A RECENT BREAKTHROUGH EXPERIMENT in which rats were given anesthesia, convinced scientists that tiny structures in rodents’ brains were responsible for the experience of consciousness. To achieve this, these microscopic structures of hollow tubes, called “microtubules”, do not rely on our everyday understanding of classical physics. Instead, experts say, microtubules perform incredible operations in the quantum realm. Citing the work of previous researchers, the study concludes that the same type of quantum operations are likely occurring in human brains.

In experiments on rat brains, scientists at Wellesley College in Massachusetts administered the rodents with isoflurane, a type of inhaled general anesthetic used to induce and maintain unconsciousness during medical procedures. One group of drugged rats also received microtubule-stabilizing drugs, while the other did not. The researchers found that microtubule-stabilizing molecules kept rats conscious longer than unstabilized rats, which lost their “righting reflex,” or the ability to regain normal posture, more quickly, according to their arrangementspublished in a peer-reviewed journal eNeur in August 2024

Wellesley’s study is significant because the physical source of consciousness has remained a mystery for decades. This is a major step towards verifying the theory that our brains perform quantum operations and that this ability generates our consciousness – a concept that has been gaining popularity over the past three decades.

The idea that quantum physics must be the fundamental mechanism of consciousness first emerged in the 1990s, when Nobel Prize-winning physicist Dr. Roger Penrose and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff popularized the idea that neural microtubules enable quantum processes in our bodies . brain, giving rise to consciousness. Specifically them postulated in a 1996 paper that consciousness could act as a quantum wave passing through brain microtubules. This is the so-called Orch OR theory, relating to the ability of microtubules to perform quantum calculations in a mathematical process that Penrose calls “objective reduction.”

In quantum physics, a particle does not exist in the way that classical physics observes, with a specific physical location. Instead, it exists as a cloud of probabilities. If it comes into contact with its surroundings, as measured by measuring equipment, then the particle loses its “superposition” of many states. It collapses into a specific, measurable state, the state in which it was observed. Penrose hypothesized that “every time the quantum wave function collapses in the brain in this way, a moment of conscious experience is created.”

If this microtubule-related quantum theory of consciousness proves correct, it could revolutionize our understanding of consciousness and even strengthen the pioneering theory that, at the quantum level, consciousness can be everywhere at once. In other words, it can exist everywhere simultaneously, suggesting that your own consciousness could hypothetically connect with quantum particles outside your brain, perhaps entangling with consciousness throughout the universe.

MANY SCIENTISTS HAVE ORCHES OR THEORIES because quantum effects have only been produced in the laboratory at extremely low temperatures. For example, our technology currently includes quantum computers, but they rely on temperatures near absolute zero (about -273 degrees Celsius) to maintain quantum states. According to a 2022 study, the temperature of a warm brain goes well beyond these limits and is around 32-40 degrees Celsius (about 90-104 degrees Fahrenheit) in the deepest areas of the brain. But over the years, scientists have accumulated a promising body of data indicating that certain quantum-level operations in animals and plants may actually be responsible for life functions.

For example, scientists theorize that plants that live at temperatures much higher than absolute zero probably use quantum processes to efficiently convert light into energy. First, plants convert photons, or light particles, into a form of matter called excitons, transporting them to the plant’s chloroplasts, where photosynthesis begins. During this journey, the excitons must move through other internal structures of the plant – fast enough to conserve energy until they reach their destination. Scientists suggest that plants must use the quantum property of superposition to try all possible paths simultaneously. In this way, excitons can reach their destination in the most efficient way possible.

Similarly, it might make sense for billions of neurons firing simultaneously in the brain to function under the “action at a distance” property of quantum entanglement – that is, the potential for two particles that are very far apart to connect. Scientists have observed this phenomenon in atomic particles before. While they were examining one particle, another very distant particle also changed its properties, even though they were apparently unrelated in any way. August 2024 study published in the journal E Physics Review proposes that fatty material called myelin, which surrounds the brain cell axon, provides an ideal environment for this entanglement. Because the brain appears to be able to perform quantum operations that facilitate our thinking, some scientists have speculated that this process creates our consciousness.

TWO PREVIOUS POINT-POINT STUDIES they also support a quantum perspective of consciousness. Both involved experiments in shining light particles into microtubules and observing whether the signal degraded. As these studies show, experiments have shown that quantum states in microtubule signaling can and probably do exist.

One of the studies, entitled experiment physicist and oncology professor Dr. Jack Tuszyński used ultraviolet photons to create quantum reactions lasting up to five nanoseconds. This quantum coherence lasted thousands of times longer than scientists expected in a microtubule. Similarly, at the University of Central Florida, researchers shined visible light at one end of microtubules and measured how long it took for the microtubules to emit that light. They observed this light re-emission for hundreds of milliseconds to seconds – more than enough time for the brain to perform all its functions.

This observation provides concrete evidence that neurons are capable of operating at speeds that enable quantum operations. This brings us another step closer to understanding exactly how our brains – and perhaps our consciousness – are connected to the quantum universe.

Mind “as a quantum phenomenon” “would shape our thinking about a wide variety of related issues, such as whether coma patients or non-human animals are conscious,” says neuroscientist and Wellesley College professor Dr. Mike Wiest in: A press release about a recent anesthesiology study conducted by his team. In addition to new work that will help us better understand how to treat brain-related health problems, he says, “…we will enter a new era in understanding who we are.”

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