The two-brains hypothesis: implications for consciousness

Abstract

The human brain is a product of gravitation, quantum biophysics and evolution by survival; a "universe," with 85 billion neurons and a hundred trillion synapses; more than stars in our galaxy. In the context of the unresolved, unpredictability of modern physical theory and as a stimulus and guide for research, we postulate the novel Two-Brains1 Hypothesis (TBH). The animal "brain" evolved in parallel as two fundamentally different, interdependent organs, complementary in the Bohr sense: one, electroionic, tangible, known and accessible, the other electromagnetic, intangible, diffi cult to access, but a relatively stable, structurally and functionally integrated 3D compendium of differently induced fi elds arising from and interacting closely with specifi c counterpart regions of the electro ionic brain. Natural selection ensured normally effi cient, anatomic, metabolic and functional integration of the two brains. Understanding aspects of them such as mind, consciousness, aging and pathologies is a major human challenge and it is suggested that research be undertaken on the possible nature, workings and potential of the two interdependent entities by which Homo sapiens may have risen and may yet fall.