Tangled Neurons
Holographic Memory
Holographic Memory
Neuroscientist, Karl Pribram was originally struck by the similarity of the hologram idea and Bohm's idea of the implicate order in physics, and contacted him for collaboration. In particular, the fact that information about an image point is distributed throughout the hologram, such that each piece of the hologram contains some information about the entire image, seemed suggestive to Pribram about how the brain could encode memories. Pribram was encouraged in this line of speculation by the fact that DeValois and DeValois had found that "the spatial frequency encoding displayed by cells of the visual cortex was best described as a Fourier transform of the input pattern." This holographic idea led to the coining of the term "holonomic" to describe the idea in wider contexts than just holograms.
The theory was first developed by Karl Pribram in collaboration with David Bohm (a protege of Albert Einstein's). Holographic Memory (or as Pribram and Bohm refer to it Holonomic Memory) is based on the principle that memory is stored in the brain in much the same way that information is stored on a three-dimensional holographic image. The three-dimensional aspect of holography allows for much more detailed storage of information.
In fact, "state of the art" computer research is presently focused on using holographic storage to increase the capacities of our computers a thousand fold. The characteristics of the electromagnetic potentials in the brain provide a three-dimensional mechanism for storage of our human experiences which can be "read" (remembered) using the coherent rhythm of our consciousness. Normally our heartbeat and breathing rate provide that coherent rhythm, however, meditation which generates alpha rhythms (or the beat frequency of alpha tones of the holographic memory mp3) create a much more precise rhythm to store and read this information.
Earlier, researchers like Lorente de No, in 1938 and Burns, in 1954 demonstrated the presence of oscillating loops in brain tissue that sustain themselves for periods of up to thirty minutes without additional input. It is likely that the electrical oscillations in these loops alter the internal chemistry of neural cells to make them more responsive to similar rhythmic oscillations later, thus providing a physiological basis for memory storage. Hilgard and Marquis in 1940 and Hebb in1949 did, in fact, suggest that these neural reverberating loops were responsible for memory storage.
Dr. Rafeal Elul among others has carried out experiments demonstrating that individual neurons not only produce electrical pulse trains, but also emit and absorb extremely low frequency electromagnetic waves of ten to one hundred hertz. [One hertz is equal to one cycle per second. It is abbreviated, 'hz'.] Each neural loop is thus capable of acting as an extremely low frequency radio transmitter and receiver. Other research confirms that the brain is very responsive to extremely low frequencies. Moruzzi and McGoun (1954) demonstrated that exposure to brain stimulation at extremely low frequencies could make an animal very alert at 300 hz or fall asleep at ten hertz. Gavalas-Medici (1977) reported that after four hours exposure to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields, monkeys experienced time distortion and their brain waves were matched in phase and frequency with the imposed waves. Other studies with human subjects indicate that humans have longer reaction times when exposed to frequencies of three to seven hz and shorter reaction times when exposed to frequencies of ten to twelve hz (Konig, 1962; Hamer, 1966; and Friedman, Becker, & Bachman, 1967).
Both V.I. Rusinov (1973) and E. Roy John (1967) have demonstrated that extremely low frequency 'tracer' waves can be impressed upon brain wave patterns of animals. Rusinov and his coworkers have reported the presence of steady-potential levels in various parts of the brain which may be physiological correlates of the perceptual 'state' of a person. These areas of electrical potential shift and change more slowly than do the electrical potentials of individual neurons. The oscillation frequency of these steady-potential levels range from approximately .5 to 1 hz.
Rusinov has created artificial 'steady-potential levels' or 'dominant foci' by applying a six-millivolt (six thousandths of a volt) electrical potential to the motor cortex of animals. The motor cortex is the part of the brain that controls muscle movement. Presenting a ten hz audio tone to an animal with a six millivolt potential injected into the part of the cortex corresponding to its left forelimb, results in muscle flexion and movement of the left forelimb. After ten or so presentations of the tone in the presence of the electrical 'dominant focus', a ten hz 'tracer' wave is found to occur in the area of the 'dominant focus', and the ten hz tone continues to cause the forelimb movement even after the six millivolt potential has been removed. This provides a physiological correlate of the classical conditioning phenomena first demonstrated by Pavlov (1927).
