ILLUSTRATED TERMINOLOGY GLOSSARY©
(for Autogenic Discharge: Quantum Biological Considerations)
This glossary is written with the concepts building logically in narration, so one can read it from beginning to end. Alternatively, the terms are numbered and one can search the list for a specific item. Related terms are indicated in the body of the text for easy cross-reference and click-link.
Glossary ContentsFigures: 1-9
- DNA
- Quantum level of functioning
- Temporal ordering
- Coherence of clocks
- Neuroendocrine discharge
- Macroscopic quantization
- Physics of collective and cooperative phenomena
- Normative
- Psychobiological self-recognition
- Self/not-self psychobiological barriers
- Homeostasis of perceived self
- Intracellular Zeitgeber
- Signifier for immunological isolation
- Fundamental temporal parameters of the cellular DNA
- Autoantibodies
- Anti-DNA-antibodies
- Coherent waves
- Modified quantum frequency structure of the DNA
- Cell membrane's active transport system
- Frequency regime
- p-electron
- Stimulated emission of radiation
- Quantum tunneling
- Packets of non-localized electrons
- Superconductant
- Free energy
- Energy coupling process
- Reference level temperature
- Critical temperature
- Radiation-induced harmonic oscillation
- Electron parcel oscillation
- Radiation the molecule receives from the environment
- Rate of nucleotide bonding
- Genetic transcription
- Biostatic, biodynamic field
- Radiation exchange process
- Frequency domain
- Frequency window
- Phase
- DNA mediated
- Coherent wave generating activity of the ensemble of neuroglial DNA
- Selection mechanism for synchronizing neurons
- Scanning
- Subcortical pacemaker
- Frequency selective synapses
- Neuronal coherence
- Range of established coherence
- Spatial array of established coherence
Definitions
1. DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid, found primarily in the cell nucleus, is responsible for storing and processing of genetic information. 2. Quantum level of functioning The scale of activity and organization to which the principles of quantum mechanics are found applicable. Examples include electron excitation on the atomic scale and electron transport between molecules. 3. Temporal ordering The establishment of patterns of activity that involve phasing of time-related variables such that two or more processes mutually reinforce one another or one process serves as a trigger mechanism for another. An example from plant physiology is how rhythms of light impingement during the photocycle trigger the production of growth factor hormones. 4. Coherence of clocks All biological clock activity involves temporal ordering. Any periodic phenomenon like a rotation or oscillation can function as a clock. The mathematical description of clocks often takes the form of a wave. Many of the laws of wave mechanics can be applied to the analysis of this description. In particular, quantum mechanics is a formalism describing coherence among clocks, meaning that the periods involved are in-phase (in-step) with one another. The methodology used in our theory not only treats clocks as waves but also treats waves as clocks (see: Figure 1) 5. Neuroendocrine discharge The combined process of subcortical (centrencephalic integrative system, RAS) activation and associated hormonal secretion. 6. Macroscopic quantization Quantization is the mathematical process of describing a system which has a unit of activity (quantum of action) which is indivisible. Macroscopic quantization is the description of such systems which involve processes occurring over distances significantly larger than elementary particles (i.e., macroscopic distances). 7. Physics of collective and cooperative phenomena The physics of processes occurring at many scale lengths and involving the ensemble behavior of a large number of elements. Such systems generally have normative and critical states. Periodic processes of the system in the normative state are not highly correlated with one another (i.e., there is a lack of coherence in the energy exchange within and across scale levels). In the critical state, the efficiency of energy exchange in the system taken as a whole is maximized because the behavior of the elements becomes highly correlated. The identification of the parameters that determine when a system moves from a normative to its critical state is one of the primary objects of study in this field of physics. 8. Normative (A) In physics: the state to which a system returns after transiting to a critical state (see: Physics of collective and cooperative phenomena.(B) In medicine: the state that is normal, healthy, prohomeostatic as opposed to diseased. We have used the terms 'normative' and 'altered' in a medical sense in describing various parameters of the DNA molecule (i.e., its quantum state, frequency of electron parcel oscillation, frequency of radiating coherent waves). By this usage we mean that there are correct (normative) parameters through which the molecule is able to optimally fulfill its various functions and incorrect (altered) parameters through which the molecule is unable to adequately fulfill its functions (see: Figure 2) 9. Psychobiological self-recognition By this term we mean to suggest that the self-recognition involved in the immune response to disease, histocompatibility behavior, and hypersensitivity reactions may have important psychological as well as biological components. The personal psychological sense of identity may have neurological correlates which interact with immune system function. These neurological correlates may involve frequency windows of coherent waves generated by neuroglia and recurrent patterns of neuronal coherence. More specifically, the mechanisms of action of various chemotactic factors (e.g., neutrophil chemotactic factor), interferon, and transfer factor may involve not only stereochemically mediated processes, but also an exchange of frequency dependent, coherent-wave-propagated information. This frequency related information may carry neurologically generated components. We may further speculate that, as the exact mechanisms of B and T lymphocyte activation have not been clarified and there is evidence signals other than those presently known (e.g., capping) are required for activation, it may be useful to hypothesize that coherent wave mediated energy exchange processes are involved. 