Sponsored by The University of Salzburg, The Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, The YeTaDeL Foundation

Program Chairs:

Gustav Bernroider, The University of Salzburg, Austria Stuart Hameroff, The University of Arizona, USA

The fundamental question of how the brain produces conscious experience remains unanswered through classical neurocomputational explanations.

Quantum approaches to consciousness (considered highly unlikely by most scientists and philosophers) can potentially account for difficult issues (e.g.unconscious-to-conscious transitions, binding, synchrony, subjectivity) but appear vulnerable to decoherence at warm brain temperatures. Since the previous Quantum Mind conference in 2003, evidence has shown or suggested:

1) At the molecular level, enzyme-substrate interactions and sensory transduction in photo-, magneto- and olfactory receptors rely on quantum mechanisms (tunneling, spin transfer and/or radical pairs),

2) Cellular level ion channel cooperativity and brain-wide gamma synchrony coherence appear to require non-local quantum correlations among states of proteins and ions,

3) Psychoactive molecules interact with receptors through quantum correlations,

4) Quantum spin transfer through biomolecules is enhanced by increased temperature,

5) Quantum computing processes can occur at increasingly warm temperatures,

6) Robust quantum entanglement can involve millions of atoms or molecules.

Further,

7) Quantum time symmetry can rescue consciousness from the unfortunate role of epiphenomenal illusion forced by classical neurocomputation,

And finally

8) Quantum approaches offer a possible answer to the ontological question:

what *is* consciousness and what is its place in the universe?

Quantum Mind 2007 follows previous Quantum Mind conferences held in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1999, and in Tucson, Arizona in 2003. The venue at the base of the Alps in the heart of Europe is the University of Salzburg in beautiful and charming Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of Mozart. Pre-conference workshops, Plenary talks, Concurrent sessions, and Poster sessions will be augmented by a full social schedule in an amiable and delightful atmosphere.

Themes/Topics: Time and Causation; Quantum Pharmacology; Brain Synchrony; Decoherence; Quantum Consciousness Models; Cosmology and Consciousness; Bohm; Quantum Computing; Quantum Logic; Quantum Biology; Quantum-Like Approaches; Membranes, Cytoskeleton and DNA

A preliminary list of speakers:

Gustav Bernroider, Frank Echenhofer, Avi Elitzur, Stuart Hameroff, Basil Hiley, Menas Kafatos, Stuart Kauffman, Paavo Pylkkanen, Daniel Sheehan, Lothar Schafer, Henry Stapp, Marshall Stoneham, Johann Summhammer, Luca Turin, Jack Tuszynski, Giuseppe Vitiello, Nancy Woolf, Paola Zizzi