Possible existence of optical communication channels in the brain

TL;DR

This paper explores the hypothesis that myelinated axons in the brain could act as optical waveguides for biophotons, potentially enabling a novel form of neural communication and quantum entanglement.

Contribution

It provides detailed theoretical modeling showing that myelinated axons can serve as photonic waveguides despite imperfections, and proposes experiments to test this hypothesis.

Findings

Myelinated axons can theoretically function as optical waveguides.

Biophotons could potentially facilitate neural communication.

Implications for quantum entanglement in the brain are discussed.

Abstract

Given that many fundamental questions in neuroscience are still open, it seems pertinent to explore whether the brain might use other physical modalities than the ones that have been discovered so far. In particular it is well established that neurons can emit photons, which prompts the question whether these biophotons could serve as signals between neurons, in addition to the well-known electro-chemical signals. For such communication to be targeted, the photons would need to travel in waveguides. Here we show, based on detailed theoretical modeling, that myelinated axons could serve as photonic waveguides, taking into account realistic optical imperfections. We propose experiments, both \textit{in vivo} and \textit{in vitro}, to test our hypothesis. We discuss the implications of our results, including the question whether photons could mediate long-range quantum entanglement in the brain.