10. Self/not-self psychological barriers If neurologically mediated psychological factors are involved in the establishment and maintenance of immunological identity, then the barriers between the self and the not-self must have neuropsychological aspects. We hypothesize that this is, indeed, the case and suggest that these aspects involve, most fundamentally, frequency signatures of DNA emitted coherent waves. The question of immunologic tolerance is interesting in this context. If in utero exposure to an antigen takes place, and after parturition exposure to the same antigen takes place again, there is no recognition of the antigen as being foreign. This fact seems to militate against the idea that there is a single unitary factor differentiating self from not-self (see: signifier for immunological isolation). However, it may be that there is a period when self-identity is in a state of flux and must be ‘learned’. A model for this theory may exist in the field of ornithology where it is known that there is a sensitive phase during which certain species of birds can learn bird song or to read the navigational star map. If the birds are not exposed to the proper cues during the critical duration they will not learn, no matter how often they are exposed thereafter. That a similar pattern of critical phasing may be involved in immunological behavior is suggested by the fact that immunologic tolerance can be experimentally induced by injection of appropriate antigens immediately after birth, but not later. 11. Homeostasis of perceived self By this term we mean to suggest that the neurological concomitants of psychological self-identity (coherent wave frequency windows, recurrent patterns of neuronal coherence) may be involved in establishing and maintaining the state of equilibrium of the body. Any radical shift of psychological self-identity would involve a shift of the organism’s homeostatic equilibrium, which would be reflected in the composition of various fluids and tissues, e.g., temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, water content, blood sugar, etc. This shift would also alter immune system competency which would be reflected, for instance, in changes of killer T cell titers. A state of severe, protracted personal identity ambivalence may be a contributory factor in the onset of certain degenerative diseases (e.g., systemic lupus erythematosus and multiple sclerosis) and certain immune competency disorders (e.g., acquired immune deficiency syndrome). 12. Intracellular Zeitgeber There are two interrelated sectors of research on the nature of biological clocks. One sector focuses upon varying environmental factors such as electromagnetic fields and photoperiodicities which can entrain or synchronize internal cycles such as the circadian system. These environmental forcing factors are called Zeitgebers or time-givers. This research raises the question of how the highly variable periodicities of the environmental forcing functions translate into the quasiregularity of biological rhythms. The second research sector attempts to answer this question by investigating possible clock mechanisms wholly contained within the organism, e.g., cell membrane diffusion. This research raises the question of how the internal clock is able to vary its periodicities in response to its changing environment. The hypothesis we are proposing attempts to answer both of these questions by describing a mechanism by which the DNA molecule can alter its rate of genetic transcription in response to variations in an impinging radiative field. The rate of DNA transcription (which has sometimes been proposed to be the master biological clock) is described as being governed by two factors: (1) the frequency of the impinging radiation, and, (2) this radiation’s ability to excite or dampen the natural frequency of vibration of an oscillating parcel of p-electrons associated with the quantum structure of the DNA molecule. It is this varying, radiation dependent, internal frequency of parcel oscillation which we call the ‘intracellular Zeitgeber’. In proposing a quantum approach to the biological clock problem (see: Figure 1), we are treating the environment and the embedded organism as an infinity of clocks within clocks (David Bohm, WHOLENESS AND THE IMPLICATE ORDER, p. 104). 13. Signifier for immunological isolation We assume that there is some fundamental biophysical property which identifies a biological entity as being identical to itself. We call this property the ‘signifier for immunological isolation’ and hypothesize that it is a unique, invariant property of the constituents of that biological entity. For example, we propose that histocompatibility is most fundamentally identified by a unique, invariant property of the DNA molecules of the given cell type. We envision each histological type of DNA molecule as having a unique frequency window or characteristic signature of radiational frequencies absorbed and emitted by the molecule. This is directly analogous to the multiplicity of energy bands that serve to distinguish the absorptive and emittive signature identifying a given atom in the periodic table of elements. We speculate that there may be a periodic table of histological types based solely upon fundamental quantum biophysical properties. 