Online ISSN 2653-4983
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Is Alzheimer’s Disease a Manifestation of Brain Quantum Decoherence Resulting from
Mitochondrial and Microtubular Deterioration?
T.W. Nichols1, M.H. Berman1 and J.A. Tuszynski 2,3
1 Quietmind Foundation, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2 Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
3 DIMEAS, Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy
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The etiology of Alzheimer's dementia is, at best multifactorial. Before the emergence of cognitive impairment, symptoms such as thinning of the cortex, accumulation of β-amyloid, and decreased hippocampal volume are common. Hence, the accumulation of β-amyloid and hyperphosphorylated tau fibrillary tangles are two pathological hallmarks in Alzheimer's disease brains, but antibody therapy aimed to decrease β-amyloid has been a failure and, in most optimistic opinions, may delay somewhat disease progression. However, 31-38 % of subjects develop cerebral micro-hemorrhages in aducanumab therapy, an antibody to the amyloid beta plaque by Biogen. Genetics such as Apo E3/E3 have demonstrated defects in the blood-brain barrier in early-onset dementia...more
PERSPECTIVE
Leapfrogging singularity: the urgency of prioritizing conscious AI development over automation
S. Parida, E. Alemdar & R.R. Poznanski
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Given that AI is not a science but mostly within software engineering, techniques to mimic biology in software, i.e., “black-box” approaches, may prove futile as quantum information biology or intrinsic information is subjective physicalism and cannot be predicted with Turing computation. Efforts to create conscious AI must prioritize developing functional systems with intelligence beyond automation that rely on elements of life, as consciousness is strongly bound with life and not intelligence. Deep Learning algorithms utilize "black box" techniques to imitate intentionality by discovering arbitrary functions from a trained set rather than prioritize models of consciousness that accurately represent the fundamental components of life. Dynamic organicity of consciousness (DOT) is a promising approach for building artificial consciousness that is more like the brain. Instead of category learning, the brain’s irreducibility of dynamic organicity satisfies a self-referential causal closure that brings about negentropic entanglement, adding to functionality through intrinsic information encoding in the brain. The physiological nonlocality and diachronicity of self-referential causal closure render consciousness difficult for AI programmers/researchers to rely on "black-box" approaches in deep learning algorithms.
BRIEF REPORT
Principal component analysis on the effect of early morning awakening in major depressive disorder
Julia R. Higdon & Jonghoon Kang
Sleep disturbance is one of the most prevalent symptoms associated with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). A recent article (Wu et al., 2022, Journal of Multiscale Neuroscience 1, 133-139) explored the significant relationship between early morning awakening (EMA), a type of sleep disturbance, and recovery in MDD patients. In the paper, the authors examined the relationship between EMA and the treatment of MDD with twelve neuropsychological parameters. The authors employed two univariate statistical techniques, students’ t-test, and ANOVA in the analysis of their data. While their analysis derived a meaningful conclusion that EMA may result in statistically and clinically significant delay in recovery, we found that a multivariate statistical technique, principal component analysis (PCA), extracted additional quantitative information from their study. In this paper, we present quantitative features in the interaction between EMA and the treatment of MDD obtained from PCA
BRIEF REPORT
Treatment of addictions with special reference to anorexia nervosa
Henry C. Tuckwell
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Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a disease affecting mainly young women. It involves a pathological desire to be thin and has a complex etiology. Treatments, which have varying degrees of success, focus on medication or supervised counseling, sometimes in a hospital setting. AN has several possible co-morbidities, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and anxiety. In this article, it is hypothesized that since AN has characteristics in common with those of addiction, it could possibly be treated with supplements, such as N-acetylcysteine (NAC), which act to restore glutamate homeostasis in the nucleus accumbens and have been successfully employed in the treatment of substance abuse and various addictive behaviors.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Some necessary constructs of consciousness as defined in the dynamic organicity theory
Roman R. Poznanski
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The Dynamic Organicity Theory (DOT) explains consciousness as a process that cannot be reduced to a thing or a structure. This process, called the Polanyian process, involves the evolving diachronic boundary conditions of our experienceability. These boundary conditions are ontologically intertwined with higher-level boundary conditions, which lead to physiological nonlocal cause-and-effect relationships. Thus, adaptive changes occur when self-referential causal closure transforms syntactic structures into experienceable forms. Self-referential causal closure is a causal agent for diachronic boundary conditions that majorly structure intrinsic information in ways that experienceabilities are across time, suggesting that consciousness is not driven by an “internal clock” or regular biological rhythm but rather by intrinsic intentionality preceding path selection through a non-mechanical force of hidden thermodynamic energy that cascades to form a volitional agency of information-based action due to the gain of hidden intrinsic information. The process of transforming syntactical structures to experienceable forms in intrinsic informational pathways is conflated with nonlinear time, and its structuring defines the functionality of the brain. Consciousness-in-the-moment is an “averaging out” between different informational pathways involved ...
