Novel Bioelectric Mechanisms and Functional Significance of Peripheral and Central Entrainment by Respiration

Abstract

The human organism is a complex biological system with emergent properties that arise from the unified functional interactions among its diverse components. When studying the brain and body in light of modern biological systems approaches, one must analyze them in a holistic manner, putting aside reductionist models in order to understand how certain properties manifest from complex system interactions. The respiratory system is capable of continuously adapting to changes in the internal and external environment, making it one of the most integrated of physiological processes. We propose an additional respiratory process: respiration-derived electrical currents during inspiration that spread throughout the entire body maintaining homeostasis through entraining oscillatory activity, modulating cognitive processes, and modulating the autonomic nervous system. If these currents are indeed created in part from redox reactions occurring on a massive scale, then we assert they are a major aspect of an embodied cognitive framework. We propose that this potentially major source of organism integrity has been overlooked, and its application to medicine could drastically change how we understand human physiology, the autonomic nervous system, and the therapeutic treatment of various clinical disorders.[1]. This machine bypasses the lungs and heart, oxygenating the blood and pumping it. This technique brings into question whether the lungs or heart is truly needed to survive. However, it has become clear that this technique is not such an impeccable replacement to the cardiopulmonary system as it has resulted in what is known among surgeons as "pumphead" [2]. This syndrome, post perfusion syndrome, is characterized by short and long-term cognitive decline and includes defects in attention, concentration, memory, motor function, and response time [3]. We make a case for the existence of an additional source of required homeostatic energy that may explain this syndrome and a plethora of physiological phenomena. The source of energy we explore is electrical in nature. We propose that an immediate release of electrons via redox reactions occurs during inspiration, as well as hyperpolarizing cells throughout the body and brain, followed by depolarization during expiration. In the case of the "pumphead", we assert the time spent without cardiopulmonary activity which resulted in the patient's deprival of a vital electrical, global entrainment that is provided during respiration. These electrical currents are vital in that they underlie an oscillatory cognitive architecture than can be deconstructed when the energy is absent.The vital electrical currents we describe are unknown to modern science with unknown properties which could be studied from a variety of angles. Research into the formal discovery of this energy and why it may be necessary for cellular and cognitive vitality will likely reveal the origin of the cognitive deficits underlying post perfusion syndrome. We propose that starving cells of this vital homeostatic energ...

From Biological Rhythms to the Default Mode Network: What Lies beneath the Tip of the Iceberg of Mind?

