English

Derivation of a Schr\"{o}dinger Equation for Single Neurons Through Stochastic Neural Dynamics

Neurons and Cognition 2024-08-22 v2 Quantum Physics

Abstract

Despite the prevalent view that quantum mechanics is irrelevant to macroscopic biological systems because of inherent noise and decoherence, this paper demonstrates that the electrical noise (Brownian motion) in neuron membranes gives rise to an `emergent' Schr\"{o}dinger equation involving a new neuronal constant ^\hat{\hbar}, fundamentally challenging the standard view of neuronal behaviour. This result could provide new insights into the underlying mechanisms of brain function, thus challenging existing paradigms in both quantum physics and neuroscience. A possible empirical test of this emergent quantum behaviour would be to look for quantum fluctuations in subthreshold neural oscillations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2406.16991,
  title  = {Derivation of a Schr\"{o}dinger Equation for Single Neurons Through Stochastic Neural Dynamics},
  author = {Partha Ghose},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.16991},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

12 pages, 5 figures; title and abstract revised; manuscript expanded with explanatory statements and figures and some new results, keeping the original claim intact