raggett on 21 July 2008 | 2 Comments

Tags: Consciousness

Gustav Bernroider of Salzburg University has proposed that quantum entanglement in the ion channels of brain cells (neurons) underlies information processing in the brain and ultimately also consciousness.

Ion channels, situated in the neuron’s membrane are a crucial component of conventional neuroscience’s description of brain processes. A signal starts from the body of a neuron and proceeds down an extension called an axon, by means of a fluctuation in the electrical potential across the outer membrane of the axon. A structure at the end of the axon known as the synapse allows the neuron to communicate with other neurons, once it has received this signal. The ion channels are comprised of protein molecules inserted through the outer membrane of the axon. These channels allow the in flow and out flow of ions (electrically charged atoms) through the membrane, as a part of a mechanism causing the fluctuation in electrical potential.

Bernroider focuses on a particular ion channel, known as the potassium (K+) channel. This channel has the function of resetting the electrical potential of the neuron’s membrane to a resting state after a fluctuation in potential passes. This is achieved by positively charged potassium ions flowing out of the neuron through the ion channel. The channel is in an open state when the ions flow out. However, Bernroider is mainly interested in the channel when it is in its closed state, and constitutes a stable ion-protein configuration.

He bases his ideas on recent research made possible by advances in atomic-level spectroscopy and molecular simulations, in particular the work of the MacKinnon group. The recent studies by McKinnon and others demand a change in views as to how the ion channel functions. In the new understanding of the channel, two potassium ions are trapped when the channel is in its closed state. This region of the ion channel is indicated by the recent studies to have five binding pockets in the form of five sets of four carboxyl related oxygen atoms. Each of the two trapped potassium ions are bound to two of the binding pockets, or sets of four oxygen atoms, meaning that each ion is bound to a total of eight of the oxygen atoms.

Bernroider’s calculations predict that the trapped ions will oscillate many times before the channel re-opens, and that there will be a quantum entangled state between the potassium ions and the oxygen atoms. Quantum entanglement involves non-local interactions between particles, which can change one another’s quantum properties without having any conventional physical contact. The structure of the channel is seen as being delicately balanced and sensitive to small fluctuations in the external field. This sensitivity is viewed as possibly being able to account for the observed variations in cortical responses.

In fact, calculations by Bernroider and his co-researcher, Sisir Roy lead them to claim that the ion channel processes can only be understood at the quantum level. Taking this as their basis, they go on to ask whether their model of the ion channel can be related to logic states. Their calculations suggest that the potassium ions and the carboxyl atoms in the channel are two quantum entangled sub-systems, and they think that this arrangement could function as a natural quantum computer.

Bernroider relates the structures found in the potassium channel to some of the requirements for man-made quantum computers. Some designs for these involve ion traps, based on electostatic interactions between ions held in microscopic traps. These have a resemblance to Bernroider’s interpretation of the possible quantum state of the potassium channel.

Bernroider denies that the rapid decoherence of quantum states in the brain, as calculated by the physicist, Max Tegmark, applies to his model. Such rapid decoherence, if it did occur, would prevent the quantum states from being useful for neural processing. Bernroider, however, argues that the ions are not freely moving in the closed potassium channel, but are held in place by the surrounding electrical charges. The ions are insulated within the carboxyl binding pockets, and it is argued that decoherence could be avoided for the whole of the closed period of the channel, which is in the range of 10-13 seconds.

Bernroider also raises the question of whether given quantum entanglement in individual ion channels, it is possible for there to be entanglement between channels in the same membrane, thus possibly turning the membrane into a macroscopic quantum object.

It is debatable as to whether Bernroider’s proposals amount to a new theory of quantum consciousness. On paper, Bernroider is only describing quantum level information processing. However, it was apparent from his talk at the Quantum Mind conference in Salzburg in 2007 and earlier papers that he does view these ideas as a basis for consciousness. In the early part of the decade, Bernroider seemed to associate himself with David Bohm’s concept of an implicate order from which the explicate order of classical physics that we experience in everyday life arises. Bohm proposed that consciousness itself arose from this implicate order. Bernroider’s ideas may also be compatible with the Orch OR theory of Penrose/Hameroff. Although Hameroff regards microtubules as the best candidates for the basis of consciousness, he has also considered other parts of the neuron as possible locations.

Bernroider’s theory might be seen to represent even more of a challenge to conventional neuroscience than the other quantum consciousness theories. This is because its recruits as its basis the axon membrane and ion channels which form a crucial part of the conventional neuroscience model, and then tries to remodel these core structures on a quantum-driven basis. It is hard to deny that if this theory were to be substantiated, it would produce in neuroscience a revolution of the most profound kind.

There is a footnote to all this. When I looked at Bernroider’s diagram of the ion channel, I knew that it reminded me of something, but it was a long time before I realised that what it reminded me of was the Kabbalah tree of life. Had the creators of that tree intuitively accessed something that has been there all the time in our brains?

Simon Raggett