Graphic images from Alessandra FALEGGI

BOOK

Title : THE QUANTIC BRAIN

Modern quantistic Psychology: Psychodynamic and Psychokinetics, Shifting from

Material Chemical Psychology to a Human Decision-Making Psychology

Authors

1) Luisetto M IMA academy Marijnskaya italy Professorship pharmacology and

toxicology , natural science branc 29121
2) Naserr Almukthar Professor Physiology Babilon university Iraq
3) Nili B. Ahmadabadi ,Nano Drug Delivery, (a Product Development Firm),
United States
4) Jean Thill Independent researcher at FernUniversität in Hagen
5) Luxembourg
6) Mashori Gulam Rasool, Professor, Department of Medical & Health Sciences
for Woman, institute of pharmaceutical science, Peoples University of Medical
and Health Sciences for Women, Pakistan
7) Oleg Yurevich Lathysev IMA ACADEMY president RU

Corresponding author : mauro luisetto maurolu65@gmail.com italy 29121

Keywords:

Neuroscience, psycodinamic, psycokinetics, bio-neurokinetics, quantistic theory ,

phisical chemistry , physiology , quantic neuropsycology, Mindset kinetics ,Quantic
enerly level,Mental energy ,Evolution nervous system, quantum mind; quantum
neurobiology, quantum cognition
CHAPTHER 1 Abstract

Brain and mind show the same limited resource related mentale energy for the
various tasks.

This are not infinite for this two separated concept .

Because various human mind activities require different level of “ mental energy” it
is clear that some irrational thinking process can deplete our brain-mind of this
crucial resource .

An unbalance in this system can produce in significative time ( acute or chronic)

relevant effect.

Aim of this work is to verify if this process is quantic based .

Many sentives apparatus shows thereshold of activation and working ways so it is

crucial to verify if

Other brain- mind mechanims works in the same way with a quantum of thereshold
levels.

What happen during a freezing reaction after determinate level of fera stilumus?
And what happen to the cognitive rational thinking during love ( early and later ) or
during various level of meditation technique.

The thereshold of activation are relevant in the evolution of humans :the balance
between emotion and rational thinking reflects the brain anatomy .

CHAPTHER 2 Introduction

Penrose argues that human consciousness is non-algorithmic, and thus is not

capable of being modeled by a conventional Turing machine, which includes a digital
computer. Penrose hypothesizes that quantum mechanics plays an essential role in
the understanding of human consciousness
The brain has different tasks and a happy unworried, free, confident, focused,
optimistic, determined mind/brain consumes considerably less energy than a
complicated/busy brain with all kinds of problems. If one has a rational brain
consumes less energy than an irrational brain, a brain with many irrational
problems. Yes, it’s similar to enzymes, when it comes to overload the receptors, it’s
kind of zero order kinetics, it means, when it’s saturated it impairs the function, and
causes a dysfunctional mind/brain, but this could not be measured exactly with kCal,
it is not ATP, it is not Dopamine or Serotonin or Epinephrine, it’s not even of a
chemical or material nature, it’s a different dimension of the human being, it’s
beyond energy or matter, it’s spirit, and in order to even understand or study.

Yes sometimes the lack of one single vitamin or nutrient could be the root cause of
many disastrous events, but when it comes to the mood or psychology, the situation
is way more complex than a simple serotonin magic bullet.

So we must find a system that measures people’s personality, convictions,

thoughts, planning, determination, will, decisions etc etc etc rather than an
oversimplistic machine-like mood or even neurotransmitter manipulation.

So we have 2 very basic novel systems, the first is a new dimension, new
classification that is beyond matter or energy, so it’s a qualitative system, and the
second is the kinetics of it, so it a measurable quantitative again novel new
discovery system.

And that’s our problem, no one even dared to bring up this issue, so we can’t find
many or most of it, even any author or academic institution that had that kind of
audacity to bring up the very banal common sense issues.

The modern materialistic trend has become all together a dictatorship zealous
religion by itself

In the last century in order to come up with the Magic-Bullet-molecules that can
change the scenario, there was an effort to correlate physiology with tangible
material molecules such as hormones, co-enzymes, calories, neurotransmitters,
biochemistry, and physiology, this is not the reality of the human or even animal
body/spirit situation.
 Measuring intertwined processes by a simple say dopamine or serotonin or even by
simple Kilogram-based energy or a simple hormone or molecule measuring system is
was oversimplistic and often leaves a hip of ruins behind us.

Yes sometimes the lack of one single vitamin or nutrient could be the root cause of
many disastrous events, but when it comes to the mood or psychology, the situation
is way more complex than a simple serotonin magic bullet.

So, it's not all the time 100% related to one molecule or even to material concepts.

Human physiology is not as simple as 2+2=4. The human physiology is subject to a

mega-multifactorial machine which by itself is under the control of mood and spirit,
which through the prefrontal, midbrain including especially the amygdala, and the
reptilian brain connections subject to convictions to the spiritual control of the
person, which many times is subject to a measurable threshold which makes the
personal decisions or mood or convictions, the spirit of the person depressed, lose
hope, anxious.

So for sure, we need some sort of numbers to compare apple with apple to prove
something's efficiency but that's not the real scenario. The main realistic scenario is
that the human body is not exactly an automobile or a refrigerator, humans are
decision-maker animals, so it is the person himself, who makes a whole series of
events take place.

Conclusively, we have to formulate a new system, in which we do take a further step

to the real situation, something similar to gas and fluid laws. While the particles of
an ideal gas are assumed to occupy no volume and experience no interparticle
attractions, the particles of a real gas do have finite volumes and do attract one
another. As a result, real gases are often observed to deviate from ideal behavior.

Something like what we did to shift from the classical physics to the modern
Schrodinger/DeBroglie-like quantomechanic physics and appropriate the shifts to a
new dimension of physics and amalgamate and evolve the classical physics into
quantum physics which gave a new dimension to the physics, now we need to give
new dimensions to psychology which is in direct control of the central nervous
system which by itself is in direct control of the midbrain which is in direct control of
the hormonal commands which is in direct control of every single peripheral
nervous whether involuntary or skeletal muscles and hormones or biochemical
process.
Front Mol Neurosci v.10; 2017

2017 Nov 7. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2017.00366

Revisiting the Quantum Brain Hypothesis: Toward Quantum (Neuro)biology?

Peter Jedlicka

“The nervous system is a non-linear dynamical complex system with many

feedback loops. A conventional wisdom is that in the brain the quantum
fluctuations are self-averaging and thus functionally negligible. This intuition might
be misleading in the case of non-linear complex systems. Because of an extreme
sensitivity to initial conditions, in complex systems the microscopic fluctuations may
be amplified and thereby affect the system’s behavior. In this way quantum
dynamics might influence neuronal computations. Accumulating evidence in non-
neuronal systems indicates that biological evolution is able to exploit quantum
stochasticity. The recent rise of quantum biology as an emerging field at the border
between quantum physics and the life sciences suggests that quantum events could
play a non-trivial role also in neuronal cells. Direct experimental evidence for this is
still missing but future research should address the possibility that quantum events
contribute to an extremely high complexity, variability and computational power of
neuronal dynamics. Contrary to expectations, non-trivial quantum processes have
been observed in living systems . Experiments provide evidence for unexpectedly
long-lasting quantum coherence in the electron transfer which is involved in
photosynthesis . This quantum-mechanical process is thought to improve the
efficiency of energy transfer in photopigment molecules . The pigment molecules
seem to implement an efficient quantum algorithm to find the fastest route for
the light-induced excitation of electrons . Quantum coherence has been found in
photosynthetic bacteria as well as in marine algae. This suggests that evolution
has been able to select and exploit quantum-mechanical features for fast and
efficient computation in two evolutionary distinct organisms .
Another example of quantum dynamics in living systems has been found in
photoreceptors, which are important for vision. Photoreceptor cells of the retina
contain a protein called rhodopsin. Experiments using high-resolution spectroscopic
and nuclear-magnetic resonance techniques revealed coherent quantum waves in
the rhodopsin molecule . As summarized by Werner Loewenstein: “Quantum
mechanics, not classical mechanics, rules the roost at this sensory outpost of the
brain” .

Quantum effects have been described also in the olfactory system. Electron
tunneling has been suggested to play an important role in the detection of odorants
by olfactory receptors . Avian magnetoreception is yet another example of
potentially beneficial quantum effects in biology. Long-lived quantum
entanglements in the cryptochromes of the retina seem to support the sensitivity of
a bird’s eye to magnetic fields . Recent simulations show that quantum mechanical
coherences in cryptochrome models can account for the precision of the avian
magnetic compass . Quantum tunneling has been observed in other biomolecules,
such as enzymes or motor proteins . Most importantly, contrary to the long-held
view, under some conditions, the strong coupling to the noisy and warm
environment is able to promote rather than hinder long-lasting quantum coherence
in biological systems . Because of the accumulating evidence that quantum
phenomena need to be considered explicitly and in detail when studying living
organisms, quantum biology has recently emerged as a new field at the border
between quantum physics and the life sciences. The common view that minuscule
fluctuations, including quantum events, cancel out in larger systems need not be
true in highly non-linear systems like our brain. The nervous system can be seen as
a nested hierarchy of non-linear complex networks of molecules, cells,
microcircuits, and brain regions. In iterative hierarchies with non-linear dynamics
(at the edge of chaos), small (even infinitesimal) fluctuations are not averaged out,
but can be amplified.
Quantum fluctuations on the lowest level of scale may influence the initial state of
the next level of scale, while the higher levels shape the boundary conditions of
the lower onesWhat is the evidence for the proposal that the brain is a complex
non-linear system, capable of chaotic dynamics ? Beggs and Plenz (2003, 2004)
provided experimental evidence that neuronal networks can produce complex
patterns of collective activity, which are called neuronal avalanches. These
avalanches have a characteristic distribution: each avalanche engages a variable
number of neurons, but, on average, many more small avalanches are observed
than large ones. This indicates that neuronal networks are poised near criticality
(near phase transition, Beggs and Timme, 2012) and are prone to displaying
emergent complex activity . Similar results supporting criticality in the brain have
been obtained on a larger spatial scale from fMRI data and from local field potential
and spike recordings . In general, we can observe three types of dynamics in the
brain: (1) ordered/subcritical dynamics consisting of oscillatory synchronous
activity with the characteristic features of high coordination and low variability, (2)
random/supracritical dynamics consisting of asynchronous irregular activity with
low coordination and high variability, and (3) complex/critical dynamics with high
coordination and high variability. Brain states exhibiting complex/critical dynamics
are the most interesting ones because they support the most efficient information
processing . At the critical point between order and disorder ( at the edge of chaos
and instability), neurons can communicate best, since at that point they are
coordinated but not stuck in a certain state for a long time and can establish long-
range dynamical correlations. Neuronal networks in near critical states display,
because of largest fluctuations, the largest repertoire of network activity. At the
critical point, the highest sensitivity to small fluctuations is observed: even a single
neuron perturbation has a small but non-zero chance to trigger an avalanche. As
pointed out by Dante Chialvo, there are convincing Darwinian reasons for supposing
that (parts of) our brains operate near the critical point : in a subcritical world,
everything would always be uniform, there would be nothing new to learn and
hence no critical and plastic brain would be needed; memories might as well be
unchanging.

In a supracritical world, everything would always be changing with no regularities to

be learnt. No long-term plasticity and memory would be of any help. In our critical
(complex) world, surprising events do occur, but regularities, too, are present so
that the brain needs to register but also to update the stored memories.
“[B]rains seem “balanced on a knife-edge” between order and chaos: were they as
orderly as a pendulum, they couldn’t support interesting behavior; were they as
chaotic as the weather, they couldn’t support rationality” .

Many molecular mechanisms, which support complex information processing,

including neurotransmitter molecules, ion channels, gap junctions, evolved before
the emergence of the nervous system during evolution . Molecular and functional
similarities between plants and neurons provide a hint that the notion of cognition
defined as complex signal processing and signal integration, including perception,
memory and decision-making, should be extended from neural to aneural systems .

Even though the concept of plant neurobiology has been controversially debated
and the essential requirements for conscious as compared to unconscious cognition
remain the topic of investigation and discussion , an exploration of common
principles underlying biological information processing in plants and animals leads
to new insights and ideas.”

Regular Article 09 June 2017

The Soul, as an Uninhibited Mental Activity, is Reduced into Consciousness by Rules

of Quantum Physics

Mehmet Emin Ceylan, Aslıhan Dönmez, Barış Önen Ünsalver, Alper Evrensel &
Fatma Duygu Kaya Yertutanol

Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science

“This paper is an effort to describe, in neuroscientific terms, one of the most

ambiguous concepts of the universe—the soul. Previous efforts to understand what
the soul is and where it may exist have accepted the soul as a subjective and
individual entity. We will make two additions to this view: (1) The soul is a result of
uninhibited mental activity and lacks spatial and temporal information; (2) The soul
is an undivided whole and, to become divided, the soul has to be reduced into
unconscious and conscious mental events. This reduction process parallels the
maturation of the frontal cortex and GABA becoming the main inhibitory
neurotransmitter.
 As examples of uninhibited mental activity, we will discuss the perceptual
differences of a newborn, individuals undergoing dissociation, and individuals
induced by psychedelic drugs. Then, we will explain the similarities between the
structure of the universe and the structure of the brain, and we propose that
consideration of the rules of quantum physics is necessary to understand how the
soul is reduced into consciousness.”

Review Phys Life Rev . 2012 Sep

Consciousness, biology and quantum hypotheses

Bernard J Baars , David B Edelman

DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2012.07.001

“Natural phenomena are reducible to quantum events in principle, but quantum

mechanics does not always provide the best level of analysis. The many-body
problem, chaotic avalanches, materials properties, biological organisms, and
weather systems are better addressed at higher levels. Animals are highly organized,
goal-directed, adaptive, selectionist, information-preserving, functionally redundant,
multicellular, quasi-autonomous, highly mobile, reproducing, dissipative systems
that conserve many fundamental features over remarkably long periods of time at
the species level. Animal brains consist of massive, layered networks of specialized
signaling cells with 10,000 communication points per cell, and interacting up to 1000
Hz. Neurons begin to divide and differentiate very early in gestation, and continue to
develop until middle age. Waking brains operate far from thermodynamic
equilibrium under delicate homeostatic control, making them extremely sensitive to
a range of physical and chemical stimuli, highly adaptive, and able to produce a
remarkable range of goal-relevant actions. Consciousness is "a difference that makes
a difference" at the level of massive neuronal interactions in the most parallel-
interactive anatomical structure of the mammalian brain, the cortico-thalamic (C-T)
system. Other brain structures are not established to result in direct conscious
experiences, at least in humans. Indirect extra-cortical influences on the C-T system
are pervasive.
Learning, brain plasticity and major life adaptations may require conscious
cognition. While brains evolved over hundreds of millions of years, and individual
brains grow over months, years and decades, conscious events appear to have a
duty cycle of ∼100 ms, fading after a few seconds. They can of course be refreshed
by inner rehearsal, re-visualization, or attending to recurrent stimulus sources.

These very distinctive brain events are needed when animals seek out and cope with
new, unpredictable and highly valued life events, such as evading predators,
gathering critical information, seeking mates and hunting prey. Attentional selection
of conscious events can be observed behaviorally in animals showing coordinated
receptor orienting, flexible responding, alertness, emotional reactions, seeking,
motivation and curiosity, as well as behavioral surprise and cortical and autonomic
arousal. Brain events corresponding to attentional selection are prominent and
widespread. Attention generally results in conscious experiences, which may be
needed to recruit widespread processing resources in the brain. Many neuronal
processes never become conscious, such as the balance system of the inner ear. An
air traveler may "see" the passenger cabin tilt downward as the plane tilts to
descend for a landing. That visual experience occurs even at night, when the traveler
has no external frame of spatial reference. The passenger's body tilt with respect to
gravity is detected unconsciously via the hair cells of the vestibular canals, which act
as liquid accelerometers. That sensory activity is not experienced directly. It only
becomes conscious via vision and the body senses. The vestibular sense is therefore
quite different from visual perception, which "reports" accurately to a conscious
field of experience, so that we can point accurately to a bright star on a dark night.
Vestibular input is also precise but unconscious. Conscious cognition is therefore a
distinct kind of brain event. Many of its features are well established, and must be
accounted for by any adequate theory. No non-biological examples are known.
Penrose and Hameroff have proposed that consciousness may be viewed as a
fundamental problem in quantum physics. Specifically, their 'orchestrated objective
reduction' (Orch-OR) hypothesis posits that conscious states arise from quantum
computations in the microtubules of neurons. A number of microtubule-associated
proteins are found in both plant and animal cells (like neurons) and plants are not
generally considered to be conscious. Current quantum-level proposals do not
explain the prominent empirical features of consciousness.
Notably, they do not distinguish between closely matched conscious and
unconscious brain events, as cognitive-biological theories must. About half of the
human brain does not support conscious contents directly, yet neurons in these
"unconscious" brain regions contain large numbers of microtubules. QM
phenomena are famously observer-dependent, but to the best of our knowledge it
has not been shown that they require a conscious observer, as opposed to a particle
detector.

