A model for the generation of nerve pulse based on Pollack effect

The following view of what might happen in the generation of nerve pulse is only one of the many variants that I have imagined during years and can be only defended as the simplest one found hitherto. In this model Pollack effect for water plays a key role and Hodgkin-Huxley model would be simply wrong. Ionic currents would not cause the nerve pulse but would be caused by it.

Background observations

Let us consider the following assumptions.

1. The fact that the sign of the membrane potential changes sign temporarily but preserves its magnitude, suggests that the charge densities associated with the interior and exterior are changed so that the voltage changes the sign. There are many ways to achieve this and one should identify the simplest mechanism.
2. Hodgkin-Huxley model for nerve pulse involves dissipation. Nerve pulse could be generated as the failure of gravitational quantum coherence. This could also make possible Ohmic currents between axonal interior (AI) and axonal exterior (NE) but this, and even the loss of quantum gravitational coherence, might not be necessary. This is mildly suggested by the model of nerve pulse based on Josephson junction in which the pulse corresponds to a temporary change of the direction of rotation for the analogs of gravitational penduli.
3. In the Hodgkin-Huxley model the notions of channels and pumps are of course central for the recent biology. There are however puzzling observations challenging these notions and suggesting that the currents between cell interior and exterior have quantum nature and are universal in the sense that they do not depend on the cell membrane at all. One of the pioneers in the field has been Gilbert Ling, who has devoted for more than three decades to the problem, developed ingenious experiments, and written several books about the topic. The introduction of the book "Gells and cells" of Gerald Pollack gives an excellent layman summary about the paradoxical experimental results. I have discussed these findings also from the TGD point of view (see this).
4. In the TGD framework Pollack effect (PE) could induce the membrane potential and PE and its reversal (RPE) could be important. In the model to be discussed this is the case and the model differs dramatically from the Hodgkin-Huxley model in that ionic currents do not cause the nerve pulse but is caused by it.

The model of nerve pulse based on Pollack effect and its reversal

The simplest model for the generation of the nerve pulse is based on PE and RPE. In the following I will talk about neuronal interior (NI) and neuronal exterior (NE).

1. Sol-gel phase transition is known to accompany nerve pulse. This suggests that PE and RPE are involved. PE transforms gel phase to sol phase and generates a negatively charged exclusion zone (EZ).

   The TGD based model for PE involves the transformation of protons of water molecules to dark protons at the MB of the system with a large size so that the region of water becomes negatively charged EZ and transforms to a gel phase generating a potential. Since the flux tubes of gravitational MB have much larger size than the system, the protons/ions are effectively lost from the system.

   This corresponds to a polarization but not in the usual sense. Rather, the ends of the dipole correspond to EZ and MB. The charge separation is not between NI and NE but between NI (NE) and its MB.

2. An open question is whether PE could generalize also to other positive biologically important atoms which would become dark ions assignable to MB and leave behind electrons.
3. PE can take place for the water in NI. The transfer of charges to MB could also occur for the axonal microtubules but this transfer might be involved with the control of cell membrane and neuronal membrane, for instance MT could control the generation of nerve pulse.
4. The simplest model for how PE and RPE could be involved with nerve pulse generation is as follows. Before nerve pulse the water in NI (near to membrane) forms a negatively charged EZ since dark protons are at the MB outside the system. The water in NE is in gel phase and neutral. The negative charge of EZ gives rise to the membrane potential and ionic charges could give only small corrections to it.
5. The dark protons tend to transform to ordinary protons. Metabolic energy feed is needed to kick them back to the MB. The nerve pulse is generated by the RPE by stopping the metabolic energy feed for a moment. This induces a RPE as BSFR. In RPE dark protons are transformed to ordinary ones and return to the neuronal interior and gel→sol phase transition is induced. RPE liberates free energy, which in turn induces PE in NE and a negatively charged EZ is generated there. The sign of the membrane potential changes. The system is a kind of flip-flop in which RPE induces PE.
6. The reconnection of U-shaped flux tubes at the two sides of the neuronal membrane to form a flux tube pairs connecting NI and NE and associated with the ionic channels and pumps acting as Josephson junctions, would make possible an almost dissipation free transfer of the energy liberated in RPE to the opposite side of the membrane. The transfer of the liberated energy as a radiation from NI to NE and from NE to NI takes place along flux tube pairs associated with different membrane proteins, that is channels and pumps, which would therefore be channels for radiation rather than ions. Ionic Ohmic currents could be caused by the reversal of the membrane potential rather than causing it.
7. Contrary to the original guess, the nerve pulse would involve 4 BSFRs, which correspond to RPE in NI reducing the membrane potential V_i to V= 0 and liberating energy generating PE in NE changing the sign of the membrane potential: V=0→ -V_i. This PE is followed by RPE taking V=-V_i to V=0 and liberating energy generating PE in NI so that V=0 is transformed to V= V_i and the situation is returned back to the original. The times for the occurrences of BSFRs and changes of the arrow of time correspond to V=0, V= -V_i, V=0 and V= V_i.
8. What could be the role of microtubules? Quantum critical dynamics of axonal microtubules would make them ideal control tools of the dynamics at the level of cell membrane, in particular controllers of the nerve pulse generation and conduction. An attractive assumption is that the gravitational MBs of microtubules carry dark charges. Also the MBs associated with the cell exterior and inner and outer lipid layers could carry dark charges. Due to the large size of gravitational flux tubes, the charges transferred to the MBs (at least the microtubular MB) are effectively outside the axonal interior (AI) and exterior (NE) so that the charges of NI and NE are affected. This could bring the membrane potential below the threshold for the generation of the nerve pulse by the proposed mechanism. MB would be the boss using microtubules as control tools and water would do the hard work.

See the article Some New Aspects of the TGD Inspired Model of the Nerve Pulse or the chapter with the same title.

For a summary of earlier postings see Latest progress in TGD.

For the lists of articles (most of them published in journals founded by Huping Hu) and books about TGD see this.