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Spatial interactions impact on calcium driven synaptic plasticity: An ionic cable theory perspective
Nicolangelo L. Iannella
We extend our previous paper on deriving an approximate analytical solution of a nonlinear cable equation by including other ion channels in neurons and calcium dynamics based on reaction-diffusion dynamics that lead to a system of nonlinear cable equations. Here, excitable dendrite possesses clusters of voltage-activated ion channels that are discretely distributed as point sources or hotspots of transmembrane current along a continuous cable structure of fixed length. Single and/or trains of action potentials and spatially distributed synaptic inputs drive the depolarisation and activate sparsely distributed voltage-dependent calcium channels. This leads to calcium influx and diffusion in the cable. Here, time-dependent analytical solutions were obtained by applying a perturbation expansion of the non-dimensional voltage (Φ) and non-dimensional calcium (ΦCa) and then solving the resulting set of integral equations. We use this framework to gain insights into calcium-driven synaptic plasticity in dendrites. Many previous studies have traditionally focused on the local impact of calcium on whether the synapse's strength is ....
PERSPECTIIVE
Insights into the neuropsychology of autistic spectrum disorder
L.A. Cacha
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There has been progress in understanding autism in recent years, but there is still much to learn about the genetics and environmental factors that impact it. An autism diagnosis results from a neurological disorder having an adverse effect on normal brain functions, affecting communication and social interaction skills combined with rigid, repetitive patterns of behaviors. This paper aims to connect the underlying mechanism of how the structure and function of the brain relate to the complex and diverse behavioral manifestations of autism. Mapping this connection can provide us with a better understanding of the autism signs and symptoms. Consequently, individuals with autism process the environment and their interactions with others differently from those without autism – so they make different perceptions and connections between themselves and the environment. An individual with this condition will have difficulty communicating, forming relationships, and responding appropriately to their environment. It is due to this lifelong neurobehavioral condition that prevents autistic individuals from adequately understanding what they perceive and feel. An individual with this neurobehavioral disorder will have changes in their thinking process and how their brain works as well as their mental abilities.
COMMENTARY
Some aspects of modeling the neuropil in volume conductors
R. R. Poznanski
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A distributed representation of single neurons as ionic structures instead of neural masses in neuropil is most likely to lead to a greater understanding of how the distribution of ionic channels and synaptic input along the dendrites of a few neurons can offset the collective behavior of a large ensemble of neurons and, therefore, provide a measure of the dynamical brain. Such volume conductor modeling closely motivated by brain architecture is envisaged to enlighten functional neuroimaging studies
BRIEF REPORT
On the transition from a sense of self to actualizing an intention
R.R. Poznanski & L.A. Cacha
Action potential forms part of neural activity, but what is neural action? The generalization of specific cognitive tasks as neural cannot work, so we must individualize them, for example, intentions in action. However, the question arises: are intentions in the action part of the neural activity in the electro-ionic brain or perhaps hidden deep in the EM brain where ionization is absent? This has important implications for the experience of acting out a thought, such as subjectivity intentionality is not decipherable through neuroimaging and cannot be a viable instrument for intentions. We propose that ionization drives the transition from experience to intentions and that the experience is hidden in the unconscious and not decipherable using modern brain neuroimaging technology. The intentions are sensed through attention as feelings spontaneously and do not provide a window to subjective intentionality and its pathology in psychopathic cases.