Discovery of Quantum Vibrations in “Microtubules” In side Brain Neurons Corroborates Controversial 20-Year-Old Theory of Consciousness

And you can use the quackery term of quantum and ask your doctor what the hell this means to your recovery. You can probably use that quantum communication to get neighboring neurons to neuroplastically work together. Your doctor should know how to be able to direct those communications so neuroplasticity works faster.  You're not ROFL yet?, you will as soon as your doctor opens his/her mouth.
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=138087&CultureCode=en
A review and update of a controversial 20-year-old theory of consciousness published in Physics of Life Reviews claims that consciousness derives from deeper level, finer scale activities inside brain neurons. The recent discovery of quantum vibrations in “microtubules” inside brain neurons corroborates this theory, according to review authors Stuart Hameroff and Sir Roger Penrose. They suggest that EEG rhythms (brain waves) also derive from deeper level microtubule vibrations, and that from a practical standpoint, treating brain microtubule vibrations could benefit a host of mental, neurological, and cognitive conditions.

The theory, called “orchestrated objective reduction” ('Orch OR'), was first put forward in the mid-1990s by eminent mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose, FRS, Mathematical Institute and Wadham College, University of Oxford, and prominent anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff, MD, Anesthesiology, Psychology and Center for Consciousness Studies, The University of Arizona, Tucson. They suggested that quantum vibrational computations in microtubules were “orchestrated” (“Orch”) by synaptic inputs and memory stored in microtubules, and terminated by Penrose “objective reduction” ('OR'), hence “Orch OR.” Microtubules are major components of the cell structural skeleton.

Orch OR was harshly criticized from its inception, as the brain was considered too “warm, wet, and noisy” for seemingly delicate quantum processes.. However, evidence has now shown warm quantum coherence in plant photosynthesis, bird brain navigation, our sense of smell, and brain microtubules. The recent discovery of warm temperature quantum vibrations in microtubules inside brain neurons by the research group led by Anirban Bandyopadhyay, PhD, at the National Institute of Material Sciences in Tsukuba, Japan (and now at MIT), corroborates the pair’s theory and suggests that EEG rhythms also derive from deeper level microtubule vibrations. In addition, work from the laboratory of Roderick G. Eckenhoff, MD, at the University of Pennsylvania, suggests that anesthesia, which selectively erases consciousness while sparing non-conscious brain activities, acts via microtubules in brain neurons.

“The origin of consciousness reflects our place in the universe, the nature of our existence. Did consciousness evolve from complex computations among brain neurons, as most scientists assert? Or has consciousness, in some sense, been here all along, as spiritual approaches maintain?” ask Hameroff and Penrose in the current review. “This opens a potential Pandora’s Box, but our theory accommodates both these views, suggesting consciousness derives from quantum vibrations in microtubules, protein polymers inside brain neurons, which both govern neuronal and synaptic function, and connect brain processes to self-organizing processes in the fine scale, 'proto-conscious' quantum structure of reality.”

After 20 years of skeptical criticism, “the evidence now clearly supports Orch OR,” continue Hameroff and Penrose. “Our new paper updates the evidence, clarifies Orch OR quantum bits, or “qubits,” as helical pathways in microtubule lattices, rebuts critics, and reviews 20 testable predictions of Orch OR published in 1998 – of these, six are confirmed and none refuted.”

An important new facet of the theory is introduced. Microtubule quantum vibrations (e.g. in megahertz) appear to interfere and produce much slower EEG “beat frequencies.” Despite a century of clinical use, the underlying origins of EEG rhythms have remained a mystery. Clinical trials of brief brain stimulation aimed at microtubule resonances with megahertz mechanical vibrations using transcranial ultrasound have shown reported improvements in mood, and may prove useful against Alzheimer's disease and brain injury in the future.

Lead author Stuart Hameroff concludes, "Orch OR is the most rigorous, comprehensive and successfully-tested theory of consciousness ever put forth. From a practical standpoint, treating brain microtubule vibrations could benefit a host of mental, neurological, and cognitive conditions."

The review is accompanied by eight commentaries from outside authorities, including an Australian group of Orch OR arch-skeptics. To all, Hameroff and Penrose respond robustly.

Penrose, Hameroff and Bandyopadhyay will explore their theories during a session on “Microtubules and the Big Consciousness Debate” at the Brainstorm Sessions, a public three-day event at the Brakke Grond in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, January 16-18, 2014. They will engage skeptics in a debate on the nature of consciousness, and Bandyopadhyay and his team will couple microtubule vibrations from active neurons to play Indian musical instruments. “Consciousness depends on anharmonic vibrations of microtubules inside neurons, similar to certain kinds of Indian music, but unlike Western music which is harmonic,” Hameroff explains.

A Theoretically Based Index of Consciousness Independent of Sensory Processing and Behavior

Sounds useful for determining stroke patients consciousness.
An article describing it here;

Brain Shaking Technique - strong magnetic stimulation - Offers Measure of Consciousness

The abstract here; 

http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/5/198/198ra105 

1. Adenauer G. Casali¹,*,^†,
2. Olivia Gosseries²,*,
3. Mario Rosanova¹,
4. Mélanie Boly²,‡,
5. Simone Sarasso¹,
6. Karina R. Casali¹,³,
7. Silvia Casarotto¹,
8. Marie-Aurélie Bruno²,
9. Steven Laureys²,
10. Giulio Tononi⁴ and
11. Marcello Massimini¹,⁵,§

+ Author Affiliations

1. ¹Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences ‘Luigi Sacco’, University of Milan, 20157 Milan, Italy.
2. ²Coma Science Group, Cyclotron Research Centre and Neurology Department, University and University Hospital of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium.
3. ³Institute of Science and Technology, Federal University of São Paulo, 12231-280 São José dos Campos, Brazil.
4. ⁴Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53719, USA.
5. ⁵Istituto Di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi, 20148 Milan, Italy.

+ Author Notes

• ↵* These authors contributed equally to this work.
• ↵† Present address: Faculty of Medicine Clinics Hospital, University of São Paulo, 05403-000 São Paulo, Brazil.
• ↵‡ Present address: Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53719, USA.

1. ↵§Corresponding author. E-mail: marcello.massimini@unimi.it

Abstract

One challenging aspect of the clinical assessment of brain-injured, unresponsive patients is the lack of an objective measure of consciousness that is independent of the subject’s ability to interact with the external environment. Theoretical considerations suggest that consciousness depends on the brain’s ability to support complex activity patterns that are, at once, distributed among interacting cortical areas (integrated) and differentiated in space and time (information-rich). We introduce and test a theory-driven index of the level of consciousness called the perturbational complexity index (PCI). PCI is calculated by (i) perturbing the cortex with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to engage distributed interactions in the brain (integration) and (ii) compressing the spatiotemporal pattern of these electrocortical responses to measure their algorithmic complexity (information). We test PCI on a large data set of TMS-evoked potentials recorded in healthy subjects during wakefulness, dreaming, nonrapid eye movement sleep, and different levels of sedation induced by anesthetic agents (midazolam, xenon, and propofol), as well as in patients who had emerged from coma (vegetative state, minimally conscious state, and locked-in syndrome). PCI reliably discriminated the level of consciousness in single individuals during wakefulness, sleep, and anesthesia, as well as in patients who had emerged from coma and recovered a minimal level of consciousness. PCI can potentially be used for objective determination of the level of consciousness at the bedside.