Conscious humans cannot detect quantum events "as such" without the aid of
special instrumentation. Instead, we categorize the wavelengths of light into
conscious sensory events that neglect their quantum mechanical properties. In
science the burden of proof is on the proposer, and this burden has not yet been
met by quantum-level proposals. While in the future we may discover quantum
effects that bear distinctively on conscious cognition 'as such,' we do not have such
evidence today.”

Original Article topics in cognitive science

On Quantum Models of the Human Mind

Hongbin Wang,Yanlong Sun

21 November 2013 https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12064

“By representing mental states as vectors in a mental vector space (Hilbert space)
and mental operations as vector projections, the quantum cognition approach
offers a more powerful representational scheme, and therefore allows rich
semantics and structures for encoding “the stuff” of thought . Comparisons can be
made, for example, to knowledge representation in ACT-R, a cognitive architecture .
In ACT-R, declarative knowledge is represented by chunks, linked in a semantic map
fashion; and procedural knowledge is represented by a (unstructured) set of
production rules. Therefore, in the case of the Linda problem, “feminist” and “bank
teller” are two chunks which may or may not be directly associated.In the QP
model , “feminist” and “bank teller” are represented as incompatible events, and as
a consequence, become subspaces with a nonorthogonal angle.
 By setting the angle to be 45°, the model then demonstrates how the conjunction
fallacy follows naturally from this representational scheme.

A similar treatment is used to explain the disjunction fallacy , manifested by the

situation where a student would purchase a Hawaiian vacation package no matter if
he has passed an exam (to celebrate) or he has failed (to console), but would decide
to hold on the purchase decision if he does not know the exam result. The QP model
shows that an angle of 115° between purchasing the vacation and passing the exam
induces the interference effect that fits the empirical data .

It is possible that such additional dimensions, induced naturally by the vector space
representation, lead to a larger expression power and richer semantics. This
argument is supported by another observation. Note that both CP and QP theories
involve quantifying uncertainty by assigning probabilities. CP theory starts with the
sample space Θ, which is a set of all possible outcomes of an experiment. By
defining a probability mass function f that maps from Θ to [0,1] a probability
function can then be defined on events, which are subsets of Θ. It has been shown
that by defining a new basic probability assignment function m, which maps from
the power set of Θ to [0,1], one can extend a probability function to a belief function
. A belief function uses two numbers, rather than one (the probability), to quantify
the uncertainty, and therefore allows simultaneous representation of belief
(evidence that supports the event) and plausibility (evidence that fails to support
“not the event”). We have shown previously how a similar richer representation
allows us to model the order effect in judgment and decision making. In that
treatment, we represent the uncertainty about a hypothesis with two numbers: a
traditional probability value (Bayesian or Frequentist) and a confidence value. The
latter is a function of the amount of evidence the probability value is based on, and
therefore summarizing the degree of confidence one has on the associated
probability value. With this scheme, in the light of new evidence, belief revision is
determined not only by the probability values but also by the confidence values ( a
probability with a high confidence value is hard to be changed much). With the
addition of this confidence dimension, we show that the order effect appears and
disappears depending on different levels of experience, which fits human data well.
It is clear that QP theory also induces additional representational structures, as the
basic space now becomes a Hilbert vector space and states are now represented by
combination of events, weighted by complex numbers. The human mind is by no
means simple, but it is no surprise that a richer expression scheme comes with a
greater modeling power.”

Can we consider mindset work under a quantic level of effort needed for the various
of mental task?

Why some level of stimuly produce or not in example an amygdala stimulation?

What tell us amygdala phisiology ?

A better knowledge in this field make possible to give the right responce if a new
discipline in neuroscience is needed : psyco-neurokinetics and dynamics?

What Is the Absolute Threshold of a Stimulus?

By Kendra Cherry Updated on April 27, 2021

“An absolute threshold is the smallest level of stimulus that can be detected,
usually defined as at least half the time. The term is often used in neuroscience and
experimental research and can be applied to any stimulus that can be detected by
the human senses including sound, touch, taste, sight, and smell”.

According Britannica “A threshold is the lowest point at which a particular stimulus

will cause a response in an organism.”
ABSOLUTE THRESHOLD: The minimum intensity of stimulation (brightness of a light;
loudness of a tone) required to produce a detectable kind of sensory experience

DIFFERENCE THRESHOLD: The minimum change in intensity required to produce a

detectable change in sensory experience ( Just Noticeable Difference or JND)

Fig. n 1 from D. Heeger et al

Fig. 2 from D .Heeger

“Yes-No/method of constant stimuli: The observer is presented with a series of

tones of various intensities. Each intensity is played several times (randomly
intermixed). On each trial the observer is asked to report whether or not they heard
it. We calculate the probability of detection (or percentage of "yes" responses) for
each tone intensity”.

From Perception Lecture Notes: Psychophysics

Professor David Heeger “Limits of neurophysiology: Neuroscience methods

(recording action potential firing rates from single neurons, studying brain anatomy,
neuroimaging, etc.) are extremely useful and exciting ways of studying the brain. But
they can not, by themselves, solve the puzzles of sensation and perception. To
understand a complicated system, it is not enough to know only the workings of its
individual components.

Weber's law: To perceive a difference between a background level x and the

background plus some stimulation x+dx the size of the difference must be
proportional to the background, that is, dx = k x where k is a constant

Fechner's interpretation: The relationship between the stimulation level x and the
perceived sensation s(x) is logarithmic, s(x) = log(x).

Main difference: Fechner's is an interpretation of Weber's law. A hypothesis.”

So like a sentitive nervous system it is possible to think also Theresholds for
cognitive tasks?

According Karin Gepp, PsyD — Written by Kimberly Holland — Updated on

September 17, 2021

“What is an amygdala hijack?

An amygdala hijack is an emotional response to stress.

In his 1995 book “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ,”
psychologist Daniel Goleman named this emotional overreaction to stress
“amygdala hijack.” The amygdala hijack occurs when your amygdala responds to
stress and disables your frontal lobes. That activates the fight-or-flight response and
disables rational, reasoned responses. In other words, the amygdala “hijacks”
control of your brain and your responses. An amygdala hijack may lead to
inappropriate or irrational behavior. How to prevent an amygdala hijack

The best way to prevent an amygdala hijack is to understand what things trigger the
reaction so you can avoid them. Alternatively, you can use practices like mindfulness
to help you better control your body’s responses when you feel the reaction.

Emotional, mental, and even physical stress can trigger the amygdala’s fight-or-flight
response. When you begin to feel the symptoms of an amygdala hijack, pause. Take
note of what you’re feeling and what led you to this moment. Recognize any bodily
changes you’re experiencing. “

Also, consider what triggered these feelings. Most people’s triggers will fall into the
same
According : Shonna Waters is a professor, author, leadership coach, and a Fellow of
the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and the Center for
Evidence-Based Management (CeBMA)

Is your brain tired? Here are 6 ways to treat mental fatigue

By Shonna Waters, PhD

December 1, 2021

“What is mental fatigue?

When your brain feels exhausted and unable to function properly, it leaves you
mentally and emotionally drained. This is commonly known as brain fog or mental
fatigue.

According to recent research, an overstimulated brain impairs your cognitive

abilities. This affects your productivity, decision-making skills, or memory. For
example, brain fog makes it hard to concentrate.

Even simple household tasks like washing dishes or doing the laundry seem
cumbersome. A period of chronic stress can be taxing on your mental well-being,
leaving you feeling overwhelmed, irritable, and detached.

Long-term mental exhaustion also affects your professional life. When your
symptoms aren’t managed, it leads to workplace burnout.”
Know Your Limits, Your Brain Can Only Take So Much

By Michael Vaughan January 21, 2014

“Angelika Dimoka, director of the Center for Neural Decision Making at Temple
University, conducted a study that measured people's brain activity while they
addressed increasingly complex problems (noise). Using functional magnetic
resonance imaging to measure changes in blood flow, she found that as people
received more information, their brain activity increased in the dorsolateral
prefrontal cortex, a region behind the forehead that is responsible for making
decisions and controlling emotions. But when the information load became too
much, it was as though a breaker in the brain was triggered, and the prefrontal
cortex suddenly shut down.

As people reach information overload, Dimoka explained, "They start making stupid
mistakes and bad choices because the brain region responsible for smart decision
making has essentially left the premises. These breaker moments are becoming
more and more frequent in most people's lives. The underlying issue is that most of
the activities we do throughout the day contribute to the load. In any given day, you
will likely find yourself at the supermarket selecting a cereal from among too many
choices, at the office responding to never-ending emails, and at home multitasking
on daily chores. All of these tasks with the associated information input begin to
chisel away at your mental resources, leaving you flustered and even helpless when
faced with making far more important decisions. Choice: The more choices we are
given, the more tired and less effective we become. The human brain has limited
resources and energy to expend to make each choice. In the time between getting
up in the morning and going to bed in the evening, an average person makes
thousands of decisions. Each choice we make drains a little more from our mental
reservoir. If there are days you know you'll need to be at the top of your game,
reduce the number of choices you need to make on those days.
Multitasking: With so many demands surrounding us all the time, it's tempting to try
to do it all and at the same time. The truth, is we are optimized for task switching.
When we switch between tasks, our brains must halt any processing of the current
rule set and load a new rule set for the next task. This happens quickly. But halting,
unloading, loading, and restarting takes a toll. To increase your performance or to
enhance your ability to learn, it is important to focus on the task at hand.

Information abuse simply means dumbing down information to the point at which it
is not questioned. Abuse is commonly seen in tools such as PowerPoint
presentations, where rich data are distilled down to a few key messages. On the
whole, key messages that are thoughtfully constructed and articulated can be
helpful. The danger, is that our brains tend to be overly accommodating. Public
speakers, politicians and marketers count on being able to provide information that
subtly blends into the listener's understanding of the world without prompting
questions or analysis. To improve your decisionmaking, look past the nicely
packaged data to the conditions that shaped them."
Fig. n 3 Decision fatigue describes how our decision-making gets worse as we make
additional choices and our cognitive abilities get worn out. Decision fatigue is the
reason we feel overwhelmed when we have too many choices to make . from
https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/decision-fatigue

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Extraneous factors in judicial decisions

Shai Danziger, Jonathan Levav jl2351@columbia.edu, and Liora Avnaim-Pesso

April 11, 2011

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1018033108

“Are judicial rulings based solely on laws and facts? Legal formalism holds that
judges apply legal reasons to the facts of a case in a rational, mechanical, and
deliberative manner. In contrast, legal realists argue that the rational application of
legal reasons does not sufficiently explain the decisions of judges and that
psychological, political, and social factors influence judicial rulings. We test the
common caricature of realism that justice is “what the judge ate for breakfast” in
sequential parole decisions made by experienced judges. We record the judges’ two
daily food breaks, which result in segmenting the deliberations of the day into three
distinct “decision sessions.”
 We find that the percentage of favorable rulings drops gradually from ≈65% to
nearly zero within each decision session and returns abruptly to ≈65% after a break.
Our findings suggest that judicial rulings can be swayed by extraneous variables that
should have no bearing on legal decisions.

In the last century in order to come up with the Magic-Bullet-molecules that can
change the scenario, there was an effort to correlate physiology with tangible
material molecules such as hormones, co-enzymes, calories, neurotransmitters,
biochemistry, and physiology, this is not the reality of the human or even animal
body/spirit situation. Measuring intertwined processes by a simple say dopamine or
serotonin or even by simple Kilogram-based energy or a simple hormone or
molecule measuring system is was oversimplistic and often leaves a hip of ruins
behind us.”

From Ergonomic Deliverables May 28, 2021

The Business of Ergonomics Podcast

Episode 061: Measuring Mental Workload

“Cooper-Harper Rating Scale. This employs a single 10-point scale, each point having
a verbal descriptor.

National Aeronautical and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX). Uses a
multi-dimensional scale to measure operator task performance.

Subjective Workload Assessment Technique (SWAT). Uses three scales designed to

measure time load, mental effort load, and psychological stress load.

NASA-TLX

I want to highlight NASA-TLX because I've used this tool before and it has been
valuable. NASA-TLX was developed by the Human Performance Group at NASA. This
tool asks operators to make ratings on six subscales, which includes:
Mental demand

Physical demand

Temporal Demand

Performance

Effort

Frustration Level” .

Fig. n 4
Fig. n 5

Fig. n 6
Fig. n 7 from Research article

Open Access

Published: 07 November 2019

Workload and influencing factors in non-emergency medical transfers: a multiple

linear regression analysis of a cross-sectional questionnaire study

Johann Georg Keunecke, Christine Gall, Torsten Birkholz, Andreas Moritz, Christian
Eiche & Johannes Prottengeier

BMC H 6 ealth Services Research volume 19

Fig. n 8 A consensual component model of emotional responding. fromCogn Emot.
2009 Oct 5.

Cogn Emot. 2009 Feb 1 doi: 10.1080/02699930802204677

Measures of emotion: A review

Iris B. Mauss and Michael D. Robinson

Fig. n. 9 The schema model of self-control to explain the ego depletion effect. Black
boxes: the observable behavior in ego depletion studies. Gray boxes and horizontal
arrows: the mediating processes within the individual. White boxes: moderating
variables.from HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Front. Psychol., 15 September 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02256

A Schema-Activation Approach to Failure and Success in Self-Control

Alex Bertrams
Fig.n 10 Figure 2: PET scan comparisons: Brain activation during the three phases of
cognitive procedural learning (TT task). Significantly activated regions at the
threshold of P < 0.001 uncorrected for multiple comparisons and timecourse of
activation across learning. The plots represent the relative contribution of the
different conditions of our paradigm, according to the “effects of interests” for
selected peaks (The plots represented in this figure correspond to the regions in
bold type. All the regions cited under this first region displayed the same changes in
activation). The first, second, and third histograms correspond to the cognitive,
associative, and autonomous phases, respectively. For clarity's sake, the plot of the
reference condition is not represented, but the corresponding activations of this
condition were always below those in the three experimental conditions. from Age-
Related Changes in the Cerebral Substrates of Cognitive Procedural Learning April
2009Human Brain Mapping 30(4):1374-86 Follow journal DOI: 10.1002/hbm.20605
Valérie Hubert et al

Hippocampus. 2007;17(6):420-8. doi: 10.1002/hipo.20287.

The units of thought

Moshe Bar , Elissa Aminoff, Malia Mason, Mark Fenske

“That associative processing provides the vehicle of thought is a long-standing idea.

