Neuroscience, Particle Physics: Does e = mc^2 Have a Parallel in the Human Mind?

Mass can give energy and energy can give mass—only in the presence of the speed of light, squared—is a principle of fusion in particle physics. Or, simply, energy and mass are interchangeable. However, can this be remotely used to explain an aspect of the human mind, for rough similarities, towards how the brain works?

Although the human brain does not have [anything moving at] the speed of light, electrical signals have conduction velocity. While both are not equivalent, might a parallel partly apply, to explaining a mechanism of the human mind?

In the brain, there are two common elements, electrical and chemical signals. Electrical signals are in relay and chemical signals are mostly stationed at synapses. Though chemical signals are in transport as well, they often move within a smaller perimeter in comparison to electrical signals that span the axonal length.

It can, therefore, be assumed that given these differences, electrical signals are in an extensive motion, while chemical signals are in marginal motion. However, because chemical signals are mostly confined around synapses—which can be near stationary while active, at times—chemical signals can be said to be a comparatively slower mass, with some velocity as well, such that their total momentum [sets of electrical and chemical signals] is conserved, normally, without [say] a traumatic brain injury or something else.

Neurons are often in clusters across circuits in the brain. It is theorized that these clusters allow electrical and chemical signals to work in loops or as sets. This means that when a function is mechanized in a certain cluster of neurons, it is the enterprise of the signals.

The chemical signals [in set] are postulated to provide rations that make up a configuration or formation for the specificity of that function. Simply, because smells are different and smell is different from touch or vision, it means that the configuration of a set of chemical signals that specifies one is different from the other.

These chemical signals are located within the range of the synapse, from the vesicles to the cleft to the receptors. Their configuration [in a set] for a function, conceptually, may be due [as established in brain science] to their volumes in the cleft or their exit sequence—through receptors, or getting taken back up, or cleared out by enzymes.

Simply, chemical signals in a set, provide rations that make up the specificity of functions. Chemical signals are molecules, mostly dominated by neurotransmitters, though others like neurohormones and so forth are involved.

Electrical signals are established in neuroscience to be ions, moving through the length of the axon, due to action potentials, from the voltage-gated channels. It is also established that ions have mass and molecules have mass.

It is theorized that in a set, these ions carry the summaries of functions and features, from one destination—or set of chemical signals—to the next. Electrical signals deliver what they bear [to sets of electrical signals] and access what is available there, then proceed again, conceptually.

A Human Mind Phase of Matter

It is theorized that in a set, electrical signals strike to fuse briefly with chemical signals, to access the configuration in that set. Simply, chemical signals have rations that make up configurations, but in order to have those rations provided, they have to be struck by the mass of incoming ions. It is postulated that when [a set of] electrical signals strike, they fuse briefly, resulting in a mix that is partly ions, partly molecules, and a third transient phase, which is different from both.

It is this phase, postulated to be a new state of matter, that keeps some of the configuration information and gives off the volumes of chemical signals needed. It is also what collects—or contains—some of the energy that is given off, preventing several concurrent interactions in the brain from causing disturbing experiences.

Simply, for functions of the mind, it is postulated that [sets of] electrical and chemical signals have to interact. This interaction is the strike and fusion of both, giving off a new mix, with a part of it, as a different phase from both, which holds some configuration and collects the energy, conceptually.

Sets of electrical and chemical signals both have mass and velocity. When they strike and fuse, they give off energy. Electrical signals have their conduction velocity, which is enough to produce a new phase of matter—within the biological environment.

There are grades to the interaction or how they are qualified, resulting in features like attention, awareness, self and intent, or free will.

Though the speed of light is necessary for energy and mass interchange, the interactions of [sets of] electrical and chemical signals of the mind let the conduction velocity act as a conversion factor of sorts. The velocity of [sets of] chemical signals may also play a role—or be a tad negligible in other instances. This implies that a parallel of the energy-momentum relation could be developed for sets of electrical and chemical signals, in a theoretical neurobiophysics equation.

Sets of electrical signals with mass, incoming, striking to fuse with [sets of] chemical signals, which are masses too—near static—giving off energy which is collected in another phase and used also to access configurations for functions and features of the human mind, conceptually.

The human mind is theorized to be the collection of all the electrical and chemical signals with their interactions and features, in sets, in clusters of neurons, across the central and peripheral nervous systems.

There is a recent paper in Nature Communications Physics, Unveiling universal aspects of the cellular anatomy of the brain, where the authors wrote, "Here, we propose that statistical physics can provide a guiding framework for determining and quantifying additional structural features in the cellular complexity of the brain. By analyzing properties related to cell size, as well as pairwise and higher-order correlations in cellular-level volumetric partial brain reconstructions from multiple organisms, we show that the cellular structure of the brain displays signatures associated with collective phenomena close to criticality. Our results indicate that the cellular structure of the brains of multiple organisms show signatures of being at or close to a structural phase transition and that the corresponding critical exponents are consistent between organisms. If these structural properties of the brain are indeed critical and universal between organisms, we would expect to observe consistent exponents in the cellular structures of other organisms and brain regions."

There is a recent article in The Conversation, Could quantum physics be the key that unlocks the secrets of human behaviour?, stating that, "Yet research has shown that human behaviour can’t be fully captured by these traditional or “classical” laws of probability. Could it instead be explained by the way probability works in the more mysterious world of quantum mechanics? Mathematical probability is also a vital component of quantum mechanics, the branch of physics that describes how nature behaves at the scale of atoms or sub-atomic particles. However, as we’ll see, in the quantum world, probabilities follow very different rules."