Some recent experiments on cavitation of water by ultrasounds and on electric explosion of foils ... more Some recent experiments on cavitation of water by ultrasounds and on electric explosion of foils in liquids seem to provide evidence for nuclear processes induced by pressure waves (piezonuclear reactions). We hypothesize that such a kind of mechanism can be effective in stellar nucleosynthesis of both light and heavy nuclei.
We review the dissipative quantum model of brain and present recent developments related with the... more We review the dissipative quantum model of brain and present recent developments related with the r\^ole of entanglement, quantum noise and chaos in the model.
From su(2) gauge theory to spin 1/2 quantum mechanics
We consider a pure SU(2) gauge theory, and make an ansatz for the gauge field, which is gauge-inv... more We consider a pure SU(2) gauge theory, and make an ansatz for the gauge field, which is gauge-invariant but manifestly non-Lorentz invariant. In a limit case of the ansatz, corresponding to a vacuum solution, the SU(2) gauge field reduces to a spin 1/2 observable times the generator of a global U(1). We find that the field equations written in terms of the ansatz make explicit the presence of an anomalous current which vanishes in the vacuum. This allows to interpret the components of the U(1) field as Goldstone bosons associated with the spontaneous breaking of Lorentz symmetry. Finally, we give an interpretation of the ansatz in the context of principal fiber bundles, which enlightens the geometrical aspects of the reduction of the gauge field theory to quantum mechanics.
We consider the theoretical setting of a superfluid like 3He in a rotating container, which is se... more We consider the theoretical setting of a superfluid like 3He in a rotating container, which is set between the two layers of a type-II superconductor. We describe the superfluid vortices as a 2-dimensional Ising-like model on a triangular lattice in presence of local magnetic fields. The interaction term of the superfluid vortices with the Abrikosov vortices of the superconductor appears then as a symmetry breaking term in the free energy. Such a term gives a higher probability of quantum tunnelling across the potential barrier for bubbles nucleation, thus favouring quantum cavitation. Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures
The actual (classical) Brain-Computer Interface attempts to use brain signals to drive suitable a... more The actual (classical) Brain-Computer Interface attempts to use brain signals to drive suitable actuators performing the actions corresponding to subject's intention. However this goal is not fully reached, and when BCI works, it does only in particular situations. The reason of this unsatisfactory result is that intention cannot be conceived simply as a set of classical input-output relationships. It is therefore necessary to resort to quantum theory, allowing the occurrence of stable coherence phenomena, in turn underlying high-level mental processes such as intentions and strategies. More precisely, within the context of a dissipative Quantum Field Theory of brain operation it is possible to introduce generalized coherent states associated, within the framework of logic, to the assertions of a quantum metalanguage. The latter controls the quantum-mechanical computing corresponding to standard mental operation. It thus become possible to conceive a Quantum Cyborg in which a hu...
Biology and culture, consciousness and the world, subject and object, inner and outer have contin... more Biology and culture, consciousness and the world, subject and object, inner and outer have continuity and find, in the "creative transcendence” of consciousness and its experiences, a privileged degree of understanding. This paper aims to show: 1) The validity of the phenomenological approach to consciousness and the subsequent interpretation of memory, expression of the “ego” as a continuous narrative of “self”, which persists even in the face of minimal consciential conditions, perhaps, even including traumatic brain injuries, justified on the bio molecular level, with the hypothesis that Schrödinger proteins (i.e. tubulins) are the biological interface from quantum to classical computation into quantum/classical consciousness processes and at the crossroad of memories and learning capacities. 2) That a molecular structure, such as tubulin, can effectively modulate the state of consciousness through the changes that occur within it. 3) A plausible hypothesis about the existan...
The communication of uncertain and certain information is essential for individual behaviour and ... more The communication of uncertain and certain information is essential for individual behaviour and decision making. But many subjects have difficulty in understanding uncertainty-related problems. This difficulty can depend on the way in which materials are presented and communicated: for example, whether this is verbalnumerical or graphical. We measured subjects’ performances when solving uncertainty- related problems in relation to the format of problem presentation, aiming to detect the graphical facilitation effect potentially produced by Euler-Venn and Iconic diagrams. Through a quasi-experimental mixed design, we analysed the performance of 229 undergraduate students in solving two paired uncertainty-related problems under conditions of time pressure. Applying a non-parametric statistical data analysis, we found a graphical facilitation effect, particularly with Euler-Venn diagrams.
ABSTRACT Abstract: Typical attractor neural networks (ANN) used to model associative memories beh... more ABSTRACT Abstract: Typical attractor neural networks (ANN) used to model associative memories behave like disordered systems, as the asymptotic state of their dynamics depends in a crucial (and often unpredictable) way on the chosen initial state. In this paper we suggest that this circumstance occurs only when we deal with such ANN as isolated systems. If we introduce a suitable control, coming from the interaction with a reactive external environment, then the disordered nature of ANN dynamics can be reduced, or even disappear. To support this claim we resort to a simple example based on a version of Hopfield autoassociative memory model interacting with an external environment which modifies the network weights as a function of the equilibrium state coming from retrieval dynamics.