We describe here observations from cognitive neuroimaging that elucidate the
neural processing that mediates this element. This account further allows a more
specific ascription of a cognitive function to the brain's "default" activity in
mindwandering. We extend this account to argue that one primary outcome of
associative processing is the generation of predictions, which approximate the
immediately relevant future and thus facilitate perception, action, and the
progression of thought”.
 Fig. n 11 A) Medial view of the typical default network.The labeled regions
are1those that tend to show deactivation dur-ing the experimental task. In other
words, these regions are moreactive during fixation rest than during task
performance. These areas include the precuneus and the adjacent subparietal
sulcus,the retrosplenial cortex (RSC), and posterior cingulate cortex(PCC) (which we
refer to in the text as the MPC), the parahippo-campal cortex (PHC) and more broad
regions in the medial tem-poral lobe (MTL), in the anterior cingulate cortex, and the
supra-orbital sulcus in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and in the superior
frontal gyrus. Of the areas in this network, the PHC in particular does not always
appear in studies of the default net-work. This seems to depend on factors such as
what condition is compared with fixation, the threshold selected for the
analysis,and whether the scanning parameters are suited for acquisition of signal
from this region. (B) The overlap between associative activation elicited by highly
contextual objects and medial regions of thedefault network. Interestingly, in spite
of this striking overlap inthe medial surface, there was virtually no overlap between
the two networks in lateral regions. Medial activation for the contrast between
strongly contextually associative objects (e.g., a tennis racket) and weakly
contextual objects (e.g., water bottle) at thetop; strongly contextually associative
objects vs. fixations/rest con-dition on the left (associative > fixation in yellow-red,
and fixation> associative in blue); and the contrast between weakly contextual
objects and fixation/rest on the right. These statistical maps were derived from
averaging together six different experiments, all of which used strongly and weakly
contextual objects in various tasks,with a total of 68 different participants.
Importantly, the super imposed outlines of default network areas demonstrate the
striking overlap between associative processing and resting, task-independent,
default processes. (C) The effect of associative processing on fMRI activity in the
regions of overlap with the default network, as manifested by percent of signal
change. Regions of interest were chosen by the anatomical areas typically found in
the default net-work on the medial surface. These ROIs were labeled based on
anatomical landmarks on each individual’s brain. All voxels that were significantly
different from baseline (either as a deactivation or anactivation, P < 0.05) within the
structural label were analyzed.
The numbers next to each bar indicate the number of voxels that exhib-ited
significantly positive difference from fixation in the specific ROI and condition, and
the number of voxels that exhibited a nega-tive difference with fixation (1#/2#).
Importantly, these graphs demonstrate that in each of these regions, strongly
associative objects elicited either stronger positive or less negative activation
compared with weakly contextual objects. In each ofthese ROIs, strongly associative
objects activated more positive and fewer negative voxels compared with weakly
associative objects.

From The units of thought. Available

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6374469_The_units_of_thought

Medicina (B Aires). 2022 Feb 2;

The brain. An analogic machine with quantum functioning?

Marta Martínez-Morga , Daniel Garrigós , Salvador Martínez

“Modern neuroscience addresses the problem of the global functioning of the brain
in order to understand the neurobiological processes that underlie mental functions,
and especially, consciousness. Brain activity is based on the exchange of information
between neurons through contacts or synapses. Neurons form networks of
connection between them (circuits), which are dedicated to processing a specific
type of information (visual, auditory, motor ). The circuits establish networks among
themselves, combining different modalities of information to generate what we
know as mental activity. The study of connections between cortical regions, which
has been called connectome, is being approached through neuroimaging techniques
such as nuclear magnetic resonance that provide data on the density of connections
in the brain. The brain's ability to create new connections based on experience
(brain plasticity) suggests that the connectome is a dynamic structure in constant
interaction with external and internal stimuli.
The question about whether knowledge of an individual's connectome would allow
us to predict his or her behavior seems to have no clear answer yet, because we do
not know the physical parameters that link the complexity of the brain's connections
with the appearance of mental functions and consciousness. At the moment, it
seems that the complex and unpredictable behavior is not the simple result of
linear processes of neuronal interaction. Uncertainty prevails over determinism,
which opens the door to the possibility of a quantum mechanism to explain
consciousness.”

Biosystems. 2021 Oct;208:104474. doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2021.104474. Epub

2021 Jul 6.

Quantum propensities in the brain cortex and free will

Danko D Georgiev

“Capacity of conscious agents to perform genuine choices among future alternatives

is a prerequisite for moral responsibility. Determinism that pervades classical
physics, forbids free will, undermines the foundations of ethics, and precludes
meaningful quantification of personal biases. To resolve that impasse, we utilize the
characteristic indeterminism of quantum physics and derive a quantitative measure
for the amount of free will manifested by the brain cortical network. The interaction
between the central nervous system and the surrounding environment is shown to
perform a quantum measurement upon the neural constituents, which actualize a
single measurement outcome selected from the resulting quantum probability
distribution. Inherent biases in the quantum propensities for alternative physical
outcomes provide varying amounts of free will, which can be quantified with the
expected information gain from learning the actual course of action chosen by the
nervous system. Neuronal electric spikes evoke deterministic synaptic vesicle
release in the synapses of sensory or somatomotor pathways, with no free will
manifested. In cortical synapses, vesicle release is triggered indeterministically with
probability of 0.35 per spike.
 This grants the brain cortex, with its over 100 trillion synapses, an amount of free
will exceeding 96 terabytes per second. Although reliable deterministic transmission
of sensory or somatomotor information ensures robust adaptation of animals to
their physical environment, unpredictability of behavioral responses initiated by
decisions made by the brain cortex is evolutionary advantageous for avoiding
predators. Thus, free will may have a survival value and could be optimized through
natural selection.”

J Integr Neurosci. 2014 Jun;13(2):229-52. doi: 10.1142/S0219635214400093.

Quantum effects in the understanding of consciousness

Stuart R Hameroff , Travis J A Craddock, Jack A Tuszynski

“This paper presents a historical perspective on the development and application of

quantum physics methodology beyond physics, especially in biology and in the
area of consciousness studies. Quantum physics provides a conceptual framework
for the structural aspects of biological systems and processes via quantum
chemistry. In recent years individual biological phenomena such as photosynthesis
and bird navigation have been experimentally and theoretically analyzed using
quantum methods building conceptual foundations for quantum biology. Since
consciousness is attributed to human (and possibly animal) mind, quantum
underpinnings of cognitive processes are a logical extension. Several proposals,
especially the Orch OR hypothesis, have been put forth in an effort to introduce a
scientific basis to the theory of consciousness. At the center of these approaches are
microtubules as the substrate on which conscious processes in terms of quantum
coherence and entanglement can be built. Quantum Metabolism, quantum
processes in ion channels and quantum effects in sensory stimulation are discussed
in this connection. We discuss the challenges and merits related to quantum
consciousness approaches as well as their potential extensions”.

From PESSA E : “2. SOME FEATURES OF MIND AND BRAIN BEHAVIORS For the
present purpose we will focus our attention on two features of both brain and mind
behaviors about which there is a common consensus : 1) Both behaviors are often
characterized by COHERENCE phenomena or COHERENT aspects 2) Brain and Mind
are interrelated by both BOTTOM-UP and TOP-DOWN influences

3. MIND TOP-DOWN BOTTOM-UP INFLUENCE INFLUENCE BRAIN Despite these

influences the mind is to be considered as a fully AUTONOMOUS entity, allowing a
LOGICAL (and not PHYSICAL) description

4. CLASSICAL PHYSICS DOES NOT ALLOW COHERENCE Namely classical statistical

physics (and whence Termodynamics) is ruled by a principle known as CORRELATION
WEAKENING PRINCIPLE, stating that whatever long range correlation DIES AWAY
after a long enough evolution time. As coherence results from long range
correlations, it is evident how the classical physics cannot be used to explain
coherence phenomena within the brain-mind system.

THE QUANTUM BRAIN THEORIES The reductionist hypothesis allows the building of
QUANTUM BRAIN THEORIES (UMEZAWA, JIBU, YASUE, VITIELLO, HAMEROFF,
TUSCZINSKY). They use a number of typically quantum effects to account for the
operation of MEMORY and of other COGNITIVE PROCESSES, including the ones
characterizing the CONSCIOUSNESS. These theories gave rise to a number of
theoretical advances as well as of experimental predictions. TYPICAL EFFECTS USED
IN QUANTUM BRAIN THEORIES Typical examples : - the DAVYDOV EFFECT,
consisting in the generation of a solitary wave propagating lattice deformations
along a linear polymer chain excited by an external oscillatory input (here a NON-
LOCAL input gives rise to a LOCALIZED phenomenon) - the FRÖHLICH EFFECT,
consisting in the excitation of a collective vibrational mode within a set of
reciprocally interacting electric dipoles, generated by a localized external input
(here a LOCALIZED input gives rise to a NON-LOCAL and COLLECTIVE
phenomenon)”
Fig. 12

Fig. 13

A QUANTUM NETWORK MODEL Let us now compare the behavior of the previous
model with the one of a QUANTUM NETWORK MODEL with the same structure and
topology. Here the momentarily state vector of each unit is given by a linear
combination of the two basic states “0” and “1”. In general the coefficients ψ0 and
ψ1 of this combination are complex numbers which vary with time. At every instant
the probability of having an output 1 is given by | ψ1 |2 .”

CHAPTHER 3 Material and methods

Whit an observational point of view some relevant biomedical literatura is reported
and analysed .

An experimental project hypotesys is the submitted to the researcher in order to

produce a global conclusion related the topics of this work.

All literature cited comes from PUBMED or other scientific database.

CHAPTHER 4 Results

From literature

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Hum. Neurosci., 16 February 2021 |

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.612890

Preserving Right Pre-motor and Posterior Prefrontal Cortices Contribute to

Maintaining Overall Basic Emotion

Riho Nakajima et al

“The premotor and posterior parts of the prefrontal cortices are related to the
different types of basic emotion. When the region with a positive mapping site is
preserved, it might recover within 3 months postoperatively even though it declines
immediately after surgery. Our findings will be useful in the field of neuroscience as
well as for clinicians who are engaging in the treatment of brain damage, such as
neurosurgery/neurology and rehabilitation”. (1)
Nat Rev Neurosci. 2009 Jun; 10

doi: 10.1038/nrn2648

Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function

Amy F. T. Arnsten

“The prefrontal cortex (PFC)—the most evolved brain region—subserves our

highest-order cognitive abilities. It is also the brain region that is most sensitive to
the detrimental effects of stress exposure. Even quite mild acute uncontrollable
stress can cause a rapid and dramatic loss of prefrontal cognitive abilities, and more
prolonged stress exposure causes architectural changes in prefrontal dendrites.
Recent research has begun to reveal the intracellular signalling pathways that
mediate the effects of stress on the PFC. This research has provided clues as to why
genetic or environmental insults that disinhibit stress signalling pathways can lead to
symptoms of profound prefrontal cortical dysfunction in mental illness. Prefrontal
cortical versus amygdala circuits: the switch from non-stress to stress conditions

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) has extensive connections with other cortical and
subcortical regions that are organized in a topographical manner, such that regions
that regulate emotion are situated ventrally and medially (green area in part a of the
figure) and regions that regulate thought and action are situated more dorsally and
laterally (blue and blue–green areas in part a). The dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) has
extensive connections with sensory and motor cortices and is key for regulating
attention, thought and action. In humans, the right inferior PFC (rIPFC) seems to be
specialized for inhibiting inappropriate motor responses. By contrast, the
ventromedial PFC (VMPFC) has extensive connections with subcortical structures
(such as the amygdala, the nucleus accumbens and the hypothalamus) that
generate emotional responses and habits and is thus able to regulate emotional
responses. The dorsomedial PFC (DMPFC) has been associated with error
monitoring9 and, in human functional MRI studies, reality testing.

These PFC regions extensively interconnect to regulate higher-order decision making

and to plan and organize for the future. Under non-stress conditions (see part a of
the figure), the extensive connections of the PFC orchestrate the brain’s activity for
intelligent regulation of behaviour, thought and emotion. The PFC also has direct
and indirect connections to monoamine cell bodies in the brainstem, such as the
locus coeruleus (LC) (where noradrenaline projections arise) and the substantia
nigra (SN) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) (where the major dopamine projections
originate), and thus can regulate its own catecholamine inputs. Optimal levels of
catecholamine release in turn enhance PFC regulation, thus creating a ‘delicious
cycle’. Under conditions of psychological stress (see part b of the figure) the
amygdala activates stress pathways in the hypothalamus and brainstem, which
evokes high levels of noradrenaline (NA) and dopamine (DA) release. This impairs
PFC regulation but strengthens amygdala function, thus setting up a ‘vicious cycle’.
For example, high levels of catecholamines, such as occur during stress, strengthen
fear conditioning mediated by the amygdala168. By contrast, stress impairs higher-
order PFC abilities such as working memory and attention regulation. Thus,
attention regulation switches from thoughtful ‘top-down’ control by the PFC that is
based on what is most relevant to the task at hand to ‘bottom-up’ control by the
sensory cortices, whereby the salience of the stimulus (for example, whether it is
brightly coloured, loud or moving) captures our attention5. The amygdala also
biases us towards habitual motor responding rather than flexible, spatial
navigation14. Thus, during stress, orchestration of the brain’s response patterns
switches from slow, thoughtful PFC regulation to the reflexive and rapid emotional
responses of the amygdala and related subcortical structures.” (2)
Fig . n.14
Original Articles

Work stress and attentional difficulties: An initial study on burnout and cognitive
failures

Dimitri Van Der Linden et al

23 Feb 2007 https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370500065275

Sample our Behavioral Sciences journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two
full volumes FREE to you for 14 days

“Professional burnout is a stress-related disorder, having mental exhaustion due

to work stress as its most important characteristic. Burned out individuals also
often complain about attentional problems. It is currently not clear whether such
complaints are based on true cognitive deficits or whether they merely reflect the
way burned out individuals rate their own cognitive performance. To confirm the
cognitive complaints we used a cognitive failure questionnaire (CFQ) to assess the
level of self-reported attentional difficulties in daily life. We also measured
performance on tasks of sustained attention and response inhibition (the SART and
the Bourdon-Wiersma Test). We compared three groups: (1) a group of ‘burned out’
individuals (n=13) who stopped working due to their symptoms and sought
professional treatment; (2) teachers at a vocational training institute (n=16) who
reported high levels of burnout symptoms but continued to work; and (3) teachers
from the same institute (n=14) who reported no burnout symptoms. The level of
burnout symptoms was found to be significantly related to the number of cognitive
failures in daily life, and to inhibition errors and performance variability in the
attentional tasks. To our knowledge, explicit tests of objective cognitive deficits in
burned out individuals have not been conducted before. Consequently, this is the
first study to indicate that burnout is associated with difficulties in voluntary control
over attention and that the level of such difficulties varies with the severity of
burnout symptoms.” (3)
NeuroImage

Volume 35, Issue 2, 1 April 2007

Prospective reports of chronic life stress predict decreased grey matter volume in
the hippocampus

Peter J.Gianarosa et al

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.10.045

“Chronic stress in non-human animals decreases the volume of the hippocampus,

a brain region that supports learning and memory and that regulates
neuroendocrine activity. In humans with stress-related psychiatric syndromes
characterized by impaired learning and memory and dysregulated neuroendocrine
activity, surrogate and retrospective indicators of chronic stress are also associated
with decreased hippocampal volume. It is unknown whether chronic stress is
associated with decreased hippocampal volume in those without a clinical
syndrome. We tested whether reports of life stress obtained prospectively over an
approximate 20-year period predicted later hippocampal grey matter volume in 48
healthy postmenopausal women. Women completed the Perceived Stress Scale
repeatedly from 1985 to 2004; in 2005 and 2006, their hippocampal grey matter
volume was quantified by voxel-based morphometry. Higher Perceived Stress Scale
scores from 1985 to 2004 — an indicator of more chronic life stress - predicted
decreased grey matter volume in the right orbitofrontal cortex and right
hippocampus. These relationships persisted after accounting for age, total grey
matter volume, time since menopause, use of hormone therapy, subclinical
depressive symptoms, and other potentially confounding behavioral and age-related
cerebrovascular risk factors. The relationship between chronic life stress and
regional grey matter volume – particularly in the hippocampus and orbitofrontal
cortex – appears to span a continuum that extends to otherwise healthy individuals.
Consistent with animal and human clinical evidence, we speculate that chronic-
stress-related variations in brain morphology are reciprocally and functionally
related to adaptive and maladaptive changes in cognition, neuroendocrine activity,
and psychiatric vulnerability”. (4)
Chronic Stress Weakens Connectivity in the Prefrontal Cortex: Architectural and
Molecular Changes

Elizabeth Woo et al

August 29, 2021 Review Article

https://doi.org/10.1177/24705470211029254

“Chronic exposure to uncontrollable stress causes loss of spines and dendrites in the
prefrontal cortex (PFC), a recently evolved brain region that provides top-down
regulation of thought, action, and emotion. PFC neurons generate top-down goals
through recurrent excitatory connections on spines. This persistent firing is the
foundation for higher cognition, including working memory, and abstract thought.
Exposure to acute uncontrollable stress drives high levels of catecholamine release
in the PFC, which activates feedforward calcium-cAMP signaling pathways to open
nearby potassium channels, rapidly weakening synaptic connectivity to reduce
persistent firing. For example, Figure 3(a) and (b) show how chronic stress induces
spine loss from rat layer II/III mPFC neurons that correlates with loss of working
memory abilities. The spine loss and working memory deficits were rescued with
chelerythrine, a PKC inhibitor, emphasizing the important functional significance of
these architectural changes and the key role of regulatory molecules. (Note that this
research has been done in rodents for both practical and humane reasons).” (5)

Fig. n . 15 Chronic stress correlates with spine loss and working memory deficits.
Chronic stress exacerbates feedforward Ca2+-cAMP-K+ signaling through increased
PKC and PKA activation.
 This leads to opening of K+ channels, decreasing persistent firing and ultimate loss
of spine density and deficits in working memory. (a) Representative images from
rodent layer II/III of prelimbic cortex of distal dendritic segments, showing that
chronic stress reduces spine density, while daily pretreatment with the PKC
inhibitor, chelerythrine (CHEL), prevented spine loss. (Nonstress and vehicle-treated,
gray; nonstress and CHEL-treated, blue; stress and vehicle-treated, red; stress and
CHEL-treated, green; scale bar = 25 µm). (b) Both working memory and spine loss
caused by chronic stress were prevented by chronic administration of the PKC
inhibitor, CHEL. Working memory performance on the last two days of stress
significantly correlated with distal spine density (r = 0.636, P <0.001). Figures (a) and
(b) from Hains et al., 2009 .