14. Fundamental temporal parameters of the cellular DNA This is a phrase designating the periodic oscillatory properties which serve to distinguish different histological classes of DNA molecules. A given class is defined in terms of a temperature difference (see: Figure 3). Each class has its own unique normative and critical temperatures involving the molecule’s transition from the bonded to the unbonded state (see:physics of collective and cooperative phenomena). To describe these transitions we envision a parcel of free electrons (excited electrons unattached to atomic structure and able to move in relation to the molecule) whose oscillations are alternately excited and dampened within a field of radiation. The equation describing this activity focuses on the aforementioned temperature transition (see: Figure 4). It specifies the parcel’s temperature relative to this transition and its first and second order time rates of change between the two temperature extremes. These three temporal parameters are analogous to the definition of an object’s position at a given time and its velocity (time rate of change of position) and acceleration (time rate of change of velocity). 15. Autoantibodies Under ordinary circumstances the body’s tissues are recognized as self by the immune system; the self-antigens marking host tissues are immunologically tolerated. In autoimmune disease, however, the immune system reacts against the body’s own constituents. This can occur if T lymphocytes become sensitized for self-reaction or if B lymphocytes produce autoantibodies -- antibodies to self-antigens. Alteration of lymphoid tissue to produce self-reacting cells is postulated, by the ‘clonal-selection theory of antibody formation’, to occur through somatic mutation. The theory states that self-reactive lymphoid cells are not present after birth unless an existing clone has a mutation. This present theory of the quantum wave structure of the DNA molecule and its ability to transduce genetic information into biostatic/biodynamic field fluctuations (and to receive such information) may be suggestive of an extension to the clonal-selection theory. It is known that the specificity of antibody for antigen is a function of the amino acid composition and sequence in the variable region of the immunoglobulin molecule. The assumption of the clonal-selection theory is that the rate of mutation during prenatal life, of genes associated with the synthesis of immunoglobulin, is very high, causing many lymphoid cells clones to be produced which are capable, following fetal birth, of generating a large variety of antibodies. A further assumption of the theory is that lymphoid cell clones contacting antigen before fetal birth would be suppressed or destroyed because the antigens encountered would be self-antigens which could activate lymphoid cells for autoimmunization. But it may also be possible, assuming the quantum wave structure of DNA, for systematic mutation to produce clones de nouveau specific to a given antigen. The unique wave structure emitted by the antigen would become part of the radiative environment of the lymphoid cell DNA, the environment which is necessary for DNA replication and can influence DNA structure. That antigen may, indeed, emit waves if suggested by the fact that exposure of sensitized lymphocytes to the specific antigen is associated with increased DNA synthesis by the cell. The time rate of change of twisting (replication) of DNA is directly related to variations in the radiative environment of the molecule. That specific de nouveau creation of antibody producing clones may occur is also suggested by descriptions of the presence of autoantibodies (in ‘physiological’ amounts, controlled by suppressor T cells) in the blood of normal individuals which are thought to promote phagocytosis of damaged or dying tissue cells. 16. Anti-DNA-antibodies Self-antibodies (see: autoantibodies) which react to the organism’s genetic material as if it were a foreign substance. In certain degenerative diseases, DNA-anti-DNA immune complexes are formed which damage tissue wherever they are deposited. Anti-DNA can be detected with immunofluorescence testing. 17. Coherent waves Wave fronts that do not interfere with one another, the pulses of which are like soldiers marching in step on a rope bridge. If the timing of the soldiers’ steps resonates with the natural frequency of the bridge’s oscillation, the two motions reinforce one another. Coherent waves maintain their intensity by having their energy focused into a small area. The coherent waves we associate with the DNA molecule are acoustically modified, meaning that the propagating medium actually serves to amplify and channel their energy into narrow layers of absorption in the surrounding environment. In the molecule’s transition from its normative to its critical state, coherent waves are generated which carry the signature of this transition to the surrounding environment. The absorption of these coherent waves at discrete phase boundaries (e.g., the cell membrane) releases sufficient energy stored at these boundaries which, upon entering the DNA molecule, catalyzes its return to the normative state. 