Cerebral Networks of Interfacial Water: Analogues of the Neural Correlates of Consciousness in a Synthetic Three-Shell Realistic Head Model

Abstract

The physical properties of water, particularly the nature of interfacial water and pH shifts associated with dynamics of the hydronium ion near any surface, may be a primary source of the complex electromagnetic patterns frequently correlated with consciousness. Effectively all of the major correlates of consciousness, including the 40 Hz and 8 Hz coupling between the cerebral cortices and hippocampal formation, can be accommodated by the properties of water within a specific-shaped volume exposed to a magnetic field. In the present study, quantitative electroencephalographic activity was measured from an experimental simulation of the human head constructed using conductive dough whose pH could be changed systematically. Spectral analyses of electrical potentials generated over the regions equivalent to the left and right temporal lobes in humans exhibited patterns characteristic of Schumann Resonance. This fundamental and its harmonics are generated within the earth-ionospheric cavity with intensities similar to the volumetric intracerebral magnetic (~2 pT) and electric field (~6 × 10 -1 V · m -1 ) strengths. The power densities for specific pH values were moderately correlated with those obtained from normal human brains for the fundamental (first) and second harmonic for the level simulating the cerebral cortices. Calculations indicated that the effective pH would be similar to that encountered within a single layer of protons near the plasma membrane surface. These results reiterate recent measurements in a large population of human brains showing the superimposition of Schumann power densities in QEEG data and indicate that intrinsic features of proton densities within cerebral water may be a fundamental basis to consciousness that can be simulated experimentally.