A new perspective on the functioning of the brain and the mechanisms behind conscious processes

Abstract

An essential prerequisite for the development of a theory of consciousness is the clarification of the fundamental mechanisms underlying conscious processes. In this article I present an approach that sheds new light on these mechanisms. This approach builds on stochastic electrodynamics (SED), a promising theoretical framework that provides a deeper understanding of quantum systems and reveals the origin of quantum phenomena. I outline the most important concepts and findings of SED and interpret the neurophysiological body of evidence in the context of these findings, indicating that the functioning of the brain rests upon exactly the same principles that are characteristic for quantum systems. On this basis, I construct a new hypothesis on the mechanisms behind conscious processes and discuss the new perspectives this hypothesis opens up for consciousness research. In particular, it offers the possibility of elucidating the relationship between brain and consciousness, of specifying the connection between consciousness and information, and of answering the question of what distinguishes conscious processes from unconscious processes.

Keywords: attractors; consciousness; quantum physics; stochastic electrodynamics; zero-point field.

Figure 1

The brain produces a stream of consciousness by periodically modifying the ZPF and generating ZPF information states. This process is triggered by appropriate stimuli that induce macroscopic patterns of synchronized activity in the gamma frequency band. These long-range activity patterns, which represent attractors in an attractor landscape, are the NCC. In the regular perceptual process the alternation of synchronization and desynchronization is linked to theta oscillations. Whenever the brain activity falls into a stable attractor, there is a corresponding ZPF information state, which carries the integrated information of the attractor and is characterized by specific correlations between frequency components of the ZPF spectrum. Every ZPF information state is associated with a conscious state, i.e., every ordered pattern in ZPF information space corresponds to a phenomenal state in qualia space.