SPINTRONICS IN NEUROSCIENCE
presented at the Summer Symposium:
Neuroscience Needs a Revolution to Understand Consciousness
hosted by California Institute for Human Science and the
Center for Consciousness Studies, University of Arizona
August 18-20, 2023 Encinitas, California
Spintronics in neuroscience
Luca Turin
University Buckingham, Buckingham, UK, United Kingdom
Categories by Discipline
4.0 Physical and Biological Sciences
Primary Topic Area – TSC Taxonomy
[04.14]……..Quantum theories of consciousness
Abstract
Aside from being arguably the most important discovery in all of pharmacology, general anesthesia is one of the few clues we have to consciousness. 170 years after their accidental discovery we still do not have a full understanding of how general anesthetics work. In recent years the focus has shifted to mitochondria, and in particular to Complex I as a site where anesthetics act. Mitochondria carry large electron currents (50A in the human brain) and this current gives spin signals, both in radiofrequency absorption and emission, which can be measured noninvasively. It is now also clear that biological electron currents are spin polarised. This is crucial to cellular respiration. We have recently shown that anesthetics perturb spin polarization. I will discuss some possible implications of these findings for brain function.
Keywords
anesthetics, mitochondria, spin signals, radio frequency absorption and emission, spin polarised, cellular respiration, spin polarization
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