IEEE International Workshop on Cellular Neural Networks and their Applications, 1994
In this contribution neuronic cellular automata, a particular subcase of DTCNN, are studied from ... more In this contribution neuronic cellular automata, a particular subcase of DTCNN, are studied from the point of view of the influence of the distribution of their connection weights on their dynamic behavior and on their spatial correlation length
We discuss some features of the dissipative quantum model of brain in the frame of the formalism ... more We discuss some features of the dissipative quantum model of brain in the frame of the formalism of quantum dissipation. Such a formalism is based on the doubling of the system degrees of freedom. We show that the doubled modes account for the quantum noise in the fluctuating random force in the system-environment coupling. Remarkably, such a noise manifests itself through the coherent structure of the system ground state. The entanglement of the system modes with the doubled modes is shown to be permanent in the infinite volume limit. In such a limit the trajectories in the memory space are classical chaotic trajectories.
Methods, Models, Simulations And Approaches Towards A General Theory Of Change, 2012
Among the most important abilities evidenced by human (and animal) visual system there is the one... more Among the most important abilities evidenced by human (and animal) visual system there is the one related to grouping of spatially distributed image fragments into emergent entities, perceived as objects and associated with well defined boundary contours. This sort of perceptual binding operates on very short time scales, more or less of the order of the ones characterizing iconic memory (100-200ms). Its explanation is a challenge for all models of visual cortex operation, mostly because the perceived boundary contours, as shown by a huge number of phenomenological investigations, can be illusory, that is occurring in absence of a real physical stimulation. Almost all researchers tried to account for these facts by resorting to neural network based models of visual cortex operation. In these models suitable computational units (more or less similar to biological neurons) are activated by the external stimulations and cooperate in such a way as to make emergent an activation pattern, in turn identified with the pattern of contours of phenomenologically perceived objects. These models have two advantages: on one hand they can be designed in such a way as to embody, as much as possible, realistic features of brain neurons, and, on the other hand, they can easily be simulated on computers, such as to compare directly their behaviour with behavioural data gained from human or animal subjects. Unfortunately they lack an understandable account of the emergence supposed to underlie the ability described above. The attribute "understandable" means that the operation of the models themselves should be derivable as a consequence of more general principles, such as the ones introduced, for instance, by Gestalt psychologists (like prägnanz) or by theories of emergence based on phase transitions (like symmetry breaking). In more recent times (but relying on a long history of previously proposed models) Grossberg and coworkers introduced a complex model of visual cortex operation, called sLAMINART model, based on spiking neurons (so far the more realistic models of biological neuron operation), and able to account for all available evidence about perceptual grouping and illusory contours perception. The model, however, is characterized by a very large number of parameters and gives reliable results if and only if the values of these parameters are tuned in a suitable way. In other terms, the hypothesized emergence is nothing but a by-product of a special (and very complex) design of the model components and of their interrelationships. Such a circumstance prompted us to ask ourselves whether the performance of this model could be replicated by resorting to simpler neural network models, but based on more transparent general principles, allowing a more explicit comparison with the ones used in the theories of emergence. In this regard we dealt with this question by resorting both to computer simulations and to mathematical arguments. The obtained results can be summarized by saying that, while the role of general principles of emergence can better be detected within our models, only specific choices of some parameter values can give rise to biologically realistic behaviours of models themselves. We interpreted such a circumstance, however, not as an indication that visual cortex models require a very complex design, but rather that it is incorrect to deal with visual perception as if the latter were produced by a single brain subsystem (like the visual cortex). Visual perception is more a general affair of the whole brain, including emotional, motor, cognitive aspects and subsystems (if any). It is just this wholistic brain operation that imposes, each time, different parameter values to the models of visual cortex operation, as a function of the momentary context, goals, motivations, remembered patterns, schemata, emotions.
In this paper we consider the results obtained by biochemical experimental data on platelet membr... more In this paper we consider the results obtained by biochemical experimental data on platelet membrane fatty acids processed by a Self Organizing Map (SOM) from apparently healthy, bi-polar (BD) and major depressive subjects (MDD). The SOM shows that major depressive subjects belong to an area which is completely disconnected from that of healthy and bi-polar. Looking at the location of the data over the SOM, we find also a region which we attribute to psychotic subjects according to the clinical diagnosis. We translated these facts in terms of symmetry breaking, confirming that MDD is a disease completely trapped apart from healthy, bi-polar, and psychotic subjects.
Abstract The classical modeling approach to prey-predator systems relies on extensions of Lotka-V... more Abstract The classical modeling approach to prey-predator systems relies on extensions of Lotka-Volterra differential equations. In this paper a Cellular Automata-based model is proposed as an alternative approach for the simulation of a two population ecosystem of mites. It is shown how several complex features affecting mite population evolution, such as the egg disclosure time, the sexual maturation time, the limited life time, the limited survival capability of predators in fasting condition, and juvenile mortality, can be embedded in the ...
Right brain damaged patients affected by contralesional object-centred neglect are able to proces... more Right brain damaged patients affected by contralesional object-centred neglect are able to process all objects around them but systematically omit the left part of these objects. We show that pure object-centred neglect can be simulated by a basis function neural network in which the activity of units allowing head-centred coding of space is based on the activity of gaze-dependent units with no lateral gradient of preferred eye positions along the horizontal space. This type of network simulates complete dissociation between object-centred and egocentric neglect, as observed in patients' copies of multi-item drawings. Based on these results and available neurophysiological, clinical and brain imaging data, it is proposed that disruption of a cerebral network including dorsal occipital and parietal areas and the supplementary eye fields could be the main cause of object-centred neglect.
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Papers by Eliano Pessa