Holonomic brain theory is a branch of neuroscience investigating the idea that human consciousness is formed by quantum effects in or between brain cells. Holonomic refers to representations in a Hilbert phase space defined by both spectral and space-time coordinates.[1] Holonomic brain theory is opposed[citation needed] by traditional neuroscience, which investigates the brain's behavior by looking at patterns of neurons and the surrounding chemistry.
This specific theory of quantum consciousness was developed by neuroscientist Karl Pribram initially in collaboration with physicist David Bohm building on the initial theories of holograms originally formulated by Dennis Gabor. It describes human cognition by modeling the brain as a holographic storage network.[2][3] Pribram suggests these processes involve electric oscillations in the brain's fine-fibered dendritic webs, which are different from the more commonly known action potentials involving axons and synapses.[4][5][6] These oscillations are waves and create wave interference patterns in which memory is encoded naturally, and the wave function may be analyzed by a Fourier transform.[4][5][6][7][8]
Gabor, Pribram and others noted the similarities between these brain processes and the storage of information in a hologram, which can also be analyzed with a Fourier transform.[2][9] In a hologram, any part of the hologram with sufficient size contains the whole of the stored information. In this theory, a piece of a long-term memory is similarly distributed over a dendritic arbor so that each part of the dendritic network contains all the information stored over the entire network.[2][9][10] This model allows for important aspects of human consciousness, including the fast associative memory that allows for connections between different pieces of stored information and the non-locality of memory storage (a specific memory is not stored in a specific location, i.e. a certain cluster of neurons).[2][11][12]
- ^ Pribram, Karl (1991). Brain and Perception: Holonomy and Structure in Figural Processing. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. ISBN 0-89859-995-4.
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Vandervertwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Berger D.H., Pribram K.H. (1992). "The Relationship between the Gabor elementary function and a stochastic model of the inter-spike interval distribution in the responses of the visual cortex neurons". Biological Cybernetics. 67 (2): 191–194. doi:10.1007/bf00201026. PMID 1320946. S2CID 11123748.
- ^ Pribram K.H. (2004). "Consciousness Reassessed". Mind and Matter. 2: 7–35.
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Bokkonwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Gabor D (1968). "Holographic Model of Temporal Recall". Nature. 217 (5128): 584. Bibcode:1968Natur.217..584G. doi:10.1038/217584a0. PMID 5641120. S2CID 4147927.