The functional roles of the amygdala and prefrontal cortex in processing uncertainty

NYU PROSPEC Collaboration

Neural Science Psychology

Volume31 Issue number11 2018 doi :10.1162/jocn_a_01443

J Cogn Neurosci. 2019 Nov

The Functional Roles of the Amygdala and Prefrontal Cortex in Processing

Uncertainty

Oriel Feldman Hall et al

“Decisions under uncertainty distinguish between those made under risk (known
probabilities) and those made under ambiguity (unknown probabilities).

Despite widespread interest in decisions under uncertainty and the successful

documentation that these distinct psychological constructs profoundly—and
differentially—impact behavior, research has not been able to systematically
converge on which brain regions are functionally involved in processing risk and
ambiguity.
We merge a lesion approach with computational modeling and simultaneous
measurement of the arousal response to investigate the impact the medial
prefrontal cortex (mPFC), lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC), and amygdala have on
decisions under uncertainty. Results reveal that the lPFC acts as a unitary system
for processing uncertainty: Lesions to this region disrupted the relationship
between arousal and choice, broadly increasing both risk and ambiguity seeking. In
contrast, the mPFC and amygdala appeared to play no role in processing risk, and
the mPFC only had a tenuous relationship with ambiguous uncertainty. Together,
these findings reveal that only the lPFC plays a global role in processing the highly
aversive nature of uncertainty.” (6)

Med Hypotheses. 2002 doi: 10.1016/s0306-9877(02)00321-3.

Unconscious amygdalar fear conditioning in a subset of chronic fatigue syndrome

patients

Ashok Gupta DOI: 10.1016/s0306-9877(02)00321-3

“Here, a novel hypothesis for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is proposed. CFS may
be a neurophysiological disorder focussing on the amygdala. During a 'traumatic'
neurological event often involving acute psychological stress combined with a viral
infection or other chemical or physiological stressor, a conditioned network or 'cell
assembly' may be created in the amygdala. The unconscious amygdala may become
conditioned to be chronically sensitised to negative symptoms arising from the
body. Negative signals from the viscera or physiological, chemical and dietary
stressors, become conditioned stimuli and the conditioned response is a chronic
sympathetic outpouring from the amygdala via various brain pathways including the
hypothalamus.
This cell assembly then produces the CFS vicious circle, where an unconscious
negative reaction to symptoms causes immune reactivation/dysfunction, chronic
sympathetic stimulation, leading to sympathetic dysfunction, mental and physical
exhaustion, and a host of other distressing symptoms and secondary complications.
And these are exactly the symptoms that the amygdala and associated limbic
structures are trained to monitor and respond to, perpetuating a vicious circle.
Recovery from CFS may involve projections from the medial prefrontal cortex to the
amygdala, to control the amygdala's expressions. I shall firstly discuss predisposing,
precipitating, and perpetuating factors involved in the possible etiology of chronic
fatigue syndrome (CFS), followed by the patient's experience of the illness. I shall
look at a suggested explanation for the symptoms of CFS.” (7)

nature scientific reports 23 April 2018

On the role of the prefrontal cortex in fatigue effects on cognitive flexibility - a

system neurophysiological approach

Vanessa A. Petruo, Moritz Mückschel & Christian Beste

Scientific Reports volume 8, (2018)

“Demanding tasks like cognitive flexibility show time-related deterioration of

performance ( fatigability effects). Fatigability has been associated with structural
and functional properties of the prefrontal cortex. The electrophysiological
underpinnings of these processes are not well understood. We examined n = 34
healthy participants with a task switching paradigm in which switches were either
signaled by cues or needed to be maintained by working memory processes. We
analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs) and performed residue iteration
decomposition (RIDE) to account for effects of fatigue on intra-individual variability
of neurophysiological data. This was combined with source localization methods.
We show that task switching is affected by time on task (TOT) effects mostly when
working memory processes are needed. On a neurophysiological level, this effect
could not be observed in standard ERPs, but only after accounting for intra-
individual variability using RIDE.
The RIDE data suggests that during task switching, fatigability specifically affects
response recoding processes that are associated with functions of the middle frontal
gyrus (MFG; BA10). The results underline propositions of the ‘opportunity cost
model’, which states that fatigability effects of executive functions depend on the
degree to which tasks engage similar prefrontal regions - in this case working
memory and task switching mechanisms”. (8)

Curr Dir Psychol Sci. 2007; doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00522.x

Stress, Energy, and Immunity An Ecological View Suzanne C. Segerstrom

“Under more demanding circumstances ( when stressors are less controllable or

more enduring), dispositional optimism is generally associated with less robust
immunity, a finding that cannot be explained by models that equate
immunosuppression with stress. Figure Reported shows a representative result
from law-school students who were experiencing high demand for time and energy
and another group of law students who were experiencing lower demand. Under
the more difficult circumstance, optimism (as measured by the Life Orientation
Test–Revised) was negatively associated with delayed-type hypersensitivity
responses, a measure of immune responsiveness in the skin. This relationship was
not due to the effects of stress as reflected in, for example, negative mood
(Segerstrom, 2006). The other possibility is that energetic demands of coping with
difficult stressors are greater among optimists, who are more likely to use active
than passive coping strategies, both cognitive and behavioral ” (9)
Fig. n16 Relationship between dispositional optimism and cellular immune
responses (predicted induration) as a function of how demanding a stressful
circumstance is. The figure is a representative example from first-year law students .
Induration is the size (in millimeters, mm) of the response to an immune challenge
in the skin. Adapted from “How Does Optimism Suppress Immunity? Evaluation of
Three Affective Pathways,” by S.C. Segerstrom, 2006, Health Psychology, 25, p. 655.
Copyright 2006, American Psychological Association.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.

2002 Jul 29. doi: 10.1073/pnas.172399499

Appraising the brain's energy budget

Marcus E. Raichle and Debra A. Gusnard

“Brain activation can be distinguished both qualitatively and quantitatively from

resting metabolic activity referred to above . To understand the unique qualitative
features of brain activation, it is important, first, to recall how blood flow and
oxygen consumption are related to each other in the human brain. This relationship
is striking for its spatial consistency. It can be measured quantitatively with PET as
the fraction of available oxygen ( the arterial oxygen concentration) used by the
brain.
This measurement is usually referred to as the oxygen extraction fraction (OEF) and
represents the balance between oxygen delivery ( blood flow) and oxygen
consumption. Researchers have come to appreciate the spatial uniformity of the
OEF measured in a resting state ( lying quietly in a scanner with eyes closed but
awake) when ongoing metabolic activity is relatively constant . This spatial
uniformity in the OEF exists despite considerable variation in the ongoing oxygen
consumption and blood flow within gray matter and an almost 4-fold difference
between gray and white matter in both oxygen consumption and blood flow. This
relationship is altered to a measurable degree in the normal brain only when areas
briefly change their activity ( so-called “activations”) during specific behaviors .” (9)

Science. 1988 Jul 22; doi: 10.1126/science.3260686.

Nonoxidative glucose consumption during focal physiologic neural activity

P T Fox 1, M E Raichle, M A Mintun, C Dence DOI: 10.1126/science.3260686

“Brain glucose uptake, oxygen metabolism, and blood flow in humans were

measured with positron emission tomography, and a resting-state molar ratio of

oxygen to glucose consumption of 4.1:1 was obtained. Physiological neural activity,
Increased glucose uptake and blood flow much more (51 and 50 % , respectively)
than oxygen consumption (5 percent) and produced a molar ratio for the increases
of 0.4:1. Transient increases in neural activity cause a tissue uptake of glucose in
excess of that consumed by oxidative metabolism, acutely consume much less
energy than previously believed, and regulate local blood flow for purposes other
than oxidative metabolism. “(10)
Acta Physiol Scand. 1994 May;151(1):29-43. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-
1716.1994.tb09718.x.

Regional cerebral oxidative and total glucose consumption during rest and activation
studied with positron emission tomography

G Blomqvist et al

“The relationship between regional oxidative and total rCMRglc in five healthy
volunteers in activated and non-activated areas of the brain has been investigated
with positron emission tomography (PET). The tracers [1-11C]-D-glucose and [2-
18F]2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose were used. A previous study has shown that the
former may be used to measure the rate of glucose oxidation while the latter tracer
is used to measure the total rate of glucose consumption. Regional activation was
performed (voluntary finger movements).

Use of a computerized brain atlas enabled comparison between the regional

oxidative and total rCMRglc in each volume element of the brain for the group of
subjects. The values of total and oxidative rCMRglc, when calculated for each
volume element of the brain and displayed in a scatter plot, were found to be
symmetrically grouped around a straight line which passes close to the origin. The
slope of this line varied between the subjects. This indicates that, on the average,
the fraction of non-oxidative glucose utilization is constant within each subject,
regardless of the value of rCMRglc and, further, that the fraction of non-oxidative
glucose utilization varies between subjects. The total and oxidative CMRglc in the
activated left hand area were 23.4 +/- 0.9% (mean +/- SEM) and 11.7 +/- 0.3%,
respectively, higher than in the contralateral homologous non-activated area. Our
interpretation of the difference is that regional activation increases the fraction of
non-oxidative glucose consumption. This interpretation is supported by a previous
PET study using [15O]O2, and by studies using MRS technique.” (11)
RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS

Neuroscience international

The Symbolic Threshold: A Dynamic form of the Mind as an Expression of Radiant

Thinking

Felice Corona, Francesco Perrotta, Emilia Tartaglia Polcini and Carla Cozzarelli

International, 1(2), https://doi.org/10.3844/amjnsp.2010.34.37

“From the neurobiological point of view, with regard to neuronal function, several
theories are based on brain function as a binder with extreme plasticity, consistent
with fragments of information to higher levels of the brain are organized and
interact in order to acquire meaning. These transactions are done through
organizing maps consist of groups of neurons, synapses and neurotransmitters,
continuous regeneration to form categories of objects and events to recognize. “(12)

Brain Structure & Function

2020 Mar 6. doi: 10.1007/s00429-020-02051-4

Low-threshold spiking interneurons perform feedback inhibition in the lateral

amygdala

Çağrı Temuçin Ünal et al

“Amygdala plays crucial roles in emotional learning. The lateral amygdala (LA) is the
input station of the amygdala, where learning related plasticity occurs. The LA is
cortical like in nature in terms of its cellular make up, composed of a majority of
principal cells and a minority of interneurons with distinct subtypes defined by
morphology, intrinsic electrophysiological properties and neurochemical expression
profile. The specific functions served by LA interneuron subtypes remain elusive.
This study aimed to elucidate the interneuron subtype mediating feedback
inhibition.
 Electrophysiological evidence involving antidromic activation of recurrent LA
circuitry via basolateral amygdala stimulation and paired recordings implicate low-
threshold spiking interneurons in feedback inhibition. Recordings in somatostatin-
cre animals crossed with tdtomato mice have revealed remarkable similarities
between a subset of SOM+ interneurons and LTS interneurons. This study concludes
that LTS interneurons, most of which are putatively SOM+, mediate feedback
inhibition in the LA. Parallels with cortical areas and potential implications for
information processing and plasticity are discussed. The investigation of intrinsic
circuitry was multifaceted and involved various paired recording and electrical
stimulation procedures. Preliminary analysis of intra-LA inhibition involved recording
the responses of LA neurons to the stimulation of the basolateral amygdala (BL). In
these experiments, recordings of LA neurons were done from a region
corresponding to 1 to 1.4 mm posterior to Bregma. The stimulating electrodes were
placed to a depth corresponding to 4–4.5 mm from the brain surface at the center
of the BL (3–3.75 mm lateral to the midline). We typically used 100 μA stimulation
intensity unless otherwise indicated. Since information transfer between LA and BL
is largely unidirectional, directly stimulating the BL would recruit descending LA
fibers, antidromically stimulating the LA neurons .

In these cases, the lidocaine derivative QX-314 (10 µM) was added to the cesium
based intracellular solution to block action currents in the recorded neurons that
were kept at 0 mV in voltage clamp to isolate the polysynaptic IPSCs that originate
from local LA interneurons stimulated by other LA cells. In pilot experiments, a
potassium-based intracellular solution was used instead of a QX-314 added cesium-
based intracellular solution. In these cases, BL stimulation unequivocally led to
action potentials LA neurons (not shown). Other pharmacological procedures were
used to ascertain the recurrent nature of these evoked IPSCs (see results). These
experiments were done in non-transgenic mice, somatostatin- and parvalbumin-
tomato crosses, and GAD-GFPs to isolate the specific interneuron type that
mediates recurrent inhibition. “(13)
Fig. n 17 Intranuclear inhibition in the LA. a Experimental protocol (a1), action
potential discharge in an LA neuron in response to intracellular current injections
and morphological features (a2), and an antidromic spike in the same neuron as a
result of BL stimulation. Inset, three individual traces from a collision test (arrow,
intracellular current evoked spike; asterisk, antidromic spike; x, collision) (a3). b
Voltage clamp recordings (Vhold = 0 mV) reveal BL evoked polysynaptic IPSCs with a
jitter in delays with increasing BL stimulation intensities (b1), and pharmacological
profiling, revealing a high sensitivity to glutamatergic receptor signaling (b2 and b3).
Values in color in b1 represent the BL stimulation intensity (b1). Representative data
of a neuron recorded under different pharmacological conditions (b2).
Quantification of pharmacological data (b3). Note that the majority of the inhibitory
response disappears after the addition of AMPA-receptor blocker NBQX (10 µM)
from Çağrı Temuçin Ünal et al
Spike-Timing Precision and Neuronal Synchrony Are Enhanced by an Interaction
between Synaptic Inhibition and Membrane Oscillations in the Amygdala

Steven J. Ryan et al

April 26, 2012

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0035320

“we examined if modulation of intracellular Ca2+ levels also play a role in regulating
the MPO. Here, inclusion of the Ca2+ chelator, BAPTA (5 mM), in the patch solution
completely blocked the MPO induced by co-application of 4-AP (500 µM) and
forskolin (10 µM) (Figure 9A, n = 6), suggesting that fluctuations in intracellular Ca2+
levels also play an important role in the expression of MPOs in BLA principal
neurons. This result raised the possibility that the drug-induced MPO may be
independent of activation of the cAMP-PKA signaling cascade. To address this
question, we included the competitive antagonist of cAMP-induced PKA activation,
cAMPs-RP, in the patch solution. Inclusion of cAMPs-RP (25 µM) completely blocked
the MPO induced by forskolin (Figure 9B, n = 4). Conversely, inclusion of a non-
hydrolysable cAMP analogue, 8-Br-cAMP (5–10 µM), in the patch pipette unmasked
an MPO in the presence of TTX alone that was similar in magnitude to that induced
by forskolin (Figure 9C, n = 6). Hence, Ca2+ influx through IT channels, elevation of
intracellular Ca2+, and activation of the adenylyl cyclase-cAMP-PKA signaling
cascade each play an important role in the expression of MPOs in BLA principal
neurons.” (14)
Fig. n18 Membrane potential oscillations in the BLA were bi-directionally modulated
by the adenylyl cyclase signaling cascade.