18. Modified quantum frequency structure of the DNA Coherent waves consist of an ensemble of wave fronts whose speed of propagation is called the wave trace velocity. In a given transition from the normative to the critical state, a number of different wave trace velocities may initiate energy absorption at a number of different phase boundaries. We are hypothesizing that the DNA molecule, by means of these wave dynamics, exercises some control over the cell membrane’s active transport system and, in so doing, orchestrates the functional integration of cellular processes. Any disturbing factor that disrupts the temporal parameters governing the generation or propagation of the waves, functions as stress in the system and modifies the information exchange with the molecule’s environment. Coherent waves emitted by the molecule that would incorrectly specify the phase boundaries and consequent energy transport would (1) not catalyze the molecule’s own cyclical transition, and (2) would not promote functional integration of cellular processes. Another way to evaluate the disturbed vs. non-disturbed conditions of the molecule is by making a comparison between the p-electron parcel’s frequency of oscillation and the impinging radiative frequencies (see: Figures 5a and 5b). A healthy situation is when the oscillating parcel responds to a proper set of the incoming radiative frequencies. An unhealthy situation involves a frequency shift of the oscillating parcel, which (1) causes it to respond to an incorrect set of incoming radiative frequencies, and (2) causes it to be unresponsive to the proper set of frequencies. 19. Cell membrane’s active transport system That system, involving both stereochemical and energy coupling processes, through which the membrane moves substances into and out of the cell. Since concentration of some substances in a cell may be as mush as 1000 times higher than outside the cell, energy is needed to move substances against the concentration gradient. The energizing mechanism is coupled to the transfer of electrons from higher to lower potential (involving the oxidation process and ATP). 20. Frequency regime The frequency dependent properties which determine a biological entity’s energy exchange with its environment. Because the frequency of the electron parcel is governed by three factors -- the mean temperature, stability, and density of its environment -- any process that disturbs one or more of these factors can result in a shift of the parcel’s natural frequency of oscillation
(see: Figure 6). These shifts, in turn, will change the parcel’s response characteristics. An example of a process that could disrupt one or more of these factors is microwave impingement destabilizing the parcel’s environment by adding heat. Reestablishing the correct parameters would involve extracting heat (or disorder) from the environment, thus returning stability. In these terms, the fundamental role of autogenic discharge activity would be to remove heat or disorder from a malfunctioning process which is alien to the body’s homeostatic requirements. In what has been said above, we have focused on the pathological aspects of the process, but it must be understood that the same changes act as control factors in governing the normal metabolic activities of cell function. It is only when the changes in mean temperature, stability, and density exceed certain critical values or are inappropriately timed that these changes become pathogenic or antihomeostatic.21. p-electron An excited electron from the p-orbital of an atom which is free to move separate from atomic bonds under the influence of an external field and acts as if it has no well-defined position in space and time. 22. Stimulated emission of radiation Stimulated emission occurs by exciting atoms (of a molecular or atomic system) to a higher energy state by absorption of suitable frequency radiation. Then the molecules or atoms return to their former states and emit radiation whose energy is the difference between the two states. A laser (acronym for ‘light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation’) uses this process in the optical region of the electromagnetic spectrum. 23. Quantum tunneling The quantum mechanical process whereby a particle (e.g., an electron) passes through a potential barrier (a region of high potential energy), when the energy of the particle is less than the barrier height. In classical mechanics this is not possible, though quantum theory allows a small probability. One may think of the wave associated with the particle as being almost totally reflected by the barrier, while only a small fraction passes through. Tunneling has been observed to occur between two superconductors separated by a small gap. 24. Packets of non-localized electrons Any ensemble of free electrons whose position is ill-defined and serves as a perfect absorber/emitter of radiation (i.e., is equivalent to a ‘blackbody’). A
