The world has moved closer to studying quantum brain going by the work by the lead-author Nigerian scientist Academician Dr Philip Njemanze MD from the International Institutes of Advanced Research and Training, Chidicon Medical Center, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria and his German collaborators led by Prof Dr Peter Brust from the Department of Neuroradiopharmacy at Helmholtz-Zentrum, Dresden – Rossendorf, Forschungsstandort Leipzig, Institute for Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, Leipzig, Germany. The present study was published in the International Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Radioactive Substances.
There is mounting evidence that suggests that certain biological systems might employ quantum mechanics. In plants the process known as photosynthesis employ quantum effects to turn energy from sunlight into food. Studies undertaken in animals, suggested that migratory birds have a “quantum compass” that works with the Earth’s magnetic fields to direct their migration patterns.
However, in humans, there has been very few observations, for example, that the human sense of smell may employ quantum effects. The race has been towards identifying precise quantum effects in the brain. The main obstacle to the study of quantum effects in the brain has been the phenomenon called quantum decoherence. The wet noisy environment of the brain does not allow quantum processes. Going by the new work by Njemanze and co-authors this may not be the case. There maybe isolated areas of the brain capable of hosting quantum processing. A quantum computer operates with billions of qubits, the quantum equivalent of bits of information used in conventional computers.
These qubits are interconnected in a manner that they mirror each other in a process called quantum entanglement, which is equivalent to quantum coherence. The fragil state of the entangled qubits, must be very well shielded from any environmental noise. Shielding in the environment must prevent the system from decoherence, that will halt the processes of quantum entanglement. Njemanze and others postulated using a simple experimental model to study quantum entanglement in the brain as detailed in their publication.
They used the effects of polarized light and yellow light on the brain of male and female mice and recorded the readings using a special brain imaging equipment that combined positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
The centers of vision in the brain lighted up and showed the effects where they occurred. The results show that male and female mice did not process light in the same way.
The males processed the light waves in the left hemisphere, while the female mice processed the light particles in the right hemisphere of the visual cortex.
The dual nature of light as wave and particle were perceived as wave in male and particle in female, respectively. In other words, there was evidence of quantum superposition in the brain of female mice but classical wave superposition in male mice. They proposed that the processes of coherence which is a functional equivalent of entanglement occurred in the female centers for vision in the well isolated columns called blobs which look like cylindrical tunnels.
Njemanze and coauthors postulate that within these columns there was electron tunneling in the female brain.
This study is a major milestone in neuroscience, mainly because it is the beginning of a new decade of research into the quantum brain. The development is remarkable because it is the first clear demonstration of quantum coherence in the female brain using a simple experimental model. The key question for researchers is what makes the female brain so special that allows coherence to occur but not in the male brain.
This has far-reaching implication in computer modeling of the brain. It implies that female brain could be used as models for developing quantum computers. Some in the European Union say that gender is a social construct, while others headed by the Vatican say it is based on neurobiology, as both nature and nurture. The argument has tilted in favor of those proposing very major biological differences in the way the brain works in male and female subjects. Gender complimentarity is no more theology by pure science.
Reactions from scientists show excitement (commentaries) at the prospect of this new research frontier which has now opened. Nigerian scientists are at the forefront of these studies into the secrets of the brauin. Our university system has to play catch up in research to the private sector endeavors, so they can train young Nigerian scientists in this area.