Cumulative power spectra of intrinsic theta frequency MPOs in BLA principal

neurons. Responses are plotted as mean (solid lines) and 95% confidence intervals
(shaded regions). Frequencies at which the 95% confidence intervals do not overlap
indicate statistically significant differences among the plots. (A) BAPTA-containing
patch solutions disorganized the frequency tuning of 4-AP- and forskolin-induced
MPOs. (B) Inhibiting PKA activation completely abolishes forskolin-induced MPOs.
(C) Activation of PKA with the cAMP analog 8Br-cAMP induces MPOs in TTX alone
that are similar to those observed in response to forskolin. (D) Activation of mGluR II
glutamate receptors with LY379268 completely blocked 4-AP and forskolin-induced
theta MPOs.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0035320.g009 from Steven J.
Ryan et al
ARTICLES j. neurophysiology

Inhibition and Synchronization of Basal Amygdala Principal Neuron Spiking by

Parvalbumin-Positive Interneurons

Alan R. Woodruff et al

01 NOV 2007https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00739.2007

“Using mice that express enhance green fluorescent protein (EGFP) under the
control of the parvalbumin promoter, we made paired recordings from interneurons
and principal neurons in the basal amygdala. In synaptically connected pairs, we
show that single action potentials in a parvalbumin expressing interneuron can
inhibit spiking in the synaptically connected principal neuron. When principal
neurons were provided with suprathreshold oscillatory drive via a somatic patch
pipette, action potentials in the interneuron inhibited spiking in principal neurons
only when the interneuron spike occurred shortly before excitation reached
threshold in the principal neuron. After this spike inhibition, there was a rebound
excitation in the principal neurons that was seen as an increased probability of firing
on the cycle after inhibition. These results illustrate the major role of local
inhibition in the basal amygdala. We propose that these interneurons in the basal
amygdala provide a potent inhibition that acts to inhibit firing of principal neurons
during cortically driven oscillations.” (15)

HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Front. Psychol., 21 June 2012 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00183

Evidence accumulator or decision threshold – which cortical mechanism are we

observing?

Patrick Simen

Department of Neuroscience, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, USA

“Most psychological models of perceptual decision making are of the accumulation-

to-threshold variety. The neural basis of accumulation in parietal and prefrontal
cortex is therefore a topic of great interest in neuroscience.
In contrast, threshold mechanisms have received less attention, and their neural
basis has usually been sought in subcortical structures.

Here I analyze a model of a decision threshold that can be implemented in the same
cortical areas as evidence accumulators, and whose behavior bears on two open
questions in decision neuroscience: (1) When ramping activity is observed in a brain
region during decision making, does it reflect evidence accumulation? (2) Are
changes in speed-accuracy tradeoffs and response biases more likely to be achieved
by changes in thresholds, or in accumulation rates and starting points? The analysis
suggests that task-modulated ramping activity, by itself, is weak evidence that a
brain area mediates evidence accumulation as opposed to threshold readout; and
that signs of modulated accumulation are as likely to indicate threshold adaptation
as adaptation of starting points and accumulation rates. These conclusions imply
that how thresholds are modeled can dramatically impact accumulator-based
interpretations of this data. recent accumulation-based modeling approaches
attempt to account for physiological evidence of fixed thresholds by adapting
baseline levels of activity in competing response channels. Adapting baseline activity
results in an effective change of threshold height without any change in the level of
channel-activation necessary to make a response . This approach is similar but not
identical to decision-threshold adaptation. Activating a response channel in these
models must initiate a decision process based on accumulated noise that will
ultimately culminate in a decision, even if no stimulus is present. Actual decision-
threshold adaptation, in contrast, can be achieved without producing any response
until a stimulus is present, allowing for top-down control to be exerted over
arbitrarily long delays prior to stimulus onset.

In all cases, decisions must not be initiated before some critical level of evidence
or some other quantity either accumulates or is momentarily sampled. Before
committing to a particular decision – a period that may theoretically last an
arbitrarily long time – the motor system is often assumed to receive no input from
the evidence-weighing process. Thus a physical barrier must be assumed, which,
once exceeded, leads inexorably to a particular outcome, but below which no
response is possible. What sort of non-linear transformation of the net evidence or
the “urgency to respond” can meet this specification and be implemented
physically?
The simplest answer is: the same sort of transformation implemented by threshold-
crossing detectors in human-engineered systems, namely switches. Physically
implemented switches nearly always have two, related, dynamical properties –
bistability and hysteresis – that define them specifically to be latches in engineering
terminology. Bistability means that these systems are attracted to one of two stable
states that are separated by an unstable equilibrium point; hysteresis means that
the response of such a system to a given input depends heavily on its past output
(loosely speaking, hysteresis means “stickiness” and involves a basic form of
persisting memory of the past; in contrast, linear systems are non-sticky and
respond to constant inputs in such a way that the system’s initial conditions are
forgotten at an exponential rate over time). Energy functions can be defined for
such systems, consisting of two wells separated by a hump (see Figure 1). Any such
system can then be accurately visualized as a particle bouncing around inside one
or the other well under the influence of gravity, and occasionally escaping over the
hump into the other well. Each “escape” is analogous to the flipping of the switch.
The importance of the double-well design is that it reduces chatter, or bouncing of
the switch between states as a result of noise (it “latches” into one or the other
state), imposing a repulsive force away from the undefined region between ON
and OFF”. (16)

Fig. n . 19 Double-well energy potential function, with system trapped in left well.
Transitions to the right well (“escapes”) maybe considered transitions from an OFF
state to an ON state, or a decision-preparation to a decision-committed state. From
Patrick Simen
The form of the psychophysical function near threshold

LAWRENCE E. MARKS AND JOSEPH C. STEVENS2

JOHN B. PIERCE FOUNDATION LABORATORY AND YALE UNIVERSITY 1968

“Psychophysical functions typically depart from a simple power law in the vicinity
of the absolute threshold. Five versions of the psychophysical power law have been
proposed to describe the function near threshold. An account is given of some of
the difficulties encountered in attempts to decide among the various versions by
means of empirical tests.

Approximately 15 years have passed since S. S. Stevens (1953)proposed the

psychophysical power law, according to which subjective magnitude >/J is related to
stimulus magnitude '/J by a

power function. Even when pains are taken to keep the observer in a constant state
of sensitivity and to avoid the known procedural constraints on the observer, the
precision of the scaling techniques is probably not great enough to decide univocally
between the l/J and '/I translations, assuming one of them to be correct. For the
time being, the issue may have to be dealt with in theoretical rather

than empirical terms. As a practical matter, the issue is usually of little consequence.
The similarity between the two translations means that either can be used to
describe the empirical outcome with reasonable accuracy.

The logical difference between the 1/1 translation and the '/I translation lies
primarily in the interpretation of the absolute threshold.

Proponents of the '" translation assert that the fundamental relation between
apparent magnitude and stimulus magnitude is a simple power function (Eq, I), and
that the reduction in apparent magnitude to zero at the threshold results from
masking by intrinsic physiological noise. In other words,sensitivity of the sense organ
is in the final analysis limited solely by the intrinsic noise level.
This explanation may appeal in the case of sensory continua (e.g., loudness) for
which absolute sensitivity is known to be great, and for which the intrinsic noise
level might reasonably be expected to help determine the form of the
psychophysical function.

On certain continua such as warmth, cold, and pain, absolute sensitivity is "poor," in
that relatively large quantities of energy must be brought into play before a
sensation is aroused” (17)

nature scientific data

14 January 2021

Dataset of spiking and LFP activity invasively recorded in the human amygdala
during aversive dynamic stimuli

Tommaso Fedele et al

“We present an electrophysiological dataset collected from the amygdalae of nine

participants attending a visual dynamic stimulation of emotional aversive content.
The participants were patients affected by epilepsy who underwent preoperative
invasive monitoring in the mesial temporal lobe. Participants were presented with
dynamic visual sequences of fearful faces (aversive condition), interleaved with
sequences of neutral landscapes (neutral condition). The dataset contains the
simultaneous recording of intracranial EEG (iEEG) and neuronal spike times and
waveforms, and localization information for iEEG electrodes. Participant
characteristics and trial information are provided.

We technically validated this dataset and provide here the spike sorting quality
metrics and the spectra of iEEG signals. This dataset allows the investigation of
amygdalar response to dynamic aversive stimuli at multiple spatial scales, from
the macroscopic EEG to the neuronal firing in the human brain”. (18)
Fig. n 20 Neuronal firing and spike sorting quality metrics. (a) Example neuron in the
amygdala. Top: Peristimulus time histogram (bin size: 100 ms; step size: 10 ms) for
aversive (red) and neutral (blue) conditions. Shaded areas represent ± s.e.m. across
trials of all spikes associated with the neuron Inset: mean extracellular waveform ±
s.e.m. Bottom: Raster plot of trials reordered by trial condition for plotting purposes
only. The trial onset is at time t = 0. (b) Histogram of percentage of inter-spike
intervals (ISI) <3 ms. The majority of neurons had less than 0.5% of short ISI. (c)
Histogram of average firing rate for all neurons. (d) Histogram of the signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR) of the peak of the mean waveform.
Neurosci Behav Physiol. Oct-Dec 1979;9(4):387-94.

Low-threshold mechanisms and cortical activation pathways

V N Andreeva, Y G Kratin, T S Sotnichenko

DOI: 10.1007/BF01185063

“In chronic experiments with alert cats, stimulation with electrical current of
moderate strength at various points on the lateral surface of the cerebral
hemispheres leads to activation of various brain regions. In addition to high-
threshold cortical points, low-threshold points have been discovered which are
located in the sensorimotor region and in the Ep field of the auditory zone. The
latter possess the same low thresholds for evoking an activation response as do
points in the mesencephalic RF and the thalamic CM, VPL, and GM. Connections
have been discovered (in the morphological part of the study) between the auditory
Ep field and the intralaminar nuclei of the thalamus and the brain-stem part of the
RF; the major projections run from the dorsal part of the Ep field into the lateral
zone of the tegmentum. It is proposed that the role of the cortical low-threshold
foci could involve the triggering of the nonspecific activation apparatus in accord
with the biological significance of the signals being analyzed.” (19)
Neuroimage. 2012 Jul doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.03.011. Epub 2012 Mar 13.

Medial orbitofrontal cortex is associated with shifting decision thresholds in self-

serving cognition

Brent L Hughes , Jennifer S Beer DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.03.011

“Recent research has begun to identify neural regions associated with self-serving
cognition, that is, the tendency to make claims that cast the self in an overly
flattering light, yet little is known about the mechanisms supported by neural
activation underlying self-serving cognition. One possibility suggested by current
research is that MOFC, a region that shows reduced recruitment in relation to self-
serving cognition, may support changes in the decision thresholds that influence
whether information should be expressed in an evaluation. The current fMRI study
addresses this question by combining a signal detection approach and a contextual
manipulation that permits the measurement of changes in decision threshold.
Participants evaluated their familiarity with blocks of existent and nonexistent
information when they believed that self-serving claims of knowledge could either
be exposed (accountable condition) or not (unaccountable condition). When held
accountable, participants tended to shift their decision thresholds in a conservative

( less self-serving) direction and showed greater activation in orbitofrontal cortex

(OFC), medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC).
The extent to which participants adopted more conservative ( less self-serving)
decision thresholds as a function of context (i.e., accountability), the more they
recruited MOFC activation. These findings refine current knowledge about the
mechanisms performed by neural regions involved in self-serving cognition and
suggest a role for MOFC in changing decision thresholds that influence whether
information should be expressed in an evaluation.”(20)
Psychosom Med. Nov-Dec 2011

Cerebral activation and catastrophizing during pain anticipation in patients with

fibromyalgia

Markus Burgmer et al

DOI: 10.1097/PSY.0b013e318236588a

“Anticipation of pain influences its cerebral processing and dysfunctional cognitive

style like catastrophizing correlates with the severity of pain. Patients with
fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) exhibit higher levels of catastrophizing, increased
attention to pain, and augmented cerebral pain processing. Therefore, alteration in
cerebral processing during anticipation of experimental pain and its relation to
catastrophizing are the main focus of the study.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain was acquired during the time of
pain anticipation with announcement of its intensity or not in 12 patients with FMS
and 14 healthy controls. Within a two-factorial model (factors "group" and
"session"), the main effect of group and the interaction effect were tested in a
whole-brain analysis. In addition, activation of the periaqueductal gray (PAG) was
analyzed in a region-of-interest analysis.

Patients with FMS generally displayed greater catastrophizing behavior (p = .003)

but not during the anticipation of the experimental pain (p > .16). Patients showed
greater activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (p = .05), the PAG (p = .04),
and the posterior parietal cortex (p = .03) during the anticipation of pain,
independent of the pain coping behavior during anticipation.

Conclusions: The lack of difference in catastrophizing during the experimental pain

suggests independent coping mechanisms during experimental and clinical pain.
Regarding the importance of the frontal cortex and the PAG in the descending pain
modulation system, it seems reasonable to assume that these functional changes
related to the context of stimulus presentation may contribute to central
sensitization in FMS.”(21)
Meta-Analysis Brain Cogn. 2019 Jun;132:1-12. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2019.01.002.
Epub 2019 Jan 30.

A coordinate-based meta-analysis of the n-back working memory paradigm using

activation likelihood estimation

Hui Wang et al

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2019.01.002

“The n-back task is a classical paradigm for functional neuroimaging studies of

working memory (WM). The frontal and parietal cortical regions are known to be
activated during the task. We used activation likelihood estimation (ALE) to conduct
a quantitative meta-analysis of 96 primary studies of n-back task variants based on
four conditions: memory loads (1-back, 2-back), object (identity, location), age
(younger, older) and gender (male, female). Six cortical regions were consistently
activated across all the studies: bilateral middle frontal gyrus (BA 10); bilateral
inferior parietal lobule (BA 40); bilateral precuneus (BA 7); left superior frontal gyrus
(BA 6); left anterior insula (aI) (BA 13); bilateral thalamus. Further meta-analyses
revealed that different regions were sensitive to different conditions: compared
with 1-back, 2-back increased activation in left middle frontal gyrus, left inferior
frontal gyrus and left aI; compared with object location, object identity increased
activation in right aI; young, compared with older subjects showed increased
activation in frontal, parietal lobule, and right aI; the comparison between male
and female showed no differences. Thus, our findings, showed consistent activation
of frontal and parietal cortical regions, while other regions such as the aI, showed
different activation patterns depending on varying experimental classification
conditions.”(22)
J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2000 Jul

Simulation of cognitive disturbances by a dynamic threshold semantic neural

network

A B Geva , A Peled

DOI: 10.1017/s1355617700655108

“A neural network model with dynamic thresholds, asymmetric connections, and

clustered memories simulates spread activation that is hypothesized for semantic
networks in the brain. By altering the parameters of the dynamic threshold a large
range of disturbances can be generated in the model. These disturbances show
metaphorical resemblance to certain general clinical descriptions of mental
disturbances found in psychiatric patients engaged in various cognitive tasks. Even
though the model is highly theoretical and metaphoric, it may help to gain certain
insights into the relation between alterations of certain neural parameters, for
example, thresholds and connectivity, and clinical symptoms in patients.”(23)

An Activation Threshold Model for Response Inhibition

Hayley J. MacDonald et al

January 13, 2017

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169320

“Reactive response inhibition (RI) is the cancellation of a prepared response when

it is no longer appropriate. Selectivity of RI can be examined by cueing the
cancellation of one component of a prepared multi-component response. This
substantially delays execution of other components. There is debate regarding
whether this response delay is due to a selective neural mechanism. Here we
propose a computational activation threshold model (ATM) and test it against a
classical “horse-race” model using behavioural and neurophysiological data from
partial RI experiments.
The models comprise both facilitatory and inhibitory processes that compete
upstream of motor output regions. Summary statistics (means and standard
deviations) of predicted muscular and neurophysiological data were fit in both
models to equivalent experimental measures by minimizing a Pearson Chi-square
statistic. The ATM best captured behavioural and neurophysiological dynamics of
partial RI. The ATM demonstrated that the observed modulation of corticomotor
excitability during partial RI can be explained by nonselective inhibition of the
prepared response. The inhibition raised the activation threshold to a level that
could not be reached by the original response. This was necessarily followed by an
additional phase of facilitation representing a secondary activation process in order
to reach the new inhibition threshold and initiate the executed component of the
response. The ATM offers a mechanistic description of the neural events underlying
RI, in which partial movement cancellation results from a nonselective inhibitory
event followed by subsequent initiation of a new response. The ATM provides a
framework for considering and exploring the neuroanatomical constraints that
underlie RI.” (24)

Fig. n 21 Experimental data used in the activation threshold and horse-race models.

