Biophotons in Neurons and Brain
The most concrete expression of the electromagnetic mind
As part of the multilayered electromagnetic brain/mind theory, various frequencies are pivotal at different level each, in various mind processes biophotons are probably taking an important role, with various experimental findings pointing to it, and a very possible waveguide mechanisms in neurons. It will be interesting to discover what type of mental qualia can represent. ...
As a contradictory viewpoints on the topic of biophotonic role in biology in general, although the initial findings by Gurwitsch and posterior related experiments where two or more samples of cells or bacteria preparations or microorganisms are put in isolated but nearby locations separated by crystal, to observe how influence each other, a possibility that is truncated putting opaque crystals, says quite about the informational role of these emissions as they influence in numerous measured phenomena like increasing the number of mitoses in onion roots, stimulating the growth of bacteria, or accelerating the development of eggs and the division of certain animal cells [1][2] (or also see [3] for a list of more recent experiments on this), from the chemistry-primacy' biological viewpoint, on the contrary, those emissions have been treated only as a by-product of chemical cellular respiration (as a by-product was treated also the bioelectromagnetics, the bioelectricity and all the biophysics in general, until recently).
We must see also, that the externally detected proportion of biophotons, compared to those that must be generated inside cells is small [4], and great part of the biophotons can be, as we will see, traveling through waveguiding capable specific structures.
In neurons biophotonic transmission is possible as is verified that different spectral light stimulation, from infrared to white light, at one end of the spinal sensory or motor nerve roots resulted in a significant increase in the biophotonic activity at the other end [5], moreover those biophotons can conserve their polarization and coherence, if they have, as it has been show that those are conserved for entangled photons when propagate through brain tissues [6], so they can transmit more information.
As neuronal waveguides for biophotons initially two architectures, non-exclusives, are presented: neuronal microtubules and myelin sheath of axons, and we will see another one, protein to protein communication.
Microtubules, those more-than-cellular-structure cytoskeletal elements have been proposed also that have a role in other layers of the electromagnetic body with various modes of vibration generating electrical oscillations [7][8][9], and has been viewed also that anesthetics shifts the resonance patterns between tubulin dimers [10] (the microtubule protein constituents), so it can alter the now know integration between different scales in which microtubules take part, as discovered in [11]:
" we report a self-similar triplet of triplet resonance frequency pattern for the four-4 nm-wide tubulin protein, for the 25-nm-wide microtubule nanowire and 1-μm-wide axon initial segment of a neuron. Thus, preserving the symmetry of vibrations was a fundamental integration feature of the three materials. There was no self-similarity in the physical appearance: the size varied by 106 orders, yet, when they vibrated, the ratios of the frequencies changed in such a way that each of the three resonance frequency bands held three more bands inside (triplet of triplet)."
Anyways microtubules, as said, are proposed also to have a waveguide function for biophotons [12][13][14][15], this is compatible with the fact that precisely the cells with more microtubule concentration are the neurons, they are especially abundant in their axons. For example in [12] is proposed that neuronal depolarisation energy can be used to generate light in microtubules, and then the process of depolarisation could scan the information within the microtubules and MAP-proteins and transmit it to the next neuron and when depolarisation reaches the synapses release the neurotransmitters.
It must be said as is put forward in the same paper that amino acid with strongest fluorescence tryptophan, phenylalanine and tyrosine are the precursors for the neurotransmitters involved in mood reactions: serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. And many hallucinogens have strong fluorescence properties also [12].
Meanwhile in [14] they describe:
" Our analysis has shown that the coupling between tryotophan molecules is able to create a superradiant ground state, similar to the physical behavior of several photosynthetic antenna systems. Such a superradiant ground state, which absorbs in the UV spectral range, has been shown to be a coherent excitonic state extended over the whole microtubule lattice of tryptophan molecules. Interestingly, the superradiant ground state appears to be delocalized on the exterior wall of the microtubule, which interfaces with the cytoplasm, suggesting the possibility that these extended but shortlived (few picosecond) excitonic states may be involved in communication with cellular proteins that bind to microtubules in order to carry out their functions. At the same time, we have shown that long-lived (hundreds of milliseconds) subradiant states can be concentrated on the inner wall of the microtubule lumen, potentially maintaining excitonic transfer processes across the cytoskeletal network in a more “protected” thermodynamic milieu. These subradiant states could be particularly important in the synchronization of neuronal processes in the brain, where microtubules can extend to the micron scale and beyond."
Myelin sheath of neurons is has been proposed to serve as waveguide to some biophotonic transmissions also, as long as classical model of cable theory where electric signal propagation in neurons is mediated by membrane lateral diffusion of ions is no longer tenable [16], so various papers deal with idea of biophotons taking a role here [17][18][19] and also in the Nodes of Ranvier between the myelin sheath, that they can act as relay antenna where those photons are received and regenerated [20]. Anyways an equivalent photonic transmission (although less efficient) is proposed to be occurring also in unmyelinated axons, that is in the rest of neurons (the more simple and non-vertebrate specific neurons), by various authors [21][22].
The last mechanism of propagation, that is by a protein to protein interactions, has been mentioned for example in [5] where two different proteins may achieve biophotonic conduction if they form a biophotonic interaction couple, meaning that one protein absorbs a certain spectral biophoton (for example 630 nm) and emits another spectral biophoton (for example 670 nm). In contrast, the other protein of the couple absorbs 670 nm biophotons and emits 630 nm biophotons. In this way, 630 and 670 nm biophotons can conduct along a neural fiber if the protein couple is distributed and assembled in the neural fiber.
This mechanism can be related with the Resonant Recognition Model (see section [23] for numerous papers on this topic) where the spectral power densities of the sequential quantifications of pseudopotentials of the amino acids that compose proteins (and the nucleotides that construct DNA and RNA) predict the functions of molecular pathways as electromagnetic resonances, and in conclusion recognition between different proteins or proteins and target are mediated by electromagnetic signals that lie in the visual wavelength range (that is, they can be biophotons) as a good description of the model see for example [24]:
" The molecular vibration patterns of structure-forming macromolecules in the living cell create very specific electromagnetic frequency patterns which might be used for information on spatial position in the three-dimensional structure as well as the chemical characteristics. Chemical change of a molecule results in a change of the vibration pattern and thus in a change of the emitted electromagnetic frequency pattern. These patterns have to be received by proteins responsible for the necessary interactions and functions. Proteins can function as resonators for frequencies in the range of 1013-1015 Hz. The individual frequency pattern is defined by the amino acid sequence and the polarity of every amino acid caused by their functional groups. If the arriving electromagnetic signal pattern and the emitted pattern of the absorbing protein are matched in relevant parts and in opposite phase, photon energy in the characteristic frequencies can be transferred resulting in a conformational change of that molecule and respectively in an increase of its specific activity."
Respect to the possible functions of the biophotons, there are various ideas launched and acquiring form, firstly we will underline the hypothesis by some Chinese academics [25][26][27] where comparing various animal species, and different ages of them, is concluded that when the externally detected biophotons from brain are redshifted (that is the wavelengths are more red than blue) it pertains to a more intelligent animal and, inversely, when emissions from brains of a concrete specie in different ages are compared more blueshift is detected among more older brains, that is supposed to imply less 'intelligence' due to neurodegenerative diseases). The authors argue that in more intelligent brain less energetic photons are needed to transmit information.
Very interesting is the paper [28] where biophotonic signals and sunlight photons can have comparable role but in the gastrointestinal-brain axis of humans and the root-leaf axis of plants respectively, being the first an evolution of the second:
" Similarly to auxin in plants, serotonin seems to play an important role in higher animals, especially humans. Here, it is proposed that morphological and functional similarities between (i) plant leaves and the animal/human brain and (ii) plant roots and the animal/human gastro-intestinal tract have general features in common. Plants interact with light and use it for biological energy, whereas, neurons in the central nervous system seem to interact with bio-photons and use them for proper brain function. Further, as auxin drives roots “arborescence” within the soil, similarly serotonin seems to facilitate enteric nervous system connectivity within the human gastro-intestinal tract."
In [29] is proposed that biophotons can influence in the tonically active neurons from which oscillating rhythms emerges, and associate those rhythms as the possible basis for the body's chronological activity.
Those theories apart, also specific experimental finding that can give rise to profound thinking are available in this section, for example some years ago Michael A. Persinger and others [30] discovered that when a subject with eyes closed imagined white light there was an increased biophoton emission and, surprisingly, they also found a minute decrease in the local adjacent geomagnetic field.
