Electroencephalographic Field Influence on Calcium Momentum Waves

Abstract

Macroscopic electroencephalographic (EEG) fields can be an explicit top-down neocortical mechanism that directly drives bottom-up processes that describe memory, attention, and other neuronal processes. The top-down mechanism considered are macrocolumnar EEG firings in neocortex, as described by a statistical mechanics of neocortical interactions (SMNI), developed as a magnetic vector potential $\mathbf{A}$. The bottom-up process considered are $\mathrm{Ca}^{2 }$ waves prominent in synaptic and extracellular processes that are considered to greatly influence neuronal firings. Here, the complimentary effects are considered, i.e., the influence of $\mathbf{A}$ on $\mathrm{Ca}^{2 }$ momentum, $\mathbf{p}$. The canonical momentum of a charged particle in an electromagnetic field, $\mathbf{\Pi} = \mathbf{p} q \mathbf{A}$ (SI units), is calculated, where the charge of $\mathrm{Ca}^{2 }$ is $q = - 2 e$, $e$ is the magnitude of the charge of an electron. Calculations demonstrate that macroscopic EEG $\mathbf{A}$ can be quite influential on the momentum $\mathbf{p}$ of $\mathrm{Ca}^{2 }$ ions, in both classical and quantum mechanics. Molecular scales of $\mathrm{Ca}^{2 }$ wave dynamics are coupled with $\mathbf{A}$ fields developed at macroscopic regional scales measured by coherent neuronal firing activity measured by scalp EEG. The project has three main aspects: fitting $\mathbf{A}$ models to EEG data as reported here, building tripartite models to develop $\mathbf{A}$ models, and studying long coherence times of $\mathrm{Ca}^{2 }$ waves in the presence of $\mathbf{A}$ due to coherent neuronal firings measured by scalp EEG. The SMNI model supports a mechanism wherein the $\mathbf{p} q \mathbf{A}$ interaction at tripartite synapses, via a dynamic centering mechanism (DCM) to control background synaptic activity, acts to maintain short-term memory (STM) during states of selective attention.