A New Experiment Links Quantum-Capable Structures in Our Bodies to Consciousness

A new study designed to test the microscopic structures within our cells that appear to support quantum processes has discovered that this intricate network of complex molecules might be a key component in our capacity to be conscious—hinting that these quantum-capable structures might be the very mechanism that is enabling consciousness itself.

In physicist Roger Penrose and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff’s theory of quantum consciousness, ‘orchestrated objective reduction’ (‘Orch OR’), “consciousness arises from quantum vibrations in protein polymers called microtubules inside the brain’s neurons, vibrations which interfere, ‘collapse’ and resonate across scale, control neuronal firings, generate consciousness, and connect ultimately to ‘deeper order’ ripples in spacetime geometry,” according to Hameroff. “Consciousness is more like music than computation.”

It is these microtubules that are the subject of a recent experiment that was conducted by Wellesley College neuroscience professor Mike Wiest and a team of undergraduate students, based on a common problem faced by anesthesiologists: it is more difficult to put cancer patients that are receiving chemotherapy that includes microtubule-stabilizing drugs are harder to put under for surgery.

With the goal of determining whether or not the it is the microtubules being affected by the anesthetic, Wiest conducted an experiment using test rats that were injected with a drug called epothilone B (epoB), a cancer drug that prevents cancer cells from dividing by stabilizing the microtubules that make up the cells’ cytoskeletons, the network of proteins that give the cell its shape.

The rats, along with an untreated control group, were then exposed to an anesthetic gas called isoflurane to render them unconscious. The team found that the rats pre-treated with the epoB injections took substantially longer than the control group to fall asleep, suggesting that stabilizing their microtubules allowed the animals to maintain consciousness longer.

Numerous experiments have already established that microtubules are capable of stabilizing quantum states, with one study demonstrating that they can maintain the coherence of biophotons, and another suggesting that microtubules may also facilitate extremely fast communication within neurons themselves through a quantum effect called “superradiance”. But do these quantum-stabilizing qualities lend themselves to the phenomenon of consciousness itself?

“Since we don’t know of another (i.e,. classical) way that anesthetic binding to microtubules would generally reduce brain activity and cause unconsciousness, this finding supports the quantum model of consciousness,” Wiest points out. He also stresses that the debate regarding the role of classical versus quantum physics in consciousness is of great significance.

“When it becomes accepted that the mind is a quantum phenomenon, we will have entered a new era in our understanding of what we are,” Wiest asserts, adding that this new approach “would lead to improved understanding of how anesthesia works, and it would shape our thinking about a wide variety of related questions, such as whether coma patients or non-human animals are conscious, how mysterious drugs like lithium modulate conscious experience to stabilize mood, how diseases like Alzheimer’s or schizophrenia affect perception and memory, and so on.”

Wiest adds that, aside from the medical implications of quantum consciousness, a non-local theory of consciousness “gives us a world picture in which we can be connected to the universe in a more natural and holistic way.”