Unconscious Emotional Information Processing: Theoretical Consequences and Practical Applications

The nature of unconscious human emotional information processing remains a great mystery. On the one hand, classical models view human conscious emotional information processing as computation among the brain’s neurons but fail to address its enigmatic features. On the other hand, quantum processes (superposition of states, nonlocality, and entanglement) also remain mysterious, yet are being harnessed in revolutionary information technologies like quantum computation, quantum cryptography, and quantum teleportation. In this paper, a behavioraland two neuroimaging studies will be discussed that suggest a special role for unconscious emotional information processing in human interaction with other objects. Since this is a new research field; we are only beginning to understand quantum information processing in the human brain (Hameroff, 2006; Van den Noort and Bosch, 2006). This research is important since it could have important theoretical consequences in the way we understand physics and information processing in the brain. Moreover, it could lead to new information technologies and applications. For instance, it might give new insights on human consumer behavior (Dijksterhuis, 2004; Dijksterhuis, Bos, Nordgren, and Van Baaren, 2006a; 2006b), and lead to new commercial strategies for multinationals. 1 QUANTUM INFORMATION THEORY From the beginning of quantum mechanics, the concept of measurement and the possible role of consciousness in the solution to the measurement problem have been important topics (e.g. Wigner, 1962). Despite of these unsolved issues (Penrose, 2005), quantum theory has further developed. At the quantum level (e.g. atomic and subatomic scales), the laws of physics differ strangely from our everyday “classical” world (Van den Noort, Hugdahl, and Bosch, 2005b). Quantum theory describes the bizarre properties of matter and energy at near-atomic scales. Quantum particles (1) can interconnect nonlocally and correlate instantaneously over distance (quantum entanglement, long-range dipole correlations), (2) can unify into single entities (quantum coherence, condensation), and furthermore (3) can behave as waves and exist in two or more states or locations simultaneously (quantum superposition). When superpositioned particles are measured or observed, they immediately reduce to single, definite states or locations, known as quantum state reduction or “collapse of the wave function. ” Superposition and quantum state reduction are used in quantum computers in which information (e.g. bits of 1 or 0) may be temporarily represented as quantum information (e.g. quantum bits, or qubits, of both 1 and 0), which reduces to classical information as output (Hameroff, 2006; Woolf and Hameroff, 2001). According to some scientists, all quantum properties can be applied to the seemingly inexplicable features of consciousness. First, quantum coherence (e.g. Bose-Einstein condensation) is a possible physical basis for 207 van den Noort M. , Hugdahl K. and Bosch P. (2007). UNCONSCIOUS EMOTIONAL INFORMATION PROCESSING: THEORETICAL CONSEQUENCES AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems HCI, pages 207-214 DOI: 10.5220/0002355602070214 Copyright c © SciTePress ‘binding’ or unity of consciousness (Marshall, 1989). Second, non-local entanglements (e.g. ‘Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlations’) serve as a potential basis for associative memory and non-local emotional interpersonal connection. Third, quantum superposition of information provides a basis for preconscious and subconscious processes, dreams and altered states. Finally, the transition from preconscious processes to consciousness involves quantum state reduction/wave function collapse in the brain (Penrose, 1994; Stapp, 1993). In the Orchestrated Objective Reduction (Orch OR) model, quantum computation occurs in microtubules within the brain’s neurons. Microtubules are polymers of the protein tubulin which, in the Orch OR model, transiently exist in quantum superposition of two or more conformational states. Following periods of preconscious quantum computation (e.g. on the order of tens to hundreds of milliseconds) tubulin superpositions reduce or ‘self-collapse’ at an objective threshold due to a quantum gravity mechanism proposed by Penrose (1994). Microtubule-associated protein (MAP-2) connections provide input during classical phases. Each Orch OR quantum computation determines classical output states of tubulin, which govern neurophysiological events, such as initiating spikes at the axon hillock, regulating synaptic strengths, forming new MAP-2 attachment sites and gapjunction connections, and establishing starting conditions for the next conscious event (Hameroff, 1998; Hameroff and Penrose, 1996; Penrose and Hameroff, 1995). However, most cognitiveand neuroscientists are skeptical and there is an interesting discussion going on between physicists and cognitive neuroscientists (Van den Noort and Bosch, 2006). How can presumably delicate quantum states operate macroscopically at warm brain temperatures (Tegmark, 2000)? How could the human brain process information in a non-linear way? This appears to be in huge contrast to our experiences in daily life, in which time is experienced as being completely linear (Van den Noort et al., 2005b)! In this paper, data of a behavioral study and two neuroimaging studies on the processing of positive and negative emotional pictures will be presented that support the quantum information theory of unconscious human emotional information processing. Before discussing this more into detail, we would like to briefly discuss some of the main findings on human emotional information processing. 2 HUMAN EMOTIONAL INFORMATION PROCESSING From cognitive neuroscience it is known that emotional stimuli are first processed via an automatically engaged neural mechanism, which occurs outside conscious awareness. This mechanism, which was proven in neuroimaging studies, operates in conjunction with a slower and more comprehensive process that allows a detailed evaluation of the potentially harmful stimulus (LeDoux, 1996). Event-related potential (ERP) data revealed a double dissociation for the conscious versus unconscious perception of negative stimuli. In the unconscious condition, responses to the perception of negative stimuli were enhanced relative to neutral for the N2 “excitatory” component (a negative potential at +/-200 milliseconds), which is thought to represent orienting and automatic aspects of information processing. By contrast, conscious perception of negative stimuli was associated with relatively enhanced responses for the late P3 “inhibitory” component (a positive potential at +/-300 milliseconds), implicated in the integration of emotional processes (Liddell, Williams, Rathjen, Shevrin, and Gordon, 2004). From recent functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies, it is known that unconscious processing of fear may occur via a direct rostral-ventral amygdala pathway; whereas elaboration of consciously attended signals of fear may rely on higher-order processing within a dorsal cortico-amygdala pathway (e.g. Williams et al., 2006). Previous social cognition studies have shown that a great deal of human emotional information processing is rooted in unconscious processes (Bargh, Chaiken, Raymond, and Hymes, 1996; Van den Noort, 2003). During the last two decades, several behavioral studies were conducted in this field. These studies, for example, have shown that humans pick up the emotional content of facial expressions outside conscious awareness (e.g. Murphy and Zajonc, 1993; Niedenthal, 1990). Other studies have shown that humans evaluate objects (as for example “good” or “bad”) at an unconscious level (e.g. Bargh, Chaiken, Govender, and Pratto, 1992; Bargh et al., 1996; Chen and Bargh, 1999). As a result, this has far reaching behavioral consequences since our unconscious evaluation, for instance, influences our consumer behavior (Van den Noort, 2003). There are two main theories on where emotional information is processed in the brain (Hellige, 1993). The right hemisphere theory (Borod, Kent, Koff, ICEIS 2007 International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems