Quantum chaos in the rat ventral tegmentum?

Hi everyone

This abstract (below) appeared on the Physics Archives, referring to a paper in
the International Journal of Modern Physics. It's from a Russian group and
reports on electrophysiological measurement from ventral tegmentum in rats.
They claim mathematical analysis of the interspike frequencies match a model
for quantum chaos, supporting a quantum nature (at least partially) of brain
activity. I dont understand this mathematical argument, being more involved in
intracellular activities. Perhaps someone might be able to elaborate, refute or
comment.

Happy Thanksgiving (to US listmembers anyway)

best
Stuart Hameroff


Brain neurons as quantum computers: in vivo support of background
physics
A.Bershadskii, E. Dremencov, J. Bershadskii, G. Yadid
Int. J. Mod. Phys., C, 14, #7, (2003) 1


The question: whether quantum coherent states can sustain
decoherence, heating and dissipation over time scales comparable to
the dynamical timescales of the brain neurons, is actively discussed
in the last years. Positive answer on this question is crucial, in
particular, for consideration of brain neurons as quantum computers.
This discussion was mainly based on theoretical arguments. In present
paper nonlinear statistical properties of the Ventral Tegmental Area
(VTA) of genetically depressive limbic brain are studied in vivo
on the Flinders Sensitive Line of rats (FSL). VTA plays a key role in
generation of pleasure and in development of psychological drug
addiction. We found that the FSL VTA (dopaminergic) neuron signals
exhibit multifractal properties for interspike frequencies on the
scales where healthy VTA dopaminergic neurons exhibit bursting
activity. For high moments the observed multifractal (generalized
dimensions) spectrum coincides with the generalized dimensions
spectrum calculated for a spectral measure of a quantum system
(so-called kicked Harper model, actively used as a model of quantum
chaos). This observation can be considered as a first experimental
in vivo indication in the favour of the quantum (at least
partially) nature of the brain neurons activity.