Graphic depiction of the experimental data from Go and GS trials in [7] and how the
data is used in the activation threshold model (ATM) and horse-race model (HRM).
A: Experimental results showing modulation of left first dorsal interosseous MEP
amplitudes during Go (GG) and Partial (GS) trials.
Stop signal was given at −250 ms on GS trials. Values are mean ± standard error. #P
< 0.05; ##P < 0.001 represent significant increases relative to baseline during GG
trials. †P = 0.052 denote trends. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01 represent significant
differences during GS trials. . B: Model parameters for facilitation and inhibition
curves in the ATM (equivalent Go and Stop processes in the HRM) were
simultaneously fitted to motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitude data collected 150
(1), 125 (2) and 100 ms (3) before the target, and electromyography (EMG) onset (4)
and offset (5) times. C: Model parameters for the Stop process on GS trials of the
HRM were simultaneously fitted to MEP amplitudes 75 (1′), 50 (2′) and 25 ms (3′)
before the target, as well as EMG onset times (4′) and rates of onset (5′). D: Model
parameters for the increased inhibition and secondary facilitatory input were fitted
to MEP amplitudes 75 (1′), 50 (2′) and 25 ms (3′) before the target, EMG onset times
(4′) and rates of onset (5′). Note that the underlying facilitation process is equivalent
for B–D which all illustrate the left hand response From Hayley J. MacDonal et al

Discussion

We have see that in various brain circuits there are thereshold of activation so it is
possible to say that yhis is a common characteristic.

But aslo the various kind of mental task can require a deterimate level of MENTAL
ENERGY.

Is possible to consider the brain-mind units as organized in a various quantic level of

energy neesed or to be provided for a balanced functionality?

“Another difference is that we identify freezing to be a flight-or-fight response put

on hold. With these modifications, the defense cascade in humans involves the
following action patterns or mind-body states: (1) arousal, the first step in
activating the defense cascade; (2) flight or fight, an active defense response for
dealing with threat; (3) freezing, which is a flight-or-fight response put on hold;
(4) tonic immobility, a response to inescapable threat, or a strategy of last resort,
when active defense responses have failed; (5) collapsed immobility, a variant of
tonic immobility, in which muscle tone is lost and consciousness is compromised
secondary to bradycardia-induced cerebral hypoxia;‡‡ and (6) quiescent
immobility, a state of quiescence that promotes rest and healing. This order differs
from conceptualizations based on the distance of the predatory threat—in which
freezing is discussed before flight or fight. As indicated above, the reason for
reversing the order of the first two patterns or states is that freezing is best
understood as an inhibited flight-or-fight response, which therefore needs to be
discussed first.

The human model is also more complex because humans make subjective
representations of body states and endow their experiences with meaning, and
because humans use their minds to create internally generated representations of
threat—images of feeling states and events from the past or images of the imagined
future—which, like real external threats, have the capacity to activate the body’s
defense systems in the absence of external threat. Fear states can therefore be
induced by combinations of internal and external triggers, some of which will be
accessible to conscious processing, and some not. In this context it is important to
note that, although we focus primarily on the role of phylogenetically old circuits
underpinning innate animal and human defense responses, in humans these circuits
are embedded within, and interact with, a broad array of more recently evolved
neural circuits and networks involved in emotion regulation. Whenever necessary,
these newer elements will be integrated into our discussion.

THE FREEZE RESPONSE: THE ANIMAL MODEL

The freeze response is also referred to as attentive immobility, hyper-reactive

immobility, and reactive immobility. It has been most extensively studied in rodents
and monkeys Freezing occurs in the context of predatory threats—detection of a
predator—or in laboratory situations where the animal is reexposed to a context or
discrete cues that have previously been associated with an aversive event.
 In predator-prey interactions, this attentive immobility functions to decrease the
likelihood of detection since the visual cortex of mammalian carnivores is
programmed to detect moving objects. Attentive immobility enables the animal to
continue scanning the environment and readies the animal for an active response
such as flight or fight. In the laboratory situation, the fourth author has observed
rats to freeze for periods as long as 20 minutes. In wild rodents, freezing up to a
period of 60 minutes—at which point the researcher had to interrupt his
observations—has been described.†††,34 There can be marked differences in
freezing within species across different genetic strains and research paradigms.” (25)

Fig. n 22 from k. Roelofs

Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2017 Apr 19; 372(1718): 20160206.

2017 Feb 27. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0206

Freeze for action: neurobiological mechanisms in animal and human freezing

Karin Roelofs

“The coevolution of prey and predator has evolved into qualitatively different
defensive action repertoires that animals display when facing predator threat .
Freezing is activated at intermediate levels of predator threat. It is a state of
attentive immobility serving to avoid detection by predators and to enhance
perception . Besides immobility, an important feature of freezing is the
parasympathetically induced heart rate deceleration, also called ‘bradycardia’.
Freezing differentiates with the sympathetically dominated fight-or-flight response
activated during imminent predation threat . Especially, upon threat, both
sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system are
simultaneously activated and only in case of parasympathetic dominance do we
observe defensive freezing.

Freezing is a universal fear response, observed both in reaction to conditioned

(learned) or unconditioned (acutely threatening) stimuli or situations .

Neuroimaging studies in humans have indicated that, in humans, brain structures

similar to those previously observed in animals (rodents and primates) are
implicated in freezing. For example, Mobbs et al. showed that activity in amygdala–
PAG circuitry varies with threat proximity. Recent fMRI studies have suggested that
activity in these circuits is associated specifically with freezing and its accompanying
parasympathetic autonomic response . Heart rate deceleration associated with
aversive versus neutral picture-viewing in an MRI scanner was associated with
increased activity in the PAG and increased connectivity between the amygdala and
the PAG.
On the basis of trial-by-trial correlations, the authors showed that the increased
threat-induced PAG activity was specifically related to the parasympathetically
driven heart rate reduction and did not occur as a function of sympathetic index (i.e.
pupil dilation) freezing is a form of behavioural inhibition accompanied by
parasympathetically dominated heart rate deceleration. Despite the potential
relevance of freezing for human stress-coping, its phenomenology and
neurobiological underpinnings in humans remain largely unexplored. This review
paper indicates that freezing is not a passive state but rather a parasympathetic
brake on the otherwise active motor system, relevant to perception and appropriate
action preparation. There are individual differences in the tendency to display
freeze, fight or flight reactions to threat. Aggression has been linked to reduced
freezing in passive situations and increased freezing followed by fast fight decisions
when possible in active threat-responding paradigms . In contrast, anxiety has been
linked to increased freezing and flight .Prolonged presence of threat-induced
freezing mediated the relation between blunted cortisol and internalizing symptoms
.” (26)
Fig. n. 23 States of the defense cascade. The diagram depicts the states of arousal,
flight or fight, freezing, and tonic/collapsed immobility in terms of patterns of neural
activity in the different structures and pathways of the defense cascade network. I.
Arousal, the first step to the activation of the defense cascade, can be viewed as the
activation of the hypothalamus pathway. II. Fight or flight involves the activation of
the hypothalamus and lateral periaqueductal gray. III. Freezing—flight or fight put
on hold—involves activation of the following: hypothalamus pathway; unmyelinated
vagal pathway from the dorsal motor nucleus (which opposes the sympathetic
activation); lateral periaqueductal gray; and ventrolateral periaqueductal gray
(which opposes activation of the lateral periaqueductal gray). IV. Tonic/collapsed
immobility involves activation of the unmyelinated vagal pathway from the dorsal
motor nucleus and of the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray pathway. In
tonic/collapsed immobility the hypothalamus pathway is not activated. The filled
circles depict activated neurons, whereas the open circles depict non-activated
neurons. ACTH, adrenocorticotropic hormone; DMN, dorsal motor nucleus of the
vagus; Hyp, hypothalamus; LPAG, lateral periaqueductal gray; VLPAG, ventrolateral
periaqueductal gray; X, vagus nerve. From Kasia Kozlowska

J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2008 Sep

2007 Aug 12. doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2007.08.002

Exploring Human Freeze Responses to a Threat Stressor

Norman B. Schmidt, J. Anthony Richey, Michael J. Zvolensky, and Jon K. Maner

“Correlations between the freeze item and other API items were examined to
provide a more detailed analysis of the association between freeze and other
symptoms. These analyses indicated that 9 API items showed substantial
correlations with the freeze item (r range = .45 – .60) compared to the remaining
items, which showed a more modest association in the range of .20–.35.
The majority of items that were more highly associated with freeze included those
focused on cognitive symptoms of anxiety ( confusion, unreality, detached,
concentration, inner shakiness) as well as fear of losing control. n LeDoux's model,
the amygdala and thalamic pathways are responsible for the primary appraisal of
threat by allowing a rapid, automatic analysis of potentially dangerous stimuli.
Additional brain structures, including the hippocampus and cortical pathways,
provide more information on the situational context and relevant stimulus
characteristics . Thus, the amygdala plays a central role by integrating rapid, direct
thalamic inputs, eg, visual information, with more detailed information, eg, cortical
integration of sensory information, originating from longer and slower neuronal
pathways. Activation of the amygdala by threatening stimuli then influences
cognitive processes, perception, selective attention, and explicit memory.” (27)

Cell Mol Neurobiol. 2010 doi: 10.1007/s10571-010-9606-9

Adrenal Responses to Stress

David S. Goldstein

“”Based on concepts proposed by Langley, Cannon, and Selye, adrenal responses to

stress occur in a syndrome that reflects activation of the sympathoadrenal system
and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical (HPA) axis; and a “stress syndrome”
maintains homeostasis in emergencies such as “fight or flight” situations, but if the
stress response is excessive or prolonged then any of a variety of clinical disorders
can arise “(28)
Physiol Behav. 2012 Dec 5

2012 Mar 26. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2012.03.016

An animal model of panic vulnerability with chronic disinhibition of the

dorsomedial/perifornical hypothalamus

Philip L. Johnson and Anantha Shekhar

“Normally an adaptive ‘panic’ response is a survival reflex that occurs in response to

an imminent threat that can be associated with either external or internal sensory
stimuli (exteroceptive- or interoceptive-cues, respectively) . For instance, normal
panic is an adaptive response to imminent threats that are exteroceptive (predator
attacks) or interoceptive ( severe hypercapnia that leads to a suffocation sensation)
Acute activation of DMH/PeF leads to panic-like behavior and increased
cardiorespiratory responses in rats. After chronically inhibiting GABA synthesis in the
PeF/DMH of rats with l-AG, a GABA synthesis inhibitor, sodium lactate challenges
produce anxiety as measured by social interaction, elevated plus maze, open field
test and freezing in defensive probe burying test, as well as acute panic-like
responses such as increased “flight”-like locomotion, increased respiration,
increased heart rate, and increased mean arterial pressure responses following
intravenous sodium lactate infusions. This animal model of panic vulnerability has
provided an excellent preclinical system with robust face, predictive and construct
validity. The model recapitulates several of the key phenotypic characteristics of PD
(face validity), including greater sensitivity to panicogenic stimuli demonstrated by
sudden onset of anxiety and autonomic activation following a administration of a
sub-threshold ( do not usually induce panic in healthy subjects) stimulus such as
sodium lactate, CO2, or yohimbine. The construct validity is supported by several
key findings; DMH/PeF neurons regulate behavioral and autonomic components of
the “fight or flight” response, as well as being implicated in eliciting panic-like
responses in humans. Patients with PD have deficits in central GABA activity and
pharmacological restoration of central GABA activity prevents panic attacks,
consistent with this model. The model’s predictive validity is demonstrated by not
only showing panic responses to several panic-inducing agents that elicit panic in
patients with PD, but also by the positive therapeutic responses to clinically used
agents such as alprazolam and antidepressants that attenuate panic attacks in
patients.
More importantly, discovery of novel drugs to treat panic have been identified by
this model such as group II metabotropic glutamate agonists and a new class of
translocator protein enhancers of GABA, both of which subsequently showed anti-
panic properties in clinical trials . All of these data suggest that this preparation
provides a strong preclinical model of some forms of human panic disorders. “(29)

Review J Sex Med. 2010 Nov Epub

Neuroimaging of love: fMRI meta-analysis evidence toward new perspectives in

sexual medicine

Stephanie Ortigue , Francesco Bianchi-Demicheli, Nisa Patel, Chris Frum, James W

Lewis

DOI: 10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01999.x

“ Brain imaging is becoming a powerful tool in the study of human cerebral

functions related to close personal relationships. Outside of subcortical structures
traditionally thought to be involved in reward-related systems, a wide range of
neuroimaging studies in relationship science indicate a prominent role for different
cortical networks and cognitive factors. Thus, the field needs a better
anatomical/network/whole-brain model to help translate scientific knowledge from
lab bench to clinical models and ultimately to the patients suffering from disorders
associated with love and couple relationships.

The aim of the present review is to provide a review across wide range of functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies to critically identify the cortical networks
associated with passionate love, and to compare and contrast it with other types of
love (such as maternal love and unconditional love for persons with intellectual
disabilities).
Retrospective review of pertinent neuroimaging literature.

Main outcome measures: Review of published literature on fMRI studies of love

illustrating brain regions associated with different forms of love.

Although all fMRI studies of love point to the subcortical dopaminergic reward-
related brain systems (involving dopamine and oxytocin receptors) for motivating
individuals in pair-bonding, the present meta-analysis newly demonstrated that
different types of love involve distinct cerebral networks, including those for
higher cognitive functions such as social cognition and bodily self-representation.
(30)

These metaresults provide the first stages of a global neuroanatomical model of

cortical networks involved in emotions related to different aspects of love.
Developing this model in future studies should be helpful for advancing clinical
approaches helpful in sexual medicine and couple therapy” (30)

Front. Psychol., 25 October 2016 Sec.Cognitive Science

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01574

Beyond reward: insights from love and addiction

Romantic Love Is Associated with Enhanced Inhibitory Control in an Emotional Stop-

Signal Task

Sensen Song, Zhiling Zou, Hongwen Song, Yongming Wang, Federico d’Oleire
Uquillas, Huijun Wang and Hong Chen

“”Purpose: This study explored whether romantic lovers differ in emotion-related

inhibitory control capacity from those who are single.

Methods: 88 healthy undergraduate college students participated in the study. Half

were currently in love and in a romantic relationship (love group, LG), and half were
single and had never been in a romantic relationship (single group, SG).
Based on duration of romantic relationship ( love duration), the LG were further
divided into two subgroups: “early stage love” and “longer periods of love”. All
participants completed an emotional Stop Signal Task, consisting of a variety of
human face stimuli displaying either sad or neutral affect.

Results: Results found that relative to SG, lovers showed greater inhibitory control
[shorter stop-signal reaction time (SSRT)] during negative emotion condition trials.

In early stages of love, SSRT for negative emotion condition trials was significantly
shorter compared to that in “longer periods of love” or SG individuals, with no
significant differences between the two latter groups.

Conclusion: Compared with individuals who were single, early stage lovers showed
greater capacity for inhibiting action during presentation of negative emotional
stimuli. Within a greater social context, greater inhibitory control capacity during
early stages of love may be related to the successful formation of romantic
relationships, particularly to the ability to persevere in goal-directed action despite
negative emotional contexts such as that of sadness.” (31)

Front Integr Neurosci. 2019; 13: 11.

2019 Apr 5. doi: 10.3389/fnint.2019.00011

Emotional Theory of Rationality

Mario Garcés and Lucila Finkel

“We first reflect on the necessity of nervous system activation, where need means
the generation of a response only in cases of absolute necessity. If responses were
generated randomly or continuously, without mediating a need, some might be
effective, but they would certainly be inefficient. In order to assess the concept of
necessity, the nervous system must have an indicator in order to define when to
execute a response. The variable that indicates whether or not to generate a
response is the Activation Threshold, and it is defined as the minimum difference
between the stimulus received and an internal reference that produce neural
circuitry activation .

