Quantum-like model for unconscious–conscious interaction and emotional coloring of perceptions and other conscious experiences

Abstract

Quantum measurement theory is applied to quantum-like modeling of coherent generation of perceptions and emotions and generally for emotional coloring of conscious experiences. In quantum theory, a system should be separated from an observer. The brain performs self-measurements. To model them, we split the brain into two subsystems, unconsciousness and consciousness. They correspond to a system and an observer. The states of perceptions and emotions are described through the tensor product decomposition of the unconscious state space; similarly, there are two classes of observables, for conscious experiencing of perceptions and emotions, respectively. Emotional coloring is coupled to quantum contextuality: emotional observables determine contexts. Such contextualization reduces degeneration of unconscious states. The quantum-like approach should be distinguished from consideration of the genuine quantum physical processes in the brain (cf. Penrose and Hameroff). In our approach the brain is a macroscopic system which information processing can be described by the formalism of quantum theory. The paper is concluded with experimental test of contextual emotional coloring of conscious experiences based on Bell type inequalities which are treated in the contextual framework.