A new variant of the electromagnetic field theory of consciousness: approaches to empirical confirmation

" With regard to the physical character of the EM field of consciousness that I postulate, I suggest that the integrative electromagnetic field effect does not take place via waves in the sense of electromagnetic radiation, but via the basic phenomena of electromagnetic interaction: the Coulomb force, the electrostatic influence based on it, the magnetic influence with moving ions, and finally the induction force with moving magnetic fields." {Credits 1}

" ... both electroneutral dispersion as well as excessive electrical homogeneous contrasting of ions result in a loss of information—and thus a loss of consciousness. Non-REM deep sleep/coma and generalized seizures can therefore not be experienced; only the pre- and post-phases are experienced. So what characterizes the electrical states of the brain during experience and dreaming (REM sleep)? Put simply, the electrical charge carriers must form a dynamic of diverse but (spatially) integrated complex patterns that lie between the extremes of homogeneous contrast and diffuse dispersion." {Credits 1}

" If we now consider both the information effect through dynamic electrical potential differences and the integration effect through field effects in accordance with EM field theories, the following seemingly bold statement can be made: All possible qualia are potentially contained in the fundamental force of electromagnetic interaction. The capacity for consciousness or experience is therefore another basic property of electromagnetism." {Credits 1}

" EM field theories of consciousness are a promising approach to solving the mind–body problem. The binding properties of the EM field unify the various neuronal information differences originating from different sensory and cognitive processes that are distant from each other in the cortex. McFadden metaphorically postulated a “mind–energy-dualism,” in which energy refers to the “immaterial” extension of the EM field (13). This should explain a certain autonomy for free will. In the variant of EM field theory postulated here, the epineural field is not located in an “electromagnetic wave cloud”: Due to the fact that the binding component of the field is not assumed to occur in an interaction of electromagnetic waves in the meaning of radiation (Hertzian waves), but predominantly in the area of “virtual photons,” which play the decisive role in the Coulomb force through to electromagnetic induction, the electrical charge carriers remain more “materially” involved as polar core components of the informative differentiations. The EM field is not “free” in a cloud but arises from the narrower electrostatic and electrodynamic effects within the folded “electrolyte carpet” of the cerebral cortex. This EM field theory of consciousness emphasizes precisely these peculiarities, which can be derived from the cerebral wetware (a term coined by the novelist Rudi (50)): A three-dimensional field of hydrated ions whose electromagnetic effects arise from the dynamics of a complex gradient formation on membranes. I therefore call this variant within the EM field theories of consciousness the Electromagnetic Ion Field Theory of Consciousness (EIFT), as it takes particular account of the ions, whose gradients, as already mentioned, act as informative differentiation components: “the difference that makes a difference.”" {Credits 1}

{Credits 1} 🎪 trupp W (2024) A new variant of the electromagnetic field theory of consciousness: approaches to empirical confirmation. Front. Neurol. 15:1420676. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1420676. © 2024 The Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.