Rusinov has suggested that these dominant foci are similar in character to what is naturally produced in the brain by the action of the reticular activating system when ones attention is focused. (The reticular activating system is a very diffuse neuron network in the brain associated with the level of arousal of the brain.) These naturally occurring areas of electrical excitation may be the physiological correlates of the perceptual state of consciousness at that instant. Over time, these dominants shift and dissolve, to be replaced by others in the stream of consciousness. The various perceptual states are usually associated with specific frequencies (i.e. alert consciousness - fifteen to thirty hz, relaxation or meditation - five to ten hz, and sleep- zero to four hz).
There is considerable theoretical support for these observed brain activities based upon well-established principles of electromagnetic interaction. When an electric current flows through a conductor, whether that conductor is a wire or a neuron, it generates an electromagnetic field or 'radio wave'. The laws of physics require that each neural loop generate electromagnetic waves that are resonant at specific frequencies corresponding to the length of time it takes for the electrical signal to traverse the loop. (Longer loops will have longer transit times and will feedback at lower frequencies.) The loops are, in effect, miniature radio antennae each transmitting information about a sensory event that has occurred.
Depending on what sensory information is occurring in the external environment, a certain set of these neural loops will be generating electromagnetic waves and the waves generated will interact, creating an interference pattern which is a holographic representation of the external environment. If a wave pattern remains long enough, it may alter the chemical responsiveness of the neural loops, thus providing a means by which the rhythm may be reproduced. The change in internal chemistry may change the rate at which charges can move through the neural loop and thus predispose the loop to respond only to specific frequencies or their harmonics (whole number multiples of the original frequency).
When a second set of sensory inputs occur, the frequencies already present and those coming in will affect the overall energy level in given regions of the brain. If the energy peaks are in step with each other they will add and if they are not they will subtract. (This is essentially the same thing that occurs in holography when light waves interfere with one another.) Inputs, which are coordinated with the presently existing pattern, will gain in strength and increase the overall response of the brain to them. Other neural loops may also start resonating to them. Thus, inputs that are repetitive will tend to gain strength relative to the overall background pattern of energy. They will stand out from the general background and become areas of focus.
Naturally, one's own heart rate and breathing pattern will be among the dominant rhythms which occur in the brain at all times. They interact with and modify the other fields present in the brain, altering the interference pattern accordingly. These rhythms will be 'stored' as a part of the overall hologram because neural loops will be more responsive to them. They will acquire the subjective value of ‘self’ or ‘that which is always present’. Newly generated holograms created by sensory input as we move through our environment may then be interpreted by the ever-present reference beam of 'self' or consciousness. Consciousness is not a true laser beam, but it is in a sense coherent in that its basic physiological rhythms maintain themselves over a period of time and have continuity. Meditation is one way of strengthening the reference beam of consciousness. Listening to a stereophonically generated Alpha Rhythm is another.
As other patterns from the environment mix with or beat against the internal rhythms, they will emerge to a greater or lesser degree as dominant energies and frequencies. These less frequent regularities of pattern will merge into concepts similar to the concept of self, but of slightly less importance. Because new sensory inputs that are similar will stimulate and activate these developing concepts, they will become the referents to which new stimuli are compared. It should be noted that this will occur in much the same way that Bergson’s earlier layers of memory modify the later layers. The complexes of energy fields that remain active in the brain form a consistent pattern of self and memory with which new holograms are continually compared via holographic interference of waveforms. Consciousness thus develops a memory and a sense of self that is essentially the same ‘self’ that has existed over the length of time that the brain has existed. It has constancy and consistency like Bergson’s snowball, but with perhaps greater flexibility.
As we think and perceive, the 'reference beam' which we refer to as consciousness interacts with the fluid hologram of experience and briefly attaches itself to a portion of it. We understand brief interaction as the duration of 'nowness' or the present. We do not experience the 'now' as a single fixed hologram like a vacation slide of the Grand Canyon. Instead, we compare the present input with the totality of our past experience and the internal representation we have constructed of the immediate past. The interaction of sensory signals, our internal bodily functions, and our memory creates the total holographic interference pattern that we experience at any given moment.