p-electron parcel is a special case of the class of packets of non-localized electrons.25. Superconductant The original understanding of the meaning of this term was derived from the behavior of helium cooled to within a few degrees of absolute zero. It was discovered that energy exchange at these temperatures occurs with perfect efficiency because of the lack of random molecular movement. In a metallic coil cooled to near absolute zero, the electrical current will flow unabated because of the absence of resistance in the conductor. Any substance observed to have these properties is called superconductant. In the present application, the meaning of this term is expanded to include those cases at temperatures far removed from 0 degrees Kelvin, such as room temperature and physiological temperatures (see: reference level temperature). The system in question is able to exchange energy with its environment without loss or degradation of its informational content because in these systems resistance has been turned to the advantage of the information exchange process. In the case of the DNA molecule this occurs in the following manner: normally the process of energy exchange is occasioned by an onset of various vibrational modes determined by the stereochemical structure of the molecule. The kinetic energy of these vibrations is dissipated by viscous frictional processes. However, in the superconductant case, the increase in frictional dissipation maximizes the flux of free energy into the molecular environment, the critical values of the mean temperature, stability, and density having been exactly matched and properly phased at all scale levels of the system. One way of characterizing the essential difference between energy exchange processes that are superconductant and those that are non-superconductant is that, in the superconductant case, all the random activity in the molecule’s immediate environment before the onset of superconductivity becomes highly phase-related, which is to say, that all the vibrational characteristics of the system become well correlated. 26. Free energy Of the total energy of a system, that part which is available to be converted to work. 27. Energy coupling process Any process which involves the exchange of energy between two or more systems and/or among two or more scale levels of a given system. 28. Reference level temperature The temperature to which the system returns when it is not engaged in information exchange with its environment. This identifies its normative state (see: physics of collective and cooperative phenomena). A reference state is the ground state (resting state) against which physicists evaluate changes of entropy (disorder vs. order) and energy used to codify the information exchange process for any given system. One of the key concepts in describing superconductivity at temperatures distant from absolute zero is the recognition that all systems or subsystems have reference states determined by, and relative to, the scale level they occupy. 29. Critical temperature The temperature to which the system transits when it is engaged in information exchange with its environment. This identifies its critical state (see: physics of collective and cooperative phenomena). 30. Radiation-induced harmonic oscillation When a tuning fork is struck in the vicinity of a piano, strings involving the fundamental tone and harmonics of the frequency of the tuning fork will begin to vibrate. This is an example of radiation-induced harmonic oscillation. Just as the sound waves originating at the tuning fork are able to excite only those strings on the piano in the harmonic series of the fundamental tone, the coherent waves originating with the DNA molecule (and its p-electron parcels) accomplish energy transfer only with those phase boundaries matched by the series of wave trace velocities associated with the coherent waves (for further discussion see: coherent waves and modified quantum frequency structure of the DNA). 31. Electron parcel oscillation Normally we think of an oscillating object changing its position in space. What is important in the present theory is the electron parcel’s periodic temperature variations. The inverse of temperature determines the parcel’s change of entropy versus its change of energy, where a decrease of entropy represents an increase of order in the DNA molecule. 32. Radiation the molecule receives from the environment The frequency structure of the molecule’s environment is extremely complex and constantly changing. Moreover, it is multivalued (e.g., in t = 2s, for every value of t there is not a single unique value for s, but many values). There is the immediate environmental sheath of the molecule which incorporates the ensemble of p-electron parcels; there is the intracellular environment; the whole organism; the organism’s environment. Each of these environments, existing on a different scale, is capable of contributing components of information affecting the molecule’s behavior. The crucial simplification of quantum mechanics to the understanding of this problem is to focus the attention on the characteristics of an elemental oscillator (in the present case, the p-electron parcel) rather than attempting a spatial description of the extreme complexity of the radiational field. In the present model, the p-electron parcel may be viewed as existing at the mouth of a frequency funnel (see: Figure 7). In the broadest part of the funnel, i.e., the environment of the organism, the informational content of the radiative field will have the least correspondence to the frequency window of the parcel. That is to say, the natural frequency of oscillation of the parcel will be given in units which are orders of magnitude different from that of the organism’s environment. At deeper and deeper levels of the funnel corresponding to scale levels closer and closer to that of the parcel, the informational content of the respective radiative fields will be progressively shifted toward those frequencies capable of exciting and dampening the oscillations of the parcel. The phrase ‘progressively shifted’ is important because the characteristics of the molecule’s immediate environmental sheath are as much a function of the molecule’s activity as the molecule’s characteristics are a function