FW - electromagnetic field theory of consciousness.

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http://unisci.com/stories/20022/0516026.htm

 

Our Conscious Mind Could Be An Electromagnetic Field

Are our thoughts made of the distributed kind of electromagnetic

field that permeates space and carries the broadcast signal to

the TV or radio.

 

Professor Johnjoe McFadden from the School of Biomedical and

Life Sciences at the University of Surrey in the UK believes our

conscious mind could be an electromagnetic field.

 

" The theory solves many previously intractable problems of

consciousness and could have profound implications for our

concepts of mind, free will, spirituality, the design of artificial

intelligence, and even life and death, " he said.

 

Most people consider " mind " to be all the conscious things that

we are aware of. But much, if not most, mental activity goes on

without awareness. Actions such as walking, changing gear in

your car or peddling a bicycle can become as automatic as

breathing.

 

The biggest puzzle in neuroscience is how the brain activity that

we're aware of (consciousness) differs from the brain activity

driving all of those unconscious actions.

 

When we see an object, signals from our retina travel along

nerves as waves of electrically charged ions. When they reach

the nerve terminus, the signal jumps to the next nerve via

chemical neurotransmitters. The receiving nerve decides

whether or not it will fire, based on the number of firing votes it

receives from its upstream nerves.

 

In this way, electrical signals are processed in our brain before

being transmitted to our body. But where, in all this movement of

ions and chemicals, is consciousness? Scientists can find no

region or structure in the brain that specializes in conscious

thinking. Consciousness remains a mystery.

 

" Consciousness is what makes us 'human,' Professor

McFadden said. " Language, creativity, emotions, spirituality,

logical deduction, mental arithmetic, our sense of fairness, truth,

ethics, are all inconceivable without consciousness. " But what's

it made of?

 

One of the fundamental questions of consciousness, known as

the binding problem, can be explained by looking at a tree. Most

people, when asked how many leaves they see, will answer

" thousands. " But neurobiology tells us that the information (all

the leaves) is dissected and scattered among millions of widely

separated neurones.

 

Scientists are trying to explain where in the brain all those leaves

are stuck together to form the conscious impression of a whole

tree. How does our brain bind information to generate

consciousness?

 

What Professor McFadden realized was that every time a nerve

fires, the electrical activity sends a signal to the brain's

electromagnetic (em) field. But unlike solitary nerve signals,

information that reaches the brain's em field is automatically

bound together with all the other signals in the brain. The brain's

em field does the binding that is characteristic of

consciousness.

 

What Professor McFadden and, independently, the New

Zealand-based neurobiologist Sue Pockett, have proposed is

that the brain's em field is consciousness.

 

The brain's electromagnetic field is not just an information sink;

it can influence our actions, pushing some neurons towards

firing and others away from firing. This influence, Professor

McFadden proposes, is the physical manifestation of our

conscious will.

 

The theory explains many of the peculiar features of

consciousness, such as its involvement in the learning process.

 

Anyone learning to drive a car will have experienced how the first

(very conscious) fumblings are transformed through constant

practice into automatic actions.

 

The neural networks driving those first uncertain fumblings are

precisely where we would expect to find nerves in the undecided

state when a small nudge from the brain's em field can topple

them towards or away from firing. The field will " fine tune " the

neural pathway towards the desired goal.

 

But neurons are connected so that when they fire together, they

wire together, to form stronger connections. After practice, the

influence of the field will become dispensable. The activity will be

learnt and may thereafter be performed unconsciously.

 

One of the objections to an electromagnetic field theory of

consciousness is, if our minds are electromagnetic, then why

don't we pass out when we walk under an electrical cable or any

other source of external electromagnetic fields? The answer is

that our skin, skull and cerebrospinal fluid shield us from

external electric fields.

 

" The conscious electromagnetic information field is, at present,

still a theory. But if true, there are many fascinating implications

for the concept of free will, the nature of creativity or spirituality,

consciousness in animals and even the significance of life and

death.

 

" The theory explains why conscious actions feel so different from

unconscious ones -- it is because they plug into the vast pool of

information held in the brain's electromagnetic field, " Professor

McFadden concluded.

 

The University of Surrey is one of the UK's leading professional,

scientific and technological universities with a world class

research profile and a reputation for excellence in teaching and

research.

 

(Reference: The paper " Synchronous firing and its influence on

the brain's electromagnetic field: evidence for an

electromagnetic field theory of consciousness " by Johnjoe

McFadden is published in the current edition of the Journal of

Consciousness Studies, along with a commentary by Dr. Susan

Pockett.)

 

16-May-2002