Classical Left Brain, Quantum Right Brain?
By: Jay Alfred
Tags: Neuroscience, Quantum Computing, Brain, Logic, Reality

Classical processing in the left brain-Quantum processing in the right brain?

Researchers have found that not only do the left and right cortices of the human brain process sensory information very differently, but they also generate different realities.

Does the Brain Operate as a Computer?

Experiments on split brain patients show that the right and left brains (more specifically the right and left cerebral cortices) process incoming information very differently, and this is reflected in the physical organization of the neurons. The left brain has a greater density of cells than the right, and more importantly, there is more grey matter relative to white. This suggests that the organization of the left brain emphasizes processing within regions while the right brain emphasizes processing across regions.

What we are interested in primarily is the distinct groups of neurons that process incoming information differently, their locations in the brain are secondary. Due to the well-known plasticity of the brain, they could be distributed or configured differently in different individuals in the population. Nevertheless, these descriptions of right and left brains are useful because they do reflect the general architecture and functionalities of most normal human brains in the population.

In this context, we can ask the question: Does the brain operate as a computer. The general consensus today is ‘No’. But this begs the first question — specifically what type of computer are we comparing the brain to? A dumb terminal mechanically executing a programme, a standard computer with machine or deep learning capabilities, a 10-qubit quantum computer, or a 100-qubit quantum computer (the list goes on)? We need to be more precise!

The second question: Which part of the brain are we talking about? While most of the brain may be operating otherwise, is it not possible for certain components of the brain to operate like a standard classical computer? In fact, this is what Professor Randall O’Reilly of the University of Colorado at Boulder and his team discovered.

Left Brain’s ‘Either-Or’ Logic

Standard computers operate by turning electrical signals into binary “on and off states” and using switches to control these states. The same operating principles have now been found in the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia of the human brain. The researchers conclude that there are neurons in the prefrontal cortex that have two states, either active or inactive, and the basal ganglia functions like a switch that the brain uses to turn on or off different regions of the prefrontal cortex — effectively operating as logic gates. This is similar to what Andrew Newberg and the late Dr. Eugene D’Aquili, both of the University of Pennsylvania, had also identified as ‘binary operators’ in the brain.

Using fMRI brain imaging studies, O’ Reilly and his team, also noted that simple mathematical operations like addition and subtraction activated the left inferior parietal lobe, left precentral gyrus, left superior parietal lobe, left supramarginal gyrus, and left middle temporal gyrus. This supports the hypothesis that the left brain was used more for these types of tasks than the right brain. Another study, by a Malaysian medical research team, found that the left frontal lobe also seems to play a critical role in multiplication.

From the perspective of quantum cognition, the left brain would be characterized as using an ‘either-or’ logic — much like the ‘bit’ in a standard classical computer, which can be either ‘1’ or ‘0’ but not both at the same time (unlike a qubit or ‘quantum bit’ in a quantum computer). They comply with the law of non-contradiction and may also be called ‘dualistic’ logic.

(Quantum cognition is an emerging field which applies the mathematical formalism of quantum theory to model cognitive phenomena such as information processing by the human brain, language, decision making, human memory, concepts and conceptual reasoning, human judgment, and perception.)

Left Brain’s Conscious Computations

Consciousness is often associated with the left brain as the verbal areas allow us to put perception into words (within our brains and in communication with others). So, the left brain is also where arithmetical operations are performed consciously.

Right Brain is ‘Unconscious’

The right brain is frequently attributed with intuitive abilities, characterized as ‘unconscious’, and is known to process information differently from the verbal and conscious left brain. Just like the mathematical genius before her, Srinivasa Ramanujan (who lived from 1887 to 1920), even the highly articulate ‘human computer’ Shakuntala Devi could not tell how she processes the answers to complex computations as it is largely unconscious, and both geniuses attribute their gifts to “God”. Michael Persinger, Professor of Psychology at Laurentian University, argues that the left brain frequently interprets the right brain as a separate sensed presence, or sometimes as God, during mystical experiences induced in his laboratory. Were Shakuntala’s and Ramanujan’s “God”, that gave them the solutions to complex computations, in the right brain?

