Found : Orchestrated Objective Reduction of Quantum Coherence in Brain Microtubules: The "Orch OR" Model for Consciousness

Current neurophysiological explanations of consciousness suggest that it is a manifestation of emergent firing patterns of neuronal groups involved in either a) specific networks (e.g. Hebb, 1949, 1980; Freeman, 1975;1978), coherent 40-80 Hz firing (e.g. von der Marlsburg and Schneider, 1986; Gray and Singer, 1989; Crick and Koch, 1990) and/or attentional scanning circuits (e.g. Crick, 1984; Edelman, 1989; Baars, 1988;1993). But even precise correlation of neuronal firing patterns with cognitive activities fails to address perplexing differences between mind and brain including the "hard problem"of the nature of our inner experience (e.g. Chalmers, this Volume). In this paper we apply certain aspects of quantum theory (quantum coherence) and a new physical phenomenon described in Penrose (1994) of wave function self-collapse (objective reduction: OR) to specific, essential structures within each neuron: cytoskeletal microtubules.