Are there optical communication channels in the brain?

TL;DR

This paper explores the possibility that neurons communicate via biophotons using myelinated axons as optical waveguides, which could have profound implications for understanding brain function and consciousness.

Contribution

It reviews recent evidence and models suggesting myelinated axons can serve as photonic waveguides, proposing experiments to test optical communication in the brain.

Findings

Myelinated axons may function as optical waveguides for biophotons.

Models show light transmission is feasible despite imperfections.

Proposed experiments could confirm photonic communication in neurons.

Abstract

Despite great progress in neuroscience, there are still fundamental unanswered questions about the brain, including the origin of subjective experience and consciousness. Some answers might rely on new physical mechanisms. Given that biophotons have been discovered in the brain, it is interesting to explore if neurons use photonic communication in addition to the well-studied electro-chemical signals. Such photonic communication in the brain would require waveguides. Here we review recent work [S. Kumar, K. Boone, J. Tuszynski, P. Barclay, and C. Simon, Scientific Reports 6, 36508 (2016)] suggesting that myelinated axons could serve as photonic waveguides. The light transmission in the myelinated axon was modeled, taking into account its realistic imperfections, and experiments were proposed both in-vivo and in-vitro to test this hypothesis. Potential implications for quantum biology are discussed.