Interpreting the mind in sleep and consciousness

Our brain has billions of nerve cells, or neurons, that oscillate while transferring information. The rate of oscillation is different when the person is aware, or conscious, and when he is in deep sleep. The oscillation when the person is conscious, both when awake or in Rapid Eye Motion (REM) sleep, is referred to as gamma rhythm. It has been observed that the duration of a gamma rhythm is close to 10-14 milliseconds. This is known as quanta of time in the brain.

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There is another scale or quanta of time in quantum physics known as Planck time. It is the smallest unit in time in the physical universe and has been fixed at 1.35 x 10^(-43) seconds. The concept of time, space or causality breaks down beyond this scale. Planck’s time is determined by some fundamental universal constants like speed of light (c), gravitational constant (G), and Planck’s constant (h).

We realised that the ratio of the gamma rhythm in the brain (10-14) x 10^(-3) seconds and Planck’s time (1.35 x 10^(-43) seconds) is of the order of 10^40. This finding is very interesting. The ratio of 10^40 is a very special ratio and is called Dirac’s large number after Paul Dirac who noticed it first. It appears surprisingly frequently in the ratio of many other related physical quantities at the microscopic and macroscopic levels.

For example, ratio of electromagnetic and gravitational force between two electrons is of the same order. There are many others.

Scientists believe that this is not coincidental but indicative of the harmony that exists between some basic, fundamental physical constants as we know them. What we noticed indicates a relationship between the conscious state of the brain and smallest scale of time in a similar way. Since Planck’s time is dependent on universal constants like G, c and h, it can be inferred that the gamma oscillations would also have a relationship with these constants.

The implications of these findings can be far-reaching. What we are saying is that human consciousness can be expressed in physical quantities like the speed of light, gravitational force or something else.

If we think about the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence in another universe with a different tuning of these fundamental constants, the rhythmic oscillations of the brain will be different from gamma oscillation. We can imagine that a mathematical equation can be worked out in the future linking the two. Ours is just a hypothesis right now. But this ratio between gamma oscillations and Planck’s time has not been noticed yet. It opens up exciting possibilities in the study of human consciousness.

For your research to be considered for this column, please write to Senior Editor Amitabh Sinha, who curates this column, at amitabh.sinha@expressindia.com