Toward a holographic brain paradigm: a lipid-centric model of brain functioning

" Due to the stimulation of neuronal membrane dipoles by action potentials... coherent dipole oscillations can be formed. We argue that these dipole oscillations satisfy the weak Bose-Einstein condensate criteria of the Froehlich model of biological coherence. They can subsequently generate electromagnetic fields (EMFs) propagating in the inter-neuronal space. When neighboring neurons fire synchronously, EMFs can create interference patterns and hence form holographic images containing analog information about the sensory inputs that trigger neuronal activity. The mirror pattern projected by EMFs inside the neuron can encode information in the neuronal cytoskeleton." {Credits 1}

" Our theory focuses on the lipid composition of neuronal membrane and hypothesizes that phospholipid head groups are the main players in the electromagnetic mechanism behind 3D reality perception. As indirect evidence, weak electric and magnetic fields are known to impact brain activity and are used to treat psychiatric conditions (Chail et al., 2018; Di Iorio et al., 2022). MacIver shifted the focus from external EMF and their impact on the brain to the internally generated EMF energy cloud that could strengthen ephaptic connections to neural circuits, enhancing the interaction between various forms of energy within the brain (Mac Iver, 2022)." {Credits 1}

" The molecular-level mechanism of brain functioning is based on EMF generation by excitable neuronal membranes (Baluška et al., 2021)." {Credits 1}

" Membrane’s phospholipid bilayer composition and spatial distribution of its components allow for intracellular and extracellular fluid separation and selective transport across its thickness... We represent phospholipid head groups as moving dipoles interacting with their neighbors, whose synchronized oscillations can be excited by the AP’s electric field. Dipolar oscillations generate EMFs, which can lead to signals propagating both in the inter-neuronal milieu and into the cellular interior with downstream effects such as EM pattern formation and information storage." {Credits 1}

" Various physical mechanisms have been identified that involve the use of EMFs interacting with biological structures, which may result in the ultra-efficient storage, processing, and retrieval of information linked to specific biological functions (Rouleau and Dotta, 2014) such as neurotransmitter release, ion channel effects, memory encoding using CaMKII enzyme phosphorylation, and interactions of EMFs with MTs in neurons (Beck and Eccles, 1998). However, an integrated model is still needed to explain how EMF interactions are created." {Credits 1}

" Formation of holographic images is achieved by constructive and destructive interference patterns of two propagating EMFs. We hypothesize that a coherent EMF produced by dipole oscillations in the membrane of one neuron can interfere with a similar EMF produced by a neighboring neuron. One of these waves can be considered a reference beam while the other an object beam using holographic terminology. This will create a pattern of nodes and antinodes due to EMF interference. Importantly, within the neocortex, multiple pyramidal cell axons are almost parallel, capable of producing multiple cylindrical waves that overlap and interfere with each other. Consequently, instead of a fringe pattern of equally spaced parallel lines, the resulting interference pattern will appear much like a conventional hologram projecting a 3D image on a screen. A magnified hologram’s interference pattern, resulting from multiple complex beams interfering with each other could be formed when a number of neurons synchronously fire producing coherent dipole waves that in turn create multiple interfering EMFs (Figure 4)." {Credits 1}

" Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s could be directly related to defective memory storage in neuronal microtubules in the case of their destabilization by MAP tau hyperphosphorylation. Anesthesia affects membrane receptors but also causes structural changes in the membrane such as loss of mechanical rigidity and changes in thickness and spatial distribution of phospholipids. These effects could be directly linked to the loss of coherence of the interacting dipole oscillations in the membrane... Finally, our model is consistent with the Integrated Information Theory (IIT; Tononi, 2017) of consciousness since the mechanism we propose involves sensory inputs carrying information about the external reality, which then produce synchronized images in a virtual reality generator at the level of neuronal assemblies. Furthermore, our model is consistent McFadden’s electromagnetic information field theory, which claims that thoughts are electromagnetic representations of neuronal information in the brain (McFadden, 2020)." {Credits 1}

{Credits 1} 🎪 Cavaglià M, Deriu MA and Tuszynski JA (2023) Toward a holographic brain paradigm: a lipid-centric model of brain functioning. Front. Neurosci. 17:1302519. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1302519. © 2023 The Authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License..