of the environment’s activity. They are reciprocally determining and in a constant state of mutual flux. The sheath exists to transduce information into a form the molecule is able to read, just as the molecule performs the functions of transducing information into a form the environmental phase boundaries can read. The practical scientific importance of this concept is that experiments involving in vitro DNA molecules can give rise to frequency response characteristics significantly different from what they would be in vivo. 33. Rate of nucleotide bonding This is the speed at which genetic information is processed by the DNA molecule through the breaking and remaking of chemical bonds between nucleotide pairs (building blocks of nucleic acid). In the present model, interest is focused on a temperature difference and two time rates of change of that difference (see: fundamental temporal parameters of the cellular DNA). Imagine that the bonding energy is contained within a room, the dimensions of which are set by this temperature difference. The door to the room has a lock which represents the structure of the molecule. In order to release the energy stored in the room the lock must be turned and the door opened. The radiative field is like a ring filled with keys. If one or more keys fit the lock, the unique turning rate of each fitted key will determine a given rate of nucleotide bonding. At the critical temperature, the energy used in maintaining the nucleotide bonds is radiated (through coherent waves) to the surrounding environment as the bonds are broken. This is like opening the door to the room. More technically, the energy involved in maintaining the nucleotide bonds is alternately given up to, and then restored by, energy exchanges involving the surrounding environment. In this context, it is interesting to speculate that the more complex aspects of the genetic language (e.g., grammar, syntax) may involve the relationship of nucleotide sequences and the ‘key-like’ attributes of the radiative field. There may be meta-rules determining the ‘fit’ of a given recombinant with a given environmental context. 34. Genetic transcription The communication of genetic information by the breaking and remaking of nucleotide bonds (see: rate of nucleotide bonding), where one macromolecule serves as a template for another. Associated with this stereochemical aspect is a radiation exchange process wherein the order of the nucleotide sequences is read by the radiation field (see: biostatic, biodynamic field) and communicated to various phase boundaries. The stereochemical transcription fulfills the requirements of functional specificity, while the radiational transcription fulfills the requirements of functional integration. Functional integration of cellular metabolism can only occur through virtually instantaneous information exchange. This exchange requires a multiplicity of inter-connected phase lockings carried out by quantum processes. Imagine a well with a chain and pulley device for lifting the water (see: Figure 8). The cups on the chain represent discrete quanta drawn from the bonding energy of the molecule. The spacing of the cups along the chain is determined by incoming radiative frequencies capable of exciting the p-electron parcel. Excitation of the parcel is equivalent to movement of the chain. The chain represents the coherent waves carrying the quanta of bonding energy to various phase boundaries represented by the buckets. The wave trace velocities are sorting factors which determine the amount of energy and its partitioning among the various phase boundaries. The phase boundaries are coupled together in such a way that their absorption of energy from the coherent wave triggers the restoration of the bonding energy as the molecule returns to its normative state. 35. Biostatic, biodynamic field The two components used in mapping the informational content of the coherent waves generated by the DNA molecule. The radiative field reads and communicates the molecule’s nucleotide sequences by matching a given field quantity with its respective base pair (see: Figure 9). If the biostatic field exhibits the net (total) transfer of energy associated with the coherent wave phenomenon -- either in its positive or negative modes -- then one nucleotide pairing (say A-T or T-A) is associated with the absorption of energy out of the biodynamic field. On the other hand, if the biodynamic field exhibits the net (total) transfer of energy associated with the coherent wave phenomenon -- either in its positive or negative modes -- then the other nucleotide pairing (say C-G of G-C) is associated with the absorption of energy out of the biostatic field. Consideration of the energy dynamics of this process (see: genetic transcription) suggests two routes by which systematic mutations might occur: (1) changes in the oscillatory properties of the p-electron parcel; (2) changes in the character of the energy storage reservoirs (various phase boundaries) in the cellular environment which play a role in restoring the normative state of the molecule. These instruments of change should be weighed against those factors mitigating for stability in the system. The ‘frequency funnel’ (see: radiation the molecule receives from the environment) is what insulates the organism from catastrophic genetic change and allows environmental forcing functions (e.g., ultraviolet radiation, microwaves, et cetera) to influence internal biological clocks without entirely disrupting their quasiregularity. 