It was discussed in the author’s article Evidence of Quantum Computations in the Human Brain that it was plausible that Shakuntala, and even autistic savants, were using quantum processes in their brains to perform these computations. (Read the article for a fuller discussion.) Not even the savants or geniuses knew where the answers came from, indicating that the deep processing was largely unconscious (to the left brain) — and implying that they were being carried out by the unconscious right brain. Once the gist of the solution appeared, though, there was some conscious processing (possibly in the left brain) to correct errors and put some structure into it.

Right Brain’s ‘Both-And’ Logic

Chilean psychoanalyst Matte Blanco presented a framework for understanding the unconscious with the tools of mathematical logic. His investigation concludes that the unconscious operates with a systematic logical structure of its own, having its own internal logic, different from the dualistic logic used by the conscious verbal left brain. Blanco calls it ‘symmetric logic’.

This is similar to the logic used by a quantum processor. For example, a qubit exhibits symmetric logic when it can be both ‘0’ and ‘1’ at the same time (the order is irrelevant), while in superposition. From a strict logical perspective, this means ‘A’ and ‘Not-A’ exist simultaneously in a superposition. The right unconscious brain operates a ‘both-and’ or symmetric logic.

Giulia Battilotti, from the Department of Mathematics at the University of Padua, has presented a model based on quantum states and shows that its features satisfy the requirements of Blanco’s symmetric logic of the unconscious. Neuroscientist, Petro Gopych agrees:

There is some support for equating unconscious states with quantum superposition. Matte Blanco described the dream world as where ‘paradox reigns and opposites merge to sameness‘, also an apt description of the quantum world. Petro Gopych, Neuroscientist, Kharkiv National University, Ukraine

To summarize, the two characteristics of right brain processing are that they are largely unconscious and use ‘both-and’, symmetric, or quantum logic. This is different from the left brain which uses verbal, conscious processing, with ‘either-or’, dualistic, or classical logic.

This gives us an interesting insight into the nature of unconscious processing [in the brain] — it works like a quantum supercomputer, using a different type of logic. Jay Alfred, 2006

As discussed in the earlier section above, classical binary operators have been identified in the brain. It can be predicted, based on the above discussion, that quantum logic gates, in the form of neural circuits, will be found in the human brain, in future research.

Similarities between the Architecture of the Human Brain and a Quantum Computer

For reliable quantum computations, there are at least 2 conditions that must be fulfilled. Firstly, quantum coherence is required over a sufficient period to maintain superpositions and entanglements. This is provided by Fisher’s model (phosphorus atoms and Posner molecules — which are abundant in the brain). (This is discussed in the author’s article The Quantum Computer in your Brain.)

Secondly, there must be a classical processor in the human brain that reads the output from the quantum processor, and then makes error corrections, if necessary. This classical processor is represented by normal cognitive abilities, but more specifically by the relevant operators, including binary operators, in the brain.

Both conditions are fulfilled in the human brain, just like in quantum computers. Note that the classical processor is primarily in the brain, and not in other parts of the body — hence the results of quantum computations are only intelligible within the brain.

One interesting aspect of Ramanujan’s powers is that he often took hours or even months to laboriously verify and prove what he often received in an instant, and that sometimes his insight turned out to be wrong! Ideas arrived at by unconscious intuition, just as ideas derived from deliberate conscious thinking, can contain errors. It is not infallible and points to an unconscious computational process. Error corrections are subsequently necessary. Similarly, error correction procedures are extremely important and essential in today’s quantum computers.

Conclusion

The observations by researchers suggest that, among other processors and neural circuits, the left brain contains a classical processor(s) and the right brain a quantum processor(s). This is remarkably similar to the architecture of current quantum computers, which contain both classical and quantum processors, functioning similarly. Hence, there is some evidence that a biological quantum computer is embedded in the brain.

It seems that evolution, which gave rise to cerebral cortices at a late stage, has endowed humans with the ability to access and make sense of not only classical reality, but quantum reality (directly).