References:
Very related sections:
↑ text updated: 13/06/2020
↓ tables updated: 08/04/2023
Endogenous Fields & Mind
Biophotons in Neurons and Brain
(F) Full or (A) Abstract | Available Formats | Title | Commentary | Publication Year (and Number of Pages) | Author(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
F | Optical polarization evolution and transmission in multi-Ranvier-node axonal myelin-sheath waveguides | 2023-(13) | Emily Frede Hadi Zadeh-Haghighi, Christoph Simon | ||
F | Photons guided by axons may enable backpropagation-based learning in the brain | 2022-(11) | Parisa Zarkeshian, Taylor Kergan, Roohollah Ghobadi, Wilten Nicola, Christoph Simon | ||
A | Electromagnetic modeling and simulation of the biophoton propagation in myelinated axon waveguide | 2022-(1) | Haomin Zeng, Yunhua Zhang, Yue Ma, Song Li | ||
F | Engineering Photonic Transmission Inside Brain Nerve Fibers | 2021-(12) | Amir Maghoul, Ali Khaleghi, Ilangko Balasingham | ||
F | Photons detected in the active nerve by photographic technique | 2021-(11) | Andrea Zangari, Davide Micheli, Roberta Galeazzi, Antonio Tozzi, Vittoria Balzano, Gabriella Bellavia, Maria Emiliana Caristo | ||
F | A new viewpoint and model of neural signal generation and transmission: Signal transmission on unmyelinated neurons (terahertz/infrared) | 2020-(11) | Zuoxian Xiang, Chuanxiang Tang, Chao Chang, Guozhi Liu | ||
F | Amplification of terahertz/infrared field at the nodes of Ranvier for myelinated nerve (terahertz/infrared) | 2020-(4) | Yan Sheng Liu, Kai Jie Wu, Chun Liang Liu, Gang Qiang Cui, Chao Chang, Guozhi Liu | ||
A | A primary model of THz and far-infrared signal generation and conduction in neuron systems based on the hypothesis of the ordered phase of water molecules on the neuron surface I: signal characteristics (unmelyneated axons, terahertz/infrared) | 2020-(1) | Zuoxian Xiang, Chuanxiang Tang, Chao Chang, Guozhi Liu | ||
A | Electromagnetic Waves Guided by a Myelinated Axon in the Optical and Infrared Ranges | 2019-(1) | O. M. Ostafiychuk, V. A. Es'kin, A. V. Kudrin, A. A. Popova | ||
F | Electromagnetic Propagation Models in Nerve Fibers (myelinated axons) | 2019-(4) | Qingwei Zhai, Kelvin J. A. Ooi, C. K. Ong, Shengyong Xu | ||
F | On the delay in propagation of action potentials (myelinated and unmelyneated axons) | 2019-(18) | J. Xu, S. Xu, F. Wang, S. Xu | ||
F | Cell vibron polariton in the myelin sheath of nerve (myelinated axons) | 2019-(16) | Bo Song, Yousheng Shu | ||
A | Myelin Sheath as a Dielectric Waveguide for Signal Propagation in the Mid-Infrared to Terahertz Spectral Range (myelinated axons, terahertz/infrared) | 2018-(1) | Guozhi Liu, Chao Chang, Zhi Qiao, Kaijie Wu, Zhi Zhu, Gangqiang Cui, Wenyu Peng, Yuzhao Tang, Jiang Li, Chunhai Fan | ||
F | Node of Ranvier as an Array of Bio-Nanoantennas for Infrared Communication in Nerve Tissue(myelinated axons, terahertz/infrared) | 2018-(19) | Andrea Zangari, Davide Micheli, Roberta Galeazzi, Antonio Tozzi | ||
F | Are there optical communication channels in the brain? (myelinated axons) | 2017-(?) | Parisa Zarkeshian, Sourabh Kumar, Jack Tuszýnski, Paul Barclay, Christoph Simon | ||
F | Possible existence of optical communication channels in the brain (myelinated axons) | 2016-(24) | Sourabh Kumar, Kristine Boone, Jack Tuszýnski, Paul Barclay, Christoph Simon |
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