36. Radiation exchange process The quantum mechanical process by which information from many sources on many different scale levels is received, processed, and re-radiated by the DNA molecule. By this means, the biological clock, constituted as the DNA transcription rate, is hypothesized to set the subordinate clock, constituted as the cell membrane diffusion rate, by rate-limiting the flow of free electrons in the membrane’s active transport system. This radiation exchange process represents a non-equilibrium thermodynamic control system based upon quantum mechanics. It adds an integrative dimension to the specificity of function simultaneously determined by the combination of stereochemical pathways and the tendency of any biochemical system to move toward thermodynamic equilibrium. 37. Frequency domain The ensemble of frequencies associated with a given frequency regime. 38. Frequency window Characteristic signature of radiational frequencies absorbed and emitted by the molecule (see: signifier for immunological isolation). 39. Phase (A) In physics, and particularly in electromagnetic wave theory: the part of a period through which a quantity has moved from an arbitrarily chosen origin (e.g., last passage through zero in the negative to positive direction). This is often expressed as an angle, the ‘phase angle’. To be ‘in phase’ is to have the same phase angle. (B) In chemistry: any physically identifiable and homogeneous part of a system which has definite boundaries (called ‘phase boundaries’). A chemical phase can be characterized by crystal structure, chemical composition, state of aggregation, et cetera. 40. DNA mediated A term indicating that the process under consideration is carried out largely by the DNA molecule and associated phenomena (e.g., coherent waves, stereochemical replication, et cetera). 41. Coherent wave generating activity of the ensemble of neuroglial DNA The postulated collective process by which the DNA molecules of all the glial cells of the perineural cell system (the tissue surrounding nerves, composed of Schwann cells peripherally and glial cells centrally) radiate coherent waves into their environment, which collectively interact and form a complex frequency domain. Actually, we are proposing that a radiation exchange process involving many different components is essential to brain function. We have suggested that functional integration of metabolic processes in any cell requires radiation exchange between the cellular DNA and the cell membrane (see: modified quantum frequency structure of the cellular DNA and cell membrane's active transport system). In applying this idea to neurological mechanisms, we envision similar processes occurring within neuron cells and glial cells. We further envision radiation exchanges between individual neurons, between individual glial cells, and between perineural and neural tissues, these radiation exchanges all merging to form one complex frequency domain. 42. Selection mechanism for synchronizing neurons Investigations of the question of the physiological origins of brain waves suggest that the EEG is derived from the wave activity of cortical neurons. The elementary generators are thought to be groups of synapses which share the same presynaptic input. It is through intermittent synchronization and desynchronization of selected groups of cortical neurons that the EEG is thought to be produced. Therefore, the assumption is made that there must be some mechanism which selects sequential groups of cortical nerve cells for intermittent synchronization. 43. Scanning The successive observation or measurement of a quantity at different positions in space. In order for a mechanism to select groups of cortical neurons for synchronization, it must have some means of identifying those groups which are active at any given instant. It is, therefore, assumed that the selection mechanism must scan the cortex, perhaps by sending test impulses. 44. Subcortical pacemaker The scanning device and selection mechanism for synchronizing cortical neurons has been thought to be a function of subcortical centers, perhaps involving primarily the thalamus. Hence, the term ‘subcortical pacemaker’. 45. Frequency selective synapses The frequency specificity proposed in the present theory, regarding the DNA molecule and various cellular phase boundaries, suggests an alternative idea to that of a subcortical pacemaker for selecting groups of cortical neurons for synchronization in the generation of the EEG. Each synapse or synaptic group on a given cortical neuron could have a unique frequency window governing its response characteristics. Fluctuations of the frequency domain would at once be a ‘map’ of synaptic activity (serving the scanning function) and a synaptic trigger (fulfilling the function of a selection and timing mechanism). 46. Neuronal coherence Coherence, as applied to emitted waves, means that there is a definite phase relationship between two or more waves. Neuronal coherence means that the waves emitted by one neuron have a definite phase relationship with the waves emitted by another neuron. In order for this to occur, quantum mechanical processes would have to operate at macroscopic distances. 47. Range of established coherence The range of coherence would depend upon how many neurons become phase coherent at a given time. The greater the number of neurons involved, the greater the range. 48. Spatial array of established coherence ‘Spatial array’ refers to which neurons are involved. The location in the cerebral cortex of the neurons participating in the phase coherency would in large part determine the functional effects of the coherent state.
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