Mechanism of Universal Quantum Computation in the Brain

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model where the brain functions as a quantum computer, utilizing ion superpositions and metric perturbations to process information at a scale surpassing current quantum computers.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed mechanism for quantum computation in the brain based on ion superpositions and environmental interactions, expanding previous models.

Findings

Potentially 15 million quantum states processed per millisecond in the brain

The model links neural structures to quantum computational processes

Suggests the brain's quantum processing exceeds current quantum computers' capabilities

Abstract

In this paper the authors extend [1] and provide more details of how the brain may act like a quantum computer. In particular, positing the difference between voltages on two axons as the environment for ions undergoing spatial superposition, we argue that evolution in the presence of metric perturbations will differ from that in the absence of these waves. This differential state evolution will then encode the information being processed by the tract due to the interaction of the quantum state of the ions at the nodes with the `controlling' potential. Upon decoherence, which is equal to a measurement, the final spatial state of the ions is decided and it also gets reset by the next impulse initiation time. Under synchronization, several tracts undergo such processes in synchrony and therefore the picture of a quantum computing circuit is complete. Under this model, based on the number of axons in the corpus callosum alone [2], we estimate that upwards of 15 million quantum states might be prepared and evolved every millisecond in this white matter tract, far greater processing than any present quantum computer can accomplish.