---
title: "Electromagnetic theories of consciousness"
chunk: 2/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_theories_of_consciousness"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:37:35.847467+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

The concepts underlying this theory derive from the physicists, Hiroomi Umezawa and Herbert Fröhlich in the 1960s. More recently, their ideas have been elaborated by Mari Jibu and Kunio Yasue. Water comprises 70% of the brain, and quantum brain dynamics (QBD) proposes that the electric dipoles of the water molecules constitute a quantum field, referred to as the cortical field, with corticons as the quanta of the field. This cortical field is postulated to interact with quantum coherent waves generated by the biomolecules in neurons, which are suggested to propagate along the neuronal network. The idea of quantum coherent waves in the neuronal network derives from Fröhlich. He viewed these waves as a means by which order could be maintained in living systems, and argued that the neuronal network could support long-range correlation of dipoles. This theory suggests that the cortical field not only interacts with the neuronal network, but also to a good extent controls it.
The proponents of QBD differ somewhat as to the way in which consciousness arises in this system. Jibu and Yasue suggest that the interaction between the energy quanta (corticons) of the quantum field and the biomolecular waves of the neuronal network produces consciousness. However, another theorist, Giuseppe Vitiello, proposes that the quantum states produce two poles, a subjective representation of the external world and also the internal self.

== GlymphoVasomotor Field (GVF) theory ==
Proposed in 2025 by Shalin S. Bhatt and colleagues and published in Medical Hypotheses, the GVF theory suggests that phasic locus-coeruleus norepinephrine modulates arteriolar vasomotion, which in turn drives ionic cerebrospinal-fluid (CSF) flow whose moving charges generate weak, structured electromagnetic fields that can bias and entrain large-scale neural rhythms associated with conscious states. Unlike neuron-only EM accounts (e.g., cemi theory), GVF emphasizes a vascular/glymphatic source of the relevant field generation, framing the field’s role as modulatory rather than constitutive. Bhatt has likened the idea to an orchestra; neurons as “instruments” and pulsatile, ion-charged CSF flow as a “conductor” that helps coordinate rhythms via delicate EM fields. The proposal remains speculative; related work indicates that norepinephrine-mediated slow vasomotion can facilitate glymphatic clearance during sleep, providing physiological context for part of the mechanism without addressing consciousness.

== Advantages ==
Locating consciousness in the brain's EM field, rather than the neurons, has the advantage of neatly accounting for how information located in millions of neurons scattered through the brain can be unified into a single conscious experience (called the binding problem): the information is unified in the EM field. In this way, EM field consciousness can be considered to be "joined-up information". This theory accounts for several otherwise puzzling facts, such as the finding that attention and awareness tend to be correlated with the synchronous firing of multiple neurons rather than the firing of individual neurons. When neurons fire together, their EM fields generate stronger EM field disturbances; so synchronous neuron firing will tend to have a larger impact on the brain's EM field (and thereby consciousness) than the firing of individual neurons. However their generation by synchronous firing is not the only important characteristic of conscious electromagnetic fields—in Pockett's original theory, spatial pattern is the defining feature of a conscious (as opposed to a non-conscious) field.

== Objections ==
In a circa-2002 publication of The Journal of Consciousness Studies, the electromagnetic theory of consciousness faced an uphill battle for acceptance among cognitive scientists.
"No serious researcher I know believes in an electromagnetic theory of consciousness", Bernard Baars wrote in an e-mail. Baars is a neurobiologist and co-editor of Consciousness and Cognition, another scientific journal in the field. "It's not really worth talking about scientifically", he was quoted as saying.
McFadden acknowledges that his theory, which he calls the "cemi field theory", is far from proven but he argues that it is certainly a legitimate line of scientific inquiry. His article underwent peer review before publication.
The field theories of consciousness do not appear to have been as widely discussed as other quantum consciousness theories, such as those of Penrose, Stapp or Bohm. However, David Chalmers argues against quantum consciousness. He instead discusses how quantum mechanics may relate to dualistic consciousness. Chalmers is skeptical that any new physics can resolve the hard problem of consciousness. He argues that quantum theories of consciousness suffer from the same weakness as more conventional theories. Just as he argues that there is no particular reason why particular macroscopic physical features in the brain should give rise to consciousness, he also thinks that there is no particular reason why a particular quantum feature, such as the EM field in the brain, should give rise to consciousness either. Despite the existence of transcranial magnetic stimulation with medical purposes, Y. H. Sohn, A. Kaelin-Lang and M. Hallett have denied it, and later Jeffrey Gray states in his book Consciousness: Creeping up on the Hard Problem, that tests looking for the influence of electromagnetic fields on brain function have been universally negative in their result. However, a number of studies have found clear neural effects from EM stimulation.