Resumen

MARTINEZ-MORGA, Marta; GARRIGOS, Daniel  y  MARTINEZ, Salvador. The brain. An analogic machine with quantum functioning?. Medicina (B. Aires) [online]. 2022, vol.82, suppl.1, pp.2-5. ISSN 0025-7680.

Modern neuroscience addresses the problem of the global functioning of the brain in order to understand the neurobiological processes that underlie mental functions, and especially, consciousness. Brain activity is based on the exchange of infor mation between neurons through contacts or synapses. Neurons form networks of connection between them (circuits), which are dedicated to processing a specific type of information (visual, auditory, motor…). The circuits establish networks among themselves, combining different modalities of information to generate what we know as mental activity. The study of connections between cortical regions, which has been called connectome, is being approached through neuroimaging techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance that provide data on the density of connections in the brain. The brain’s ability to create new connections based on experience (brain plasticity) suggests that the connectome is a dynamic structure in constant interaction with external and internal stimuli. The question about whether knowledge of an individual’s connectome would allow us to predict his or her behavior seems to have no clear answer yet, because we do not know the physical parameters that link the complexity of the brain’s connections with the appearance of mental functions and consciousness. At the moment, it seems that the complex and unpredictable behavior is not the simple result of linear processes of neuronal interaction. Uncertainty prevails over determinism, which opens the door to the possibility of a quantum mechanism to explain consciousness.

Palabras clave : Neural networks; Quantum neurobiology; Quantum mind; Quantum connectome.

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