The cell's self-generated “electrome”: The biophysical essence of the immaterial dimension of Life?

" ... no esoteric mechanisms need to be invoked, but that this possibility is inherent to 2 well established but undervalued physiological mechanisms. The first one is electrical in nature. In analogy with “genome,” “proteome” etc. “electrome” (a novel term) stands for the totality of all ionic currents of any living entity, from the cellular to the organismal level. Cellular electricity is truly vital. Death of any cell ensues at the very moment that it irreversibly (excluding regeneration) loses its ability to realize its electrical dimension. The second mechanism involves communication activity that is invariably executed by sender-receiver entities that incessantly handle information. Information itself is immaterial (= no mass). Both mechanisms are instrumental to the functioning of all cells, in particular to their still enigmatic cognitive memory system. Ionic/electrical currents associated with the cytoskeleton likely play a key role but have been largely overlooked." {Credits 1}

" The key issue in the discussion on consciousness is, in my opinion: “Does what we call “(ubiquitous) consciousness” equal the totality of electrical phenomena in any given communicating compartment (a cell, our brain, the totality of a plant etc.), or is the electrical activity only the prerequisite for enabling consciousness that then would be of a different nature than electrical?

I favor the idea that “electrome” and “consciousness” are largely overlapping concepts but given that experimental evidence is missing, I am also open to the view the electrical aspect is only part of consciousness." {Credits 1}

{Credits 1} 🎪 De Loof A. (2016). The cell's self-generated "electrome": The biophysical essence of the immaterial dimension of Life?. Communicative & integrative biology, 9(5), e1197446. doi:10.1080/19420889.2016.1197446. Copyright © 2016 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial License.