The importance of quantum decoherence in brain processes Export

@misc{citeulike:340627, abstract = {Based on a calculation of neural decoherence rates, we argue that that the degrees of freedom of the human brain that relate to cognitive processes should be thought of as a classical rather than quantum system, i.e., that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the current classical approach to neural network simulations. We find that the decoherence timescales \~{}10^{-13}-10^{-20} seconds are typically much shorter than the relevant dynamical timescales (\~{}0.001-0.1 seconds), both for regular neuron firing and for kink-like polarization excitations in microtubules. This conclusion disagrees with suggestions by Penrose and others that the brain acts as a quantum computer, and that quantum coherence is related to consciousness in a fundamental way.}, archivePrefix = {arXiv}, author = {Tegmark, Max}, citeulike-article-id = {340627}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9907009}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/9907009}, day = {10}, eprint = {quant-ph/9907009}, keywords = {brain, complexity, quantum-mechanics}, month = {Nov}, posted-at = {2007-05-24 03:11:49}, priority = {4}, title = {The importance of quantum decoherence in brain processes}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9907009}, year = {1999} }

TY - ELEC ID - citeulike:340627 L3 - citeulike-article-id:340627 N2 - Based on a calculation of neural decoherence rates, we argue that that the degrees of freedom of the human brain that relate to cognitive processes should be thought of as a classical rather than quantum system, i.e., that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the current classical approach to neural network simulations. We find that the decoherence timescales ~10^{-13}-10^{-20} seconds are typically much shorter than the relevant dynamical timescales (~0.001-0.1 seconds), both for regular neuron firing and for kink-like polarization excitations in microtubules. This conclusion disagrees with suggestions by Penrose and others that the brain acts as a quantum computer, and that quantum coherence is related to consciousness in a fundamental way. TI - The importance of quantum decoherence in brain processes KW - brain KW - complexity KW - quantum-mechanics AU - Tegmark, Max PY - 1999/Nov/10/ UR - http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9907009 ER -