Copyright © 2006 Applied Cognitive Science
http://appliedcognitivescience.net/Holographic%20Memory.html
Neuroscientist, Karl Pribram was originally struck by the similarity of the hologram idea and Bohm's idea of the implicate order in physics, and contacted him for collaboration. In particular, the fact that information about an image point is distributed throughout the hologram, such that each piece of the hologram contains some information about the entire image, seemed suggestive to Pribram about how the brain could encode memories. Pribram was encouraged in this line of speculation by the fact that DeValois and DeValois had found that "the spatial frequency encoding displayed by cells of the visual cortex was best described as a Fourier transform of the input pattern." This holographic idea led to the coining of the term "holonomic" to describe the idea in wider contexts than just holograms.
The theory was first developed by Karl Pribram in collaboration with David Bohm (a protege of Albert Einstein's). Holographic Memory (or as Pribram and Bohm refer to it Holonomic Memory) is based on the principle that memory is stored in the brain in much the same way that information is stored on a three-dimensional holographic image. The three-dimensional aspect of holography allows for much more detailed storage of information.
In fact, "state of the art" computer research is presently focused on using holographic storage to increase the capacities of our computers a thousand fold. The characteristics of the electromagnetic potentials in the brain provide a three-dimensional mechanism for storage of our human experiences which can be "read" (remembered) using the coherent rhythm of our consciousness. Normally our heartbeat and breathing rate provide that coherent rhythm, however, meditation which generates alpha rhythms (or the beat frequency of alpha tones of the holographic memory mp3) create a much more precise rhythm to store and read this information.
Earlier, researchers like Lorente de No, in 1938 and Burns, in 1954 demonstrated the presence of oscillating loops in brain tissue that sustain themselves for periods of up to thirty minutes without additional input. It is likely that the electrical oscillations in these loops alter the internal chemistry of neural cells to make them more responsive to similar rhythmic oscillations later, thus providing a physiological basis for memory storage. Hilgard and Marquis in 1940 and Hebb in1949 did, in fact, suggest that these neural reverberating loops were responsible for memory storage.
Dr. Rafeal Elul among others has carried out experiments demonstrating that individual neurons not only produce electrical pulse trains, but also emit and absorb extremely low frequency electromagnetic waves of ten to one hundred hertz. [One hertz is equal to one cycle per second. It is abbreviated, 'hz'.] Each neural loop is thus capable of acting as an extremely low frequency radio transmitter and receiver. Other research confirms that the brain is very responsive to extremely low frequencies. Moruzzi and McGoun (1954) demonstrated that exposure to brain stimulation at extremely low frequencies could make an animal very alert at 300 hz or fall asleep at ten hertz. Gavalas-Medici (1977) reported that after four hours exposure to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields, monkeys experienced time distortion and their brain waves were matched in phase and frequency with the imposed waves. Other studies with human subjects indicate that humans have longer reaction times when exposed to frequencies of three to seven hz and shorter reaction times when exposed to frequencies of ten to twelve hz (Konig, 1962; Hamer, 1966; and Friedman, Becker, & Bachman, 1967).
Both V.I. Rusinov (1973) and E. Roy John (1967) have demonstrated that extremely low frequency 'tracer' waves can be impressed upon brain wave patterns of animals. Rusinov and his coworkers have reported the presence of steady-potential levels in various parts of the brain which may be physiological correlates of the perceptual 'state' of a person. These areas of electrical potential shift and change more slowly than do the electrical potentials of individual neurons. The oscillation frequency of these steady-potential levels range from approximately .5 to 1 hz.
Rusinov has created artificial 'steady-potential levels' or 'dominant foci' by applying a six-millivolt (six thousandths of a volt) electrical potential to the motor cortex of animals. The motor cortex is the part of the brain that controls muscle movement. Presenting a ten hz audio tone to an animal with a six millivolt potential injected into the part of the cortex corresponding to its left forelimb, results in muscle flexion and movement of the left forelimb. After ten or so presentations of the tone in the presence of the electrical 'dominant focus', a ten hz 'tracer' wave is found to occur in the area of the 'dominant focus', and the ten hz tone continues to cause the forelimb movement even after the six millivolt potential has been removed. This provides a physiological correlate of the classical conditioning phenomena first demonstrated by Pavlov (1927).
