Electromagnetic-field theories of qualia: can they improve upon standard neuroscience?

" Standard neuroscience is computational and focused on neurons and synaptic firing in terms of understanding how the brain and consciousness function. It faces the fundamental problem of explaining specifically how computations (information processing) and synaptic firings produce our consciousness–our privately experienced inner life of feelings, thoughts, etc., which is lost during comas and dreamless sleep. This consciousness is basically characterized by its qualia, which are our sensory and emotional qualities, such as pain and fear. It also has unity, which is exemplified by how various qualia are experienced as a whole when meeting an old friend. These unified qualia reflect the standard view (originally from Nagel, 1974) that consciousness is “what it is like” to, for example, smell a rose or to echolocate like a bat." {Credits 1}

" While standard neuroscience seems stymied in explaining how brains create our different qualia and unify them into phenomenal consciousness, EM field approaches to minds have offered new theories of qualia and consciousness, some of which are testable. These electromagnetic approaches seat consciousness primarily in the various complex EM fields generated by neurons, glia and the rest of the brain and body. They can be classified in the varieties listed at the end of this paper in Figure 1 (see Jones, 2013, for references and reviews). The classifications overlap at times. They differ in their definitions and (for example) whether the qualia they attribute primarily to EM field activity are global or localized in brains, whether field-brain causality is one-way or two-way, and whether qualia are more akin to substances or to information." {Credits 1}

" These EM field approaches are proliferating because they draw on considerable experimental evidence and withstand past criticisms from standard neuroscience. For example, they have explained the unity of consciousness in terms of the physical unity (by definition) of EM fields–in contrast to the discrete nature of neurons and their synaptic firing. In the last two decades, they have also offered explanations of how neural EM activity creates different qualia." {Credits 1}

" McFadden’s theory is the leading EM-field theory of consciousness today. It says that information is conscious at all levels, which seems to entail a form of panpsychism (McFadden, 2002b). The “discrete” consciousness of elementary particles is limited and isolated. But as particles join into a field, they form a unified “field” consciousness. As these fields affect motor neurons, the brain’s consciousness is no longer an epiphenomenon, for its volition can communicate with the world." {Credits 1}

" Keppler (2021) tries to develop a fundamental theory of consciousness that can fit qualia seamlessly with physical and psychological science and predict the phenomenal state of any system, given its physical state. He criticizes common claims (including those in many EM-field theories of mind) that conscious states emerge from physical complexity. For this creates troubles in explaining how consciousness can (seemingly) magically pop into existence from previously nonconscious states (Strawson, 2006), and in detailing which states this emergence occurs in." {Credits 1}

" Keppler tries to avoid this problem with a fundamental (versus emergent) theory of consciousness based on quantum theory. He notes that EM is the fundamental force shaping biological systems (cf. Hales and Ericson, 2022). Whereas EM dynamics are usually framed in physics as a matter of classical field physics, Keppler frames his theory of consciousness based on the quantum theory of EM fields (quantum electrodynamics or QED), which is a more fundamental physical theory than the classical approach. QED explains EM by treating the classical vacuum state as a vibrant ocean of energy, rich with structure, energy, and potentialities. Even more basic than QED is stochastic electrodynamics, which views the vacuum as an omnipresent EM background field with the lowest possible energy–the zero-point field (ZPF)–which mediates all EM events. Here, the potential energy in charged particles comes from them being embedded in the ZPF." {Credits 1}

" Another approach to the Qualia Problem is Hunt and Schooler’s General Resonance Theory (GRT), which is grounded in a panpsychist framework (Hunt, 2011, 2014; Schooler et al., 2011; Goff, 2017; Hunt and Schooler, 2019). Hunt is a co-author of the present paper." {Credits 1}

" GRT assumes that all matter is associated with at least some capacity for phenomenal consciousness (this is called the “panpsychism axiom”), but that consciousness is extremely rudimentary in the vast majority of cases due to a lack of physical complexity mirrored by the lack of mental complexity. The EM fields associated with all baryonic matter (i.e., charged particles) are thought to be the primary seat of consciousness simply because EM fields are the primary force at the scale of life (strong and weak nuclear fields are operative at scales far smaller and gravity is operative mostly at scales far larger). Accordingly, GRT is applicable to all physical structures and as a theory is not limited only to neurobiological or even biological structures (Hunt and Schooler, 2019)." {Credits 1}

" GRT suggests that resonance (similar but not synonymous with synchronization and coherence) of various types is the key mechanism by which the basic constituents of consciousness, when in sufficient proximity, combine into more complex types of consciousness. This is the case because shared resonance allows for phase transitions in the speed and bandwidth of information exchange to occur at various organizational levels, allowing previously disordered systems to self-organize and thus become coherent by freely sharing information and energy. The speed and bandwidth of information flows achieve a step change through such a phase transition, allowing for the unity of consciousness in each moment. This is GRT’s suggested solution to the binding problem as well as the Qualia Problem." {Credits 1}

" In GRT, consciousness is a product of resonance chains4 of various information/energy5 pathways, and the spatial and temporal boundaries of any particular conscious entity is established by the slowest-frequency shared resonance within that conscious entity, for each particular information/energy pathway (Hunt, 2020b). Shared resonance and resulting resonance chains are the key mechanisms for self-organization and are constantly changing in most entities (Walleczek, 2000). Thus, the spatial and temporal boundaries of conscious entities will be constantly changing at least a little (Hunt calls this constantly changing EM field structure in human and mammalian brains “the blob” in Hunt (2020b), and this structure is the physical basis for the dominant consciousness in each moment)." {Credits 1}

