Linoleic acid: Is this the key that unlocks the quantum brain? Insights linking broken symmetries in molecular biology, mood disorders and personalistic emergentism.

ABSTRACT

In this paper we present a mechanistic model that integrates subneuronal structures, namely ion channels, membrane fatty acids, lipid rafts, G proteins and the cytoskeleton in a dynamic system that is finely tuned in a healthy brain. We also argue that subtle changes in the composition of the membrane's fatty acids may lead to down-stream effects causing dysregulation of the membrane, cytoskeleton and their interface. Such exquisite sensitivity to minor changes is known to occur in physical systems undergoing phase transitions, the simplest and most studied of them is the so-called Ising model, which exhibits a phase transition at a finite temperature between an ordered and disordered state in 2- or 3-dimensional space. We propose this model in the context of neuronal dynamics and further hypothesize that it may involve quantum degrees of freedom dependent upon variation in membrane domains associated with ion channels or microtubules. Finally, we provide a link between these physical characteristics of the dynamical mechanism to psychiatric disorders such as major depression and antidepressant action.