What is EEG made of?

The usual classification of EEG frequencies by EEG bands is more or less a convention and the definitions of various bands vary in frustratingly wide ranges. In a more ambitious approach bands should be replaced with some substructures identified on basis of their physical origin and function. In the proposed framework this is possible. This identification of substructures of course applies only to that part of EEG from which evoked potentials, noise, and possible other contributions are subtracted.

The recent developments in TGD inspired quantum biology lead to a more detailed form of TGD inspired model for EEG as a communication and control tool of magnetic body.

1. Sensory data are communicated from cell membrane to magnetic body as Josephson radiation and induced transitions at harmonics of cyclotron frequencies determined by the mass number A and charge Z of ion in question (also electron and proton are included) plus the local strength of the magnetic field B_end having nominal value B_end=.2 Gauss in the simplest situation.

   Communications take place at resonance so that one has f_J= ZeV/h_eff=f_c= ZeB_end/2πAm_p, h_eff=2^k× A× h, where A is the atomic weight of the ion for the fundamental frequencies a more general resonance condition for harmonics reads as mf_J=nf_c. This condition is a new ingredient to the earlier model and is extremely restrictive - especially so if one assumes only bosonic ions forming Bose-Einstein condensates. Also electron and proton are needed to represent frequencies which are of order kHz or higher: this is true for hearing for which frequency range to be represented varies up 20 kHz.

2. Information is coded in frequency modulations of Josephson frequency induced by neural activity and feedback from the magnetic body coming via DNA at harmonics of cyclotron frequencies. Frequency modulations have emotional content in music, which suggests that the "sensory experiences" of magnetic body defined by the Josephson radiation have emotional content dictated by the frequency modulation.

   Also the variations of resting potential induces frequency modulations and the quantum model for hearing suggests that the variations of the voltage could define analog of music scale consisting of discrete spectrum of resting potentials corresponding to cyclotron frequencies of ions belonging to the octave 10-20 Hz and having frequencies f_c∼ 10 Hz in alpha band as basic frequency.

3. Basic facts about EEG at various stages of sleep and the fact that octaves of 10 Hz frequency appear as resonance frequencies together with music metaphor suggests that EEG can be regarded as superposition of frequencies spectra very much analogous to frequency spectra associated with music scale. In particular, octaves of h_eff=2^km and B_end suggested also by p-adic length scale hypothesis appear. In the simplest situation the EEGs associated with various ions would be time scaled versions of each other making possible "stories" as representations of same events in various time scales: this is believed to be a basic ingredient of intelligence.
4. The model leads to a detailed identification of sub-bands of EEG in terms of cyclotron frequencies assignable to bosonic ions. One can understand the basic features of various EEG bands, why conscious experiences possible occurring during sleep are not remembered and the four stages of sleep, why beta amplitudes are low and tend to be chaotic, the origin of resonance frequencies of EEG. Also a model for how Schumann resonances could affect consciousness emerges.

   Music metaphor allows to develop in more detail the earlier proposal that nerve pulse patterns defined a languages with "phonemes" having duration of .1 seconds and obeying genetic code with 6 bits. Also the right brain signs metaphor can be given a detailed quantitative content in terms of the analog of music scale associated with the resting potential.

For background and details see the chapter Quantum model for EEG or the article What is EEG made of?.