" Most combinations of consciousness, in which less complex entities combine into more complex entities in biological structures like mammal brains, will be comprised of a nested hierarchy of conscious entities, with one dominant conscious entity in each moment, and without extinction (elimination) of the nested entities’ subsidiary consciousnesses. This notion is stated well by Whitehead et al. (1929): “The many become one and are increased by one.” This lack of extinction of subsidiary entities distinguishes the present approach from IIT and other theories that assume the extinction of nested conscious entities, leaving only one macro-conscious entity left (this is, e.g., IIT’s “exclusion principle”)." {Credits 1}

" Qualia, in GRT, are synonymous with consciousness, which is simply subjective experience. Nevertheless, qualia may act as a conceptual tool for distinguishing specific qualities or aspects of consciousness. As such, some degree of qualia are associated with all EM field activity but will be more complex in more complex physical structures such as evolved biological entities with advanced sensory abilities (such as humans and other animals). Any EM field shape, which can be represented visually with the traditional EEG frequency and amplitude sine wave diagram, represents a specific quale or experience–but only at a specific level of organization. Any complex quale or moment of human consciousness, for example, is an extended nested hierarchy of resonating fields starting perhaps with extremely fast terahertz-level frequencies in microtubules and other similar subcellular proteins, and then upwards through the chain of complexity to the global EM fields measured by normal EEG at the 2–60 Hz frequency bands conventionally labeled delta through gamma." {Credits 1}

" ... field patterns might be eventually found in EEG or fMRI data from areas of the brain that create images instead of interpreting them. But Jones does not think these field patterns will have coded, nonpictorial form. In his view, images are not obscure, elusive codes that the brain must somehow decode. They are simply neural EM substances laid out in conscious pictorial form in the fields of neural maps (which are the only neural structures having pictorial arrays of color detectors)." {Credits 1}

" Here, “substance” denotes the concrete, fundamental stuff comprising the universe (e.g., EM), whether it is seen as a thing or a process. Note that while Jones’s theory treats images as substances, not as computations (i.e., coded information processing), it accepts that brains refine images’ depth, constancy, etc. behind the scenes using computations (viewed simply as material interactions, not as abstract multiply realizable relations–§1.5)." {Credits 1}

" This is a neuroelectrical, pure panpsychist theory of mind (NP). The “pure panpsychism” says that everything (not just EM) is comprised purely of consciousness. This partly resembles Strawson’s (2016) well-known panpsychism. The “neuroelectrical” refers to how consciousness in molecules, cells, etc. is united to form overall minds by the strong, continuous EM fields localized in ion currents along neuronal circuits (these are not global fields pervading brains, distinguishing this approach form Hunt and Schooler’s GRT). Again, images and their color qualia are EM substances laid out in neural maps." {Credits 1}

" How do our various qualia arise? Field theories (including Pockett’s) have not yet spelt this out. Yet there is now growing evidence that different qualia correlate with different electrically active substances in cellular membranes found in sensory and emotional circuits. These substances are the membranes’ ion-channel proteins and associated G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). They detect the presence of hormones and sensory stimuli, then directly or indirectly generate electrical impulses in limbic and sensory circuits. They are thus exceedingly active electrically–both as EM-charged proteins and the EM fields they generate." {Credits 1}

" For example, the different primary colors correlate with different OPN1 GPCRs,8 different temperatures correlate with different TRP ion channels, and some different tastes correlate with different T1R and T2R GPCRs.9 These proteins reside in membrane electrical activity at various levels of the sensory system. There is also evidence that oxytocin and vasopressin receptor proteins correlate with feelings of love (e.g., Busnelli and Chini, 2018).10,11 Also, estrogen and testosterone receptors correlate with lust (Fisher, 1997), the endorphin receptor correlates with euphoria (e.g., Sprouse-Blum et al., 2010), and the adrenaline receptor correlates with vigilance (e.g., Bayerl and Bosch, 2019). Jones (2019) gives a much longer list of correlations between sensory qualia and proteins, with supporting arguments and citations." {Credits 1}

" Returning to color qualia and visual images, they may reside in the resonating EM fields of opsin proteins (and in a fundamental way, not in a problematic emergent way). These opsins may thus form the labeled lines for colors, while cross-line comparisons modulate which lines are most active. (For example, we see blue when long-wavelength lines are activated and when opponent cells inhibit the other two opsin lines–all in line with existing theories of perception.) In contrast, other field theories have not yet been able to specify field patterns that encode qualia." {Credits 1}

" Evidence that unified cognition comes from EM takes three forms. (A), no other mechanisms seem to explain the mind’s unity (§1.3). (B), Koch et al. (2016) argue that locally activated EEGs actually track conscious perceptions across brains better than other events, such as neuronal firing synchrony or P300 events. This EEG evidence links perceptions (i.e., unified sensory experiences) to local neuroelectrical fields. (C), EM fields–rather than just particles or synapses–propagate signals across slices in hippocampal tissue (Chiang et al., 2019; cf. Libet, 1993). This indicates that it is most likely the fields that unify this activity." {Credits 1}

{Credits 1} 🎪 Jones MW and Hunt T (2023) Electromagnetic-field theories of qualia: can they improve upon standard neuroscience? Front. Psychol. 14:1015967. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1015967. © 2023 The Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.