Rusinov has suggested that these dominant foci are similar in character to what is naturally produced in the brain by the action of the reticular activating system when ones attention is focused. (The reticular activating system is a very diffuse neuron network in the brain associated with the level of arousal of the brain.) These naturally occurring areas of electrical excitation may be the physiological correlates of the perceptual state of consciousness at that instant. Over time, these dominants shift and dissolve, to be replaced by others in the stream of consciousness. The various perceptual states are usually associated with specific frequencies (i.e. alert consciousness - fifteen to thirty hz, relaxation or meditation - five to ten hz, and sleep- zero to four hz).
There is considerable theoretical support for these observed brain activities based upon well-established principles of electromagnetic interaction. When an electric current flows through a conductor, whether that conductor is a wire or a neuron, it generates an electromagnetic field or 'radio wave'. The laws of physics require that each neural loop generate electromagnetic waves that are resonant at specific frequencies corresponding to the length of time it takes for the electrical signal to traverse the loop. (Longer loops will have longer transit times and will feedback at lower frequencies.) The loops are, in effect, miniature radio antennae each transmitting information about a sensory event that has occurred.
Depending on what sensory information is occurring in the external environment, a certain set of these neural loops will be generating electromagnetic waves and the waves generated will interact, creating an interference pattern which is a holographic representation of the external environment. If a wave pattern remains long enough, it may alter the chemical responsiveness of the neural loops, thus providing a means by which the rhythm may be reproduced. The change in internal chemistry may change the rate at which charges can move through the neural loop and thus predispose the loop to respond only to specific frequencies or their harmonics (whole number multiples of the original frequency).
When a second set of sensory inputs occur, the frequencies already present and those coming in will affect the overall energy level in given regions of the brain. If the energy peaks are in step with each other they will add and if they are not they will subtract. (This is essentially the same thing that occurs in holography when light waves interfere with one another.) Inputs, which are coordinated with the presently existing pattern, will gain in strength and increase the overall response of the brain to them. Other neural loops may also start resonating to them. Thus, inputs that are repetitive will tend to gain strength relative to the overall background pattern of energy. They will stand out from the general background and become areas of focus.
Naturally, one's own heart rate and breathing pattern will be among the dominant rhythms which occur in the brain at all times. They interact with and modify the other fields present in the brain, altering the interference pattern accordingly. These rhythms will be 'stored' as a part of the overall hologram because neural loops will be more responsive to them. They will acquire the subjective value of ‘self’ or ‘that which is always present’. Newly generated holograms created by sensory input as we move through our environment may then be interpreted by the ever-present reference beam of 'self' or consciousness. Consciousness is not a true laser beam, but it is in a sense coherent in that its basic physiological rhythms maintain themselves over a period of time and have continuity. Meditation is one way of strengthening the reference beam of consciousness. Listening to a stereophonically generated Alpha Rhythm is another.
As other patterns from the environment mix with or beat against the internal rhythms, they will emerge to a greater or lesser degree as dominant energies and frequencies. These less frequent regularities of pattern will merge into concepts similar to the concept of self, but of slightly less importance. Because new sensory inputs that are similar will stimulate and activate these developing concepts, they will become the referents to which new stimuli are compared. It should be noted that this will occur in much the same way that Bergson’s earlier layers of memory modify the later layers. The complexes of energy fields that remain active in the brain form a consistent pattern of self and memory with which new holograms are continually compared via holographic interference of waveforms. Consciousness thus develops a memory and a sense of self that is essentially the same ‘self’ that has existed over the length of time that the brain has existed. It has constancy and consistency like Bergson’s snowball, but with perhaps greater flexibility.
As we think and perceive, the 'reference beam' which we refer to as consciousness interacts with the fluid hologram of experience and briefly attaches itself to a portion of it. We understand brief interaction as the duration of 'nowness' or the present. We do not experience the 'now' as a single fixed hologram like a vacation slide of the Grand Canyon. Instead, we compare the present input with the totality of our past experience and the internal representation we have constructed of the immediate past. The interaction of sensory signals, our internal bodily functions, and our memory creates the total holographic interference pattern that we experience at any given moment.
Copyright © 2006 Applied Cognitive Science
http://appliedcognitivescience.net/Holographic%20Memory.html