This variable is permanently and dynamically readjusted . A too low threshold is

inefficient, generating unnecessary responses, at great cost in time, resources, and
energy. A too high threshold is not very effective, preventing individuals from
reacting appropriately to important stimuli, thus putting them at risk . The second
variable that we must consider is Reaction Time. It indicates the time that elapses
between sensory circuit activation by the onset of a stimulus, and the moment when
the corresponding response is available and starts running . We can infer that the
less time the nervous system takes to choose the most suitable response , albeit
inhibitory , the greater the chances of survival.

Third, it is clear that swiftly finding a response can save the life of an organism, but it
is also true that Accuracy is crucial in most cases. In this sense, we define accuracy
as the difference between the response and the best possible option to respond to a
stimulus, considering that both are characterized by a set of variables, such as
intensity, specificity, location, timing, sequencing, and so forth. Each of these
variables has an operating range within which we can say it is effective. Thus, we say
that a response is effective when the accuracy of all variables is within the range
that successfully solves the triggering stimulus. For example, a tennis player is
effective if s/he hits the ball hard enough, in the right direction, within a limited time
window, in a specific spatial zone, so that it passes over the net and falls anywhere
within the attacking half. We say that s/he is accurate if s/he also intentionally
places the ball at a certain point beyond the reach of the opponent. S/He will be
precise if s/he can consistently place the ball away from his/her opponent.

If we consider the nervous system as a specialized system for processing information

to produce responses, and the quality of the responses is given by the three critical
variables already identified, that evolution had selected some mechanisms to
optimize these variables allowing for an improved overall performance makes sense.
The very existence of the following biological mechanisms could be considered a
confirmation of the importance of these three variables.

Thus, mechanisms such as Memory are able to encode, store, and quickly retrieve
previously processed information, making it suitable for being efficiently
incorporated in new processes and reused. Pattern Recognition enables
information to be shared, encoding it with fewer connections, thereby saving
resources more quickly and perhaps reusing ready-made responses. Predictive
Systems can recognize patterns that occur at different points in time or in
sequences that, according to our reasoning, are closely related to memory
capacity . Feedforward uses a prediction from predictive systems and is able to
activate in advance neural and physiological components of the responses, thus
creating faster circuits to send activation information along the shortest paths .
Feedback acts as a regulating element, allowing the nervous system to
dynamically adjust its operation by checking the effectiveness of its own responses
and the effects they exert on the eliciting stimuli. For instance, efferent copy which,
combined with inverse models, gives way to corollary discharge , allows us to
explain, for example, why we cannot tickle ourselves . The Mirror System makes it
possible to anticipate—and imitate—the actions of others , thus triggering
advanced social interactions and behaviors . And Mental Imagery is a high-level
mechanism for optimizing critical variables. If the information developed through
predictive systems is re-fed through sensory circuits , it can be managed as new self-
generated stimuli, which in turn can elicit new responses, either neural or
physiological . In turn, this self-generated information could form the basis of self
and social interactions , which is a good example of an advanced system that
emerges as a combination of simpler ones. Table 1 summarizes how these
mechanisms improve the overall quality of the nervous system responses through
an optimization of the three critical variables we have already identified.
Automaticity

There is, a very important factor we should take into account. The three variables
we have identified as critical to assessing the quality of nervous system responses
(activation threshold, reaction time, and accuracy) are interdependent. When one is
modified, the others will be affected by the change. If we want to improve accuracy,
we need to spend more time generating and exploring more alternatives .If we
delay, when we finally find the best response it may no longer be needed, either
because the predator has devoured us, or because our potential partner has found
another .

Also, if we reduce the reaction time, the quality of response suffers and may no
longer be accurate enough to successfully resolve the stimulus that elicited it, thus
becoming ineffective. If we display unnecessary responses, albeit accurate and fast,
we may waste our energy and time solving insignificant problems , thus diminishing
the availability of resources to address other and more important tasks.

The interdependence between these three critical variables is an important

challenge to the nervous system when facing a stimulus. It should be able to find, at
any time and for each stimulus, the best possible, or available, balance between
them .

The best way to achieve this optimum balance would be to have, from the
beginning, a specific neural circuit, already wired to provide the most accurate
response in the shortest time possible, and fine-tuned to run only when really
necessary. As the optimal mechanism, evolution has developed and selected it as
a priority and, because of its importance, has also incorporated it at a genetic
level. These kinds of circuits are known as Reflex Circuits . They allow living beings to
deploy a first type of highly optimized responses called Innate Responses. According
to this reasoning, the more responses available in the form of reflexes, the better
the balance between the critical variables that define the quality, and thus the
better the overall system performance.

But this raises a new problem. Given the enormous variety and variability of
possible stimuli that a living being can face (also known as Combinatorial
Explosion), it is obvious that not all responses can be genetically wired into an
innate circuit . The nervous system cannot, and should not, incorporate all possible
responses innately coded, but rather the mechanisms to generate them dynamically
in the most flexible and rapid way . Responses are encoded by networks of neurons
and synapses, as are the developing and neural plasticity processes (neurogenesis,
synaptogenesis, LTP, LTD, neuronal apoptosis, synaptic pruning), along with the
aforementioned feedback and feedforward mechanisms, which are required to
dynamically create and select the fastest, most effective, and efficient networks . In
the next section, we will see how this optimization process leads to different levels
of search, development, selection, and implementation of responses.
Automaticity is the process by which the neural pathway associated with a response
reaches the optimal balance of interconnection between its elements, thus
providing the best possible relationship between the three critical variables that
characterize its quality . This does not mean that an automated response is the best
possible response to solve a particular stimulus . When the best response available
within the limitations of individual capacities in a given context is found, the neural
network that encodes it is optimized to do three things: recognize the stimulative
pattern, compute the response, and run it as quickly and accurately as possible .
Thus, the automaticity concept refers to the response execution quality. Depending
on the intrinsic characteristics of the stimulus, it will be more, less, or even not
susceptible to being automated. The different degrees of automaticity give rise to
skills , habits which are defined as “sequential, repetitive, motor, or cognitive
behaviors elicited by external or internal triggers that, once released, can go to
completion without constant conscious oversight” .

The most significant characteristics of automated responses are that the sensory
events almost always elicit behavior; are resistant to dual-task interference, that is,
the behavior can be executed successfully while the subject is simultaneously
engaged in some other demanding secondary task ; are behaviorally inflexible; and
are unaffected by reward devaluation .

Based on this definition, we outline the Automaticity Principle as follows: as a result

of its own mechanisms of growth and development, and in order to fully optimize
their effectiveness and efficiency, the nervous system will automate, as much as
possible, the new circuits and neural networks that encode a stimulus recognition,
calculation, and execution of the response associated with it.

As to be expected if it were a fundamental functional mechanism, automaticity has

been systematically observed in numerous studies, with different sensory, cognitive,
and motor requirements, including motor skills , driving , reading , music reading
and playing , and typing . It has also been observed in learning processes that affect
highly dissimilar memory systems, whether declarative or procedural , and also in
very different species .

Despite its ubiquity, the neural bases for this mechanism are not yet clear, though
there is evidence that prefrontal cortex (PFC) and basal ganglia (BG), mainly the
cortico-striatum-cortical loops, are intimately related to the automaticity process .
Thus, the two competing paradigms, automaticity as a “Transfer of Control from the
Associative Striatum to the Sensorimotor Striatum” and automaticity as a “Transfer
of Control from the Striatum to Cortex” have received wide experimental support,
and identified the need for future research.

In sum, we consider that automation can be understood as a process that ranges

from a discrete set of multidimensional values obtained in a limited number of
cases to a continuous multidimensional function codified after a large number of
events .

Levels of Response

We have already seen that the first kind of responses available to the nervous
system to react to stimuli are Innate Responses . We say these responses are
wired because of the existence from birth of a specific neural circuitry to resolve
the stimulus. The same stimulus will produce the same response. That the origin
of this type of response is genetic indicates that it has been preserved by species
over generations. In turn, this tells us that it has been useful in solving certain very
specific, ancestral, frequent, and repetitive stimuli, including crying, coughing,
pupillary dilation to changes in light, sweat secretion, heart rate control, and
breathing. Within innate responses we include reflexes , Fixed Action Patterns or
instincts, defined as “patterns of behavior that are fully functional from the first time
they are executed, even if the individual has had no previous experience with the
stimuli that elicit the response” .

But what happens if, because of the novelty or the variability of a stimulus, there
is no innate response to enable a solution? The nervous system must develop new
responses from the elements available. We call this new level of response
Cognitive Responses. They form a broad set of more or less advanced tools which
enable the body to create new solutions to address the most diverse stimuli .

These mechanisms are highly flexible but have the disadvantage of requiring more
time and resources to find or develop, select, and apply a response, thus reducing
biological fitness. This second level of responses is useful in the absence of another
effective response, or when the response time is not critical.

Once the brain finds the best possible response to a repetitive stimulus within its
own capacity, it activates the automaticity principle in an attempt to create the most
optimal pathway to process and execute the response, when necessary, as quickly
and accurately as possible. This results in a third type of response we call Automated
Responses .

It is important to note the difference between innate automatic responses and

automated responses. While all the innate responses are genetic and therefore
automatic from the outset, automated responses do not initially exist. They must
first be generated through a cognitive process in the form of cognitive responses,
which are later optimized, as expressed by the automaticity principle, though not all
responses are susceptible to being automated.

We, therefore, define a three-level hierarchical structure for responses, starting

with innate responses at the lowest level, then cognitive responses, and finishing
with automated responses. Innate Responses: implemented by specific neural
pathways, genetically encoded and selected to solve common situations, from an
evolutionary perspective, they are highly critical for the survival of the organism.
They provide automatic responses, which are very fast, accurate, and highly
effective and efficient in their use of resources, selected and preserved in the
inherited baggage of the species evolving over millions of years.

Cognitive Responses: developed by advanced information processing systems that

enable the search for new responses to face novel stimuli. Of a very different
complexity, repetitive or not, they are less critical for survival. They have many
different tools and multiple ways of combining them to find new solutions, but
require longer analysis times and broader resource utilization, resulting in higher
energy expenditure.
It is important to note that cognitive responses are developed for a specific range of
experienced operation and that if this range is exceeded, the cognitive response
may become ineffective.

Automated Responses: developed by brain optimization mechanisms that, once a

new cognitive response has been found, enable the creation, selection, and pruning
of the neural circuits intended to make the new cognitive response automatic. They
are useful for optimizing responses to repetitive stimuli of diverse complexity, which
are susceptible to being automated. Effectiveness and efficiency are reached with
repeated exposure to stimuli, improving accuracy and speed as the newly created
network consolidates. More time is needed to make these responses available, and
the process consumes more resources. Returning briefly to the evolutionary level,
we observe that some species exhibit one, two, or all three levels of response (Table
2).

Since evolution does not develop or maintain unnecessary systems, we can reason
that the different levels of response emerged as a result of adaptive pressure
exerted on organisms by their environment. In other words, any organism whose
environmental conditions would have allowed it to survive and reproduce without
problems by displaying only innate responses will not have invested resources to
develop and maintain more advanced and costly brains. This explains why some
animals, such as the horseshoe crab, which have survived for hundreds of millions of
years without the need to strengthen its nervous system beyond a certain level of
response. Another example would be sharks. In existence for around 420 million
years, equivalent to seventy times the period that separates humans from
chimpanzees (6–7 million years), they have not developed intelligence levels similar
to humans.“(32)
Fig. n 24 from doi: 10.3389/fnint.2019.00011 doi: 10.3389/fnint.2019.00011
emotions are the default response that mobilizes physiological and cognitive
resources, but only while needed, thus optimizing the functioning of the nervous
system (Bassett et al., 2009). This dynamic could account for the stress curve ,
indicating when the cognitive response is out of range, whether due to available
cognitive capacity or to the intensity of the stimulus .

Ayu. 2015 Jul-Sep; 36(3): 233–237. doi: 10.4103/0974-8520.182756

Meditation: Process and effects Hari Sharma

“Meditation has become popular in many Western nations, especially the USA. An
increasing body of research shows various health benefits associated with
meditation and these findings have sparked interest in the field of medicine. The
practice of meditation originated in the ancient Vedic times of India and is described
in the ancient Vedic texts. Meditation is one of the modalities used in Ayurveda
(Science of Life), the comprehensive, natural health care system that originated in
the ancient Vedic times of India. The term “meditation” is now loosely used to refer
to a large number of diverse techniques. According to Vedic science, the true
purpose of meditation is to connect oneself to one's deep inner Self. Techniques
which achieve that goal serve the true purpose of meditation. Neurological and
physiological correlates of meditation have been investigated previously.
This article describes the process of meditation at a more fundamental level and
aims to shed light on the deeper underlying mechanism of the beneficial effects
associated with meditation. Research on the effects of meditation is summarized.”

“The practice of meditation has become popular in many Western nations,

especially the USA. An ever-increasing body of research shows various health
benefits associated with meditation and these findings have sparked interest in the
field of medicine. The practice of meditation originated in the ancient Vedic times of
India and is described in the Vedic texts. Meditation is one of the modalities used in
Ayurveda (Science of Life), the comprehensive, natural health care system that
originated in the ancient Vedic times of India. The term “meditation” is now loosely
used to refer to a large number of diverse techniques. These include contemplation,
concentration, use of nature sounds such as the ocean, guided meditation,
meditative movement exercises such as Yoga and tai chi, qigong, breathing
exercises, and Mantra. These techniques work at different levels such as the
senses, mind, intellect, and emotions. Some techniques are easy to learn and
practice, while others are more difficult and can result in participants giving up the
practice rather quickly. According to Vedic science (the knowledge of the Vedic texts
of ancient India), the true purpose of meditation is to connect oneself to one's deep
inner Self. Techniques which achieve that goal serve the true purpose of
meditation.” (33)

Review Sante Ment Que. Autumn 2013 doi: 10.7202/1023988ar.

Review of the effects of mindfulness meditation on mental and physical health and
its mechanisms of action

Thanh-Lan Ngô

“Interventions based on mindfulness have become increasingly popular. This article

reviews the empirical literature on its effects on mental and physical health,
discusses presumed mechanisms of action as well as its proposed neurobiological
underpinning. Mindfulness is associated with increased well-being as well as
reduced cognitive reactivity and behavioral avoidance. It seems to contribute to
enhance immune functions, diminish inflammation, diminish the reactivity of the
autonomic nervous system, increase telomerase activity, lead to higher levels
plasmatic melatonin and serotonin.
 It enhances the quality of life for patients suffering from chronic pain, fibromylagia
and HIV infection. It facilitates adaptation to the diagnosis of cancer and diabetes. It
seems to lead to symptomatic improvement in irritable bowel syndrome, chronic
fatigue syndrome, hot flashes, insomnia, stress related hyperphagia. It diminishes
craving in substance abuse. The proposed mechanism of action are enhanced
metacognitive conscience, interoceptive exposure, experiential acceptance, self-
management, attention control, memory, relaxation. Six mechanism of actions for
which neurological underpinnings have been published are: attention regulation
(anterior cingulate cortex), body awareness (insula, temporoparietal junction),
emotion regulation (modulation of the amygdala by the lateral prefrontal cortex),
cognitive re-evaluation (activation of the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex or
diminished activity in prefrontal regions), exposure/extinction/reconsolidation
(ventromedial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, amygdala) and flexible self-
concept (prefrontal median cortex, posterior cingulated cortex, insula,
temporoparietal junction).

The neurobiological effects of meditation are described. These are: (1) the
deactivation of the default mode network that generates spontaneous thoughts,
contributes to the maintenance of the autobiographical self and is associated with
anxiety and depression; (2) the anterior cingulate cortex that underpins attention
functions; (3) the anterior insula associated with the perception of visceral
sensation, the detection of heartbeat and respiratory rate, and the affective
response to pain; (4) the posterior cingulate cortex which helps to understand the
context from which a stimulus emerges; (5) the temporoparietal junction which
assumes a central role in empathy and compassion; (6) the amygdala implicated in
fear responses. The article ends with a short review of the empirical basis
supporting the efficacy for mindfulness based intervention and suggested directions
for future research.” (34)
Case Reports Psychiatry . 1993 Aug; doi: 10.1080/00332747.1993.11024651.

Asceticism: creative spiritual practice or pathological pursuit?

B A Fallon , E Horwath

“Asceticism in a religious context refers to a voluntary and sustained practice of

self-denial in which immediate or sensual gratifications are renounced in order to
attain a higher spiritual state. Virtually all of the major world religions have within
them a way in which the individual, through ascetic practices, can strive to achieve a
more thorough absorption in the sacred. Although many psychiatrists might
consider any ascetic or religious practice to be pathological, others take a more
neutral view by emphasizing that religious or mystical practice can also be adaptive
and creative (Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry 1976).” (35)

Journal List Front Hum Neurosci v.15;

2021 Mar 18. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.610466

Neural Correlates of the Shamanic State of Consciousness

Emma R. Huels et al

“Psychedelics have been recognized as model interventions for studying altered

states of consciousness. Few empirical studies of the shamanic state of
consciousness, which is anecdotally similar to the psychedelic state, exist. We
investigated the neural correlates of shamanic trance using high-density
electroencephalography (EEG) in 24 shamanic practitioners and 24 healthy controls
during rest, shamanic drumming, and classical music listening, followed by an
assessment of altered states of consciousness. EEG data were used to assess
changes in absolute power, connectivity, signal diversity, and criticality, which were
correlated with assessment measures. We also compared assessment scores to
those of individuals in a previous study under the influence of psychedelics.
Shamanic practitioners were significantly different from controls in several domains
of altered states of consciousness, with scores comparable to or exceeding that of
healthy volunteers under the influence of psychedelics.
 Practitioners also displayed increased gamma power during drumming that
positively correlated with elementary visual alterations. Shamanic practitioners had
decreased low alpha and increased low beta connectivity during drumming and
classical music and decreased neural signal diversity in the gamma band during
drumming that inversely correlated with insightfulness.

Criticality in practitioners was increased during drumming in the low and high beta
and gamma bands, with increases in the low beta band correlating with complex
imagery and elementary visual alterations.

These findings suggest that psychedelic drug-induced and non-pharmacologic

alterations in consciousness have overlapping phenomenal traits but are distinct
states of consciousness, as reflected by the unique brain-related changes during
shamanic trance compared to previous literature investigating the psychedelic
state.” (36)

Research Article

Brain changes during a shamanic trance: Altered modes of consciousness,

hemispheric laterality, and systemic psychobiology

Pierre Flor-Henry et al

Apr 2017 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2017.1313522

“There have been a number of electrophysiological and neuroimaging studies in

“altered” states of consciousness including dissociative conditions, hypnosis, and
meditation; The nature and clinical significance of trance states remain elusive.
Alterations of consciousness that accompany trance can shed light on the brain
networks contributing to the experience of autobiographical self; the subjective
demarcation of “self” from others and reality at large; and normative vs.
pathological domains of self-experience. Shamanic trance is a volitional, self-induced
state of consciousness that historically served the purposes of social cohesion and
healing interventions in diverse tribal settings.
We present the first neurophysiological study of a normal subject, who has received
extensive training in the Mongolian shamanic tradition and is capable of self-
inducing a trance state without external sensory stimulation. Quantitative EEG
mapping and LORETA (low resolution electromagnetic tomography) source
imaging indicate that shamanic state of consciousness (SSC) involves a shift from
the normally dominant left analytical to the right experiential mode of self-
experience, and from the normally dominant anterior prefrontal to the posterior
somatosensory mode.

These findings have implications for the psychobiology of the normative conscious
mode of awareness and neurophysiological processes contributing to dissociative,
psychotic, and transpersonal domains of self-experience. They may be used as a
foundation to bridge Western and traditional healing techniques.” (37)

Fig. n 25 Ordinary (OSC) vs. altered (ASC) states of consciousness as a function of

arousal/absorption. From doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2017.1313522
Front Mol Neurosci. 2017 Nov 7;10:366. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2017.00366. eCollection
2017.

Revisiting the Quantum Brain Hypothesis: Toward Quantum (Neuro)biology?

Peter Jedlicka

“The nervous system is a non-linear dynamical complex system with many

feedback loops. A conventional wisdom is that in the brain the quantum
fluctuations are self-averaging and thus functionally negligible. This intuition might
be misleading in the case of non-linear complex systems. Because of an extreme
sensitivity to initial conditions, in complex systems the microscopic fluctuations may
be amplified and thereby affect the system's behavior.

In this way quantum dynamics might influence neuronal computations.

Accumulating evidence in non-neuronal systems indicates that biological evolution
is able to exploit quantum stochasticity. The recent rise of quantum biology as an
emerging field at the border between quantum physics and the life sciences
suggests that quantum events could play a non-trivial role also in neuronal cells.

Direct experimental evidence for this is still missing but future research should
address the possibility that quantum events contribute to an extremely high
complexity, variability and computational power of neuronal dynamics.”(38)

Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2005 Jun 29; 360(1458): 1309–1327.

2005 Jun 29. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2004.1598

Quantum physics in neuroscience and psychology: a neurophysical model of mind–

brain interaction

Jeffrey M Schwartz et al

“A principal function of the brain is to receive clues from the environment, to form
an appropriate plan of action and to direct and monitor the activities of the brain
and body specified by the selected plan of action. The exact details of the plan will,
for a classic model, obviously depend upon the exact values of many noisy and
uncontrolled variables.
In cases close to a bifurcation point, the dynamic effects of noise might even tip the
balance between two very different responses to the given clues, for example, tip
the balance between the ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ response to some shadowy form. It is
important to realize that the exact values accounting for what in classic physics
models are called ‘dynamic effects of noise’ are unknowable in principle. The
contemporary physical model accounts for these uncertainties in brain dynamics.

The effect of the independent ‘release’ or ‘do not release’ options at each of the
trigger sites, coupled with the uncertainty in the timing of the vesicle release at
each of the trillions of nerve terminals, will be to cause the quantum mechanical
state of the brain to become a smeared-out cloud of different macroscopic
possibilities, some representing different alternative possible plans of action.

As long as the brain dynamic is controlled wholly by process 2—which is the

quantum generalization of the Newtonian laws of motion of classic physics—all of
the various alternative possible plans of action will exist in parallel, with no one plan
of action singled out as the one that will actually be experienced”(39).

Ann Transl Med. 2019 Oct; 7

doi: 10.21037/atm.2019.09.09

The finer scale of consciousness: quantum theory

Tianwen Li et al

“Originally, the cytoskeleton was proposed as the cell’s nervous system and
biological controller (nanocomputer), which had self-stabilizing logic algorithms
introduced by Hameroff who was inspired by the subtle link between Fröhlich’s
coherent excitations and tubulin subunits in microtubules . He invoked that
microtubules could be the fundamental units involving information processing in our
enigmatic brain , visual identity , learning , cognition , and memory . An
unprecedented collaboration heralded the advent of the Orch-OR theory.
Illuminated by the structure of microtubules, Penrose posited that the microtubules
composed of protein polymers played an essential role in the understanding of
human consciousness from the perspective of quantum mechanics

Microtubules and tubulins, as the elaborate and dynamic three-dimensional

network, are found in almost all eukaryotes and some prokaryotes . Microtubules
are stiff noncovalent polymers of α- and β-tubulin functioning as the cell
cytoskeleton , the spindle during mitosis ) and axonemes of cilia and flagella, playing
dispensable roles in cell support, migration , development , gene regulation and
axoplasmic transport . Because of the particularity of neurons, e.g., nondividing
properties and electrical signal conduction, microtubules have many specific
characteristics. There are many more tubulins for microtubules within neurons than
within somatic cells.

Similar to the initiation of information transmission between neuronal synapses in

traditional neurobiology, after the neurotransmitter binds to the receptor on the
postsynaptic membrane, the activation of ion channel type receptors increases the
intracellular calcium ion concentration. Alternatively, binding to a metabolic
receptor activates a second messenger and subsequent signaling pathways.

Conformational changes, e.g., phosphorylation and dephosphorylation, occur in

microtubules and MAPs due to changes in calcium concentration and activation of
various signaling pathways . These subtle changes caused by neurotransmitters from
synaptic inputs could “orchestrate” tubulin states controlled by dipole couplings
(one kind of intermolecular force), thus leading to microtubule simulation . Tubulin
quantum coherent superpositions and computations are increasingly combined to
augment their superposed mass energy. Once the energy meets the critical
threshold of quantum gravity, self-collapse occurs. That is, at this moment, the
consciousness event occurs (according to Hameroff and Penrose, consciousness is
discrete and independent rather than continuous) (. Notably, under the “warm and
noisy” brain, the information flow of neurotransmitters could prevent random
environmental decoherence from overwhelming unitary evolution (derived from
Schrödinger equation) quantum procedures. The whole orchestration and self-
collapse process could be represented by a function schematic graph .
From the equation E = ℏ/T (ℏ is Planck’s constant divided by 2π, T is time, E is the
energy level that could be represented by the number of tubulins (Nt) in the Orch-
OR theory), we could infer that only when an animal possesses enough microtubules
(or a large enough brain) could it give rise to consciousness in a relatively short and
realizable period of time. In the modern physical field, it was suggested that reality
is composed of 3-dimensional space and 1-dimensional time. As Figure 2 shows,
from the beginning, particulates (microtubules) exist two alternative states in 3-
dimensional space (just like Schrödinger’s cat in the uncertainty principle). With the
orchestration of synaptic inputs over time, once the threshold is met, objective
reduction occurs, and their state is confirmed . Therefore, only one certain state
continued, while the other disappeared. A neuron could accept numerous distinct
neurotransmitters by its dendrites and soma, that is, there must be integration
between different dendritic and somatic microtubules that precipitates dendritic
and somatic microtubules within a neuron to meet this critical point congruously in
case their quantum coherence and computation are chaotic.

Gap junctions, which are not of much concern in ordinary neuroscience research,
are considered to play an important role in quantum tunneling among dendrites in
the macroscopic quantum coherent state, information exchange and mutual
adjustment between neurons (Figure 3).

Then, the axon senses the instantaneous conscious events and fires to convey
outputs to control advanced life intelligence activities and behaviors. In conclusion,
dendritic and somatic microtubules’ tubulins are initially in superposed states.
Synaptic inputs orchestrate these tubulins such that their state tends to be unified,
and total energy increases. Then, the threshold is met, followed by Orch-OR and a
conscious event. All the tubulins and microtubes return to their original state, ready
to accept the next synaptic input (Figure 4). “(40)
Fig. n 26 Orch-OR event. Minor tubulins begin with classical computing (green
tubulins in M1), which leads to quantum coherent superposition and quantum
computing (expanding of green tubulins in M2 and M3). When the critical threshold
of coherence to quantum gravity is met, Orch-OR will occur; thus, the entire
condition of the microtubule returns to the original pattern (M4). The conscious
Orch-OR event occurs in the M3 to M4 transition. The area under the curve
represents superposed mass energy E with self-collapse time T, which is consistent
with the formula of E = ℏ/T. E may be described as Nt, the number of tubulins whose
mass separation (and separation of underlying space time) for time T will self-
collapse. Hameroff posited that T =25 ms (e.g., 40 Hz oscillations), Nt =2×1010
tubulins (69,78). M1, microtubule state 1; M2, microtubule state 2; M3, microtubule
state 3; M4, microtubule state 4. From doi: 10.21037/atm.2019.09.09

Prog Biophys Mol Biol. 2020 Dec doi: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2020.08.002. Epub 2020
Aug 18.

Quantum information theoretic approach to the mind-brain problem

Danko D Georgiev

“The brain is composed of electrically excitable neuronal networks regulated by the

activity of voltage-gated ion channels. Further portraying the molecular composition
of the brain, Will not reveal anything remotely reminiscent of a feeling, a sensation
or a conscious experience. In classical physics, addressing the mind-brain problem is
a formidable task because no physical mechanism is able to explain how the brain
generates the unobservable, inner psychological world of conscious experiences and
how in turn those conscious experiences steer the underlying brain processes
toward desired behavior.
Yet, this setback does not establish that consciousness is non-physical. Modern
quantum physics affirms the interplay between two types of physical entities in
Hilbert space: unobservable quantum states, which are vectors describing what
exists in the physical world, and quantum observables, which are operators
describing what can be observed in quantum measurements. Quantum no-go
theorems further provide a framework for studying quantum brain dynamics,
which has to be governed by a physically admissible Hamiltonian. Comprising
consciousness of unobservable quantum information integrated in quantum brain
states explains the origin of the inner privacy of conscious experiences and revisits
the dynamic timescale of conscious processes to picosecond conformational
transitions of neural biomolecules.

The observable brain is then an objective construction created from classical bits of
information, which are bound by Holevo's theorem, and obtained through the
measurement of quantum brain observables. Thus, quantum information theory
clarifies the distinction between the unobservable mind and the observable brain,
and supports a solid physical foundation for consciousness research”. (41)

Review Int J Psychophysiol. 2016 May;

doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.02.016. Epub 2015 Feb 7.

Quantum neurophysics: From non-living matter to quantum neurobiology and

psychopathology

Sultan Tarlacı , Massimo Pregnolato

“The concepts of quantum brain, quantum mind and quantum consciousness have
been increasingly gaining currency in recent years, both in scientific papers and in
the popular press. In fact, the concept of the quantum brain is a general framework.
Included in it are basically four main sub-headings. These are often incorrectly used
interchangeably. The first of these and the one which started the quantum
mind/consciousness debate was the place of consciousness in the problem of
measurement in quantum mechanics. Debate on the problem of quantum
measurement and about the place of the conscious observer has lasted almost a
century.
One solution to this problem is that the participation of a conscious observer in the
experiment will radically change our understanding of the universe and our
relationship with the outside world. The second topic is that of quantum biology.
This topic has become a popular field of research, especially in the last decade. It
concerns whether or not the rules of quantum physics operate in biological
structures. It has been shown in the latest research on photosynthesis, the sense
of smell and magnetic direction finding in animals that the laws of quantum
physics may operate in warm-wet-noisy biological structures. The third sub-
heading is quantum neurobiology. This topic has not yet gained wide acceptance
and is still in its early stages. Its primary purpose is directed to understand whether
the laws of quantum physics are effective in the biology of the nervous system or
not.

A further step in brain neurobiology, toward the understanding of consciousness

formation, is the research of quantum laws effects upon neural network functions.
The fourth and final topic is quantum psychopathology. This topic takes its basis and
its support from quantum neurobiology. It comes from the idea that if quantum
physics is involved in the normal working of the brain, diseased conditions of the
brain such as depression, anxiety, dementia, schizophrenia and hallucinations can be
explained by quantum physical pathology. In this article, these topics will be
reviewed in a general framework, and for the first time a general classification will
be made for the quantum brain theory.”(42)

CHAPTHER 5 Discussion

According to Hameroff and Penrose, consciousness is discrete and independent

rather than continuous) (40)

Every human lives in the universe follow the same physiscal law.

Because science have already recognized quantic model in phisical chemistry it is

possible to say that all system follow this rules.
And the real world follow a quantic model as showed by chemico-physical
principles.

Energies follow quantized level form one status to one other , see atomic model of
electronic orbitals.

So it is so strange to think that this mechanism is not only involved in brain

functionality but also in the mind process?

And if we find similarity in this 2 entity ( dualsim body- mind) can we conclude that
are one same face of a two face medals?

All reported literature is usefull to better study this paradox : physical brain property
and psycological aspects.

Thsi two apparent different entity seem to show some equal characteristics like the
kinetics of saturation when applied high level os stimuly: there is a saturation of the
system.

What kind of consideration can we obtain using this paradox ?

CHAPTHER 6 Conclusion

Every system in this world follow chemico phisical law about quantic level of energy

So every body must follow this because built with the same atomic an molecular
units.

Brain is not outside this world but the mind?

The fact that some characteristics of thsi two entities follow the same kinetics
process of saturation related high level of stimuly seem to tell us that this 2
concepts are linekd in striclty way.
The fact that there are various thereshold of activation in different structure after
deterinate stimuli give the explaination about the modality of work of the brain
system, but aslo thereshold are present in human psycology to react versus
stressant stimully.

It is opinion of the author of this work it must to be more deeply investigate the
saturation of some process in the body- mind structure .

Neuroscience must include neurology, psychiatry and psycology science in one

disciple multicomprensive under a chemico-phisycal point of wiev.

The quantum brain.

Conflict of interest : no

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