PitkanenII2c

JNLRMI Vol. II Nr.2 July 2003

Quantum Model of the Sensory Receptor

by Matti Pitkanen

URL: www.emergentmind.org/PDF_files.htm/receptor0702.pdf

Abstract: In TGD framework various qualia correspond to the average increments of quantum numbers and of so called zero modes for sequences of quantum jumps. Quantum numbers could be spin, momentum, energy, electromagnetic charge, color quantum numbers (isospin and hypercharge in a constant proportion), various particle numbers, etc... In the sensory receptors the gradient of some physical quantity is transformed to average increments of appropriate quantum numbers responsible for the quale representing the gradient of the physical quantity. Spatial gradients are transformed first to temporal gradients by a process, which is essentially scanning (say saccadic motion). Temporal gradients are then transformed to non-vanishing average increments of appropriate charges per quantum jump in a long sequence of quantum jumps. The problem is to understand how this process is realized at the level of sensory receptors. In this article a model of visual receptor is constructed in order to clarify the issues involved.

Sensory perception is very active process, much like building of an artwork, and involves a continual selection between alternative percepts. If sensory representations are at the level of magnetic bodies of the sensory organs, this requires the presence of back-projection from magnetic body to brain to sensory organs. Back-projection would be a particular kind of motor action which could be based on classical communications or quantum metabolism by a feed of negative energy to some part of sensory organ which in turn feeds negative energy to higher levels of CNS.

The assumption that sensory qualia are realized at the level of sensory receptors, when combined with the requirement that the average increments of quantum numbers are non-vanishing, and perhaps even remain same for subsequent quantum jumps, poses strong constraints on the model of the sensory receptor. These constraints suggest what might be called the capacitor model of the sensory receptor. There are two reservoirs of quantum charges having total charges of equal magnitude but of opposite sign. The net charges are macroscopic in order to guarantee robustness. These reservoirs are analogous to capacitor plates, and only the second one corresponds to the sensory experienced quale unless both the quale and its conjugate are experienced simultaneously. Capacitors plates can carry several charges. When the sensory quale is generated, there is a flow of charge quanta between the quantum capacitor plates. The charge quanta are more or less constant. This requirement could be relaxed to the condition that only the average increment is constant.

The capacitor model is applied to develop a model of photoreceptors and retina and a special consideration is given to the problem how back projection might be realized. An argument relying on some simple findings about the early development of embryo leads to the working hypothesis that the back-projection from brain is classical for "skin senses" and quantal for "brain senses". "Skin sense" receptors could however entangle with environment, which could explain why galvanic skin response (GSR) acts as a correlate for subliminal remote mental interactions. This remote mental interaction usually unconscious to us would be the analog of the primary perception exhibited by plants and even by biomolecules. Both the notion of back-projection and the not so fundamental hypothesis about division to skin and brain senses are detailed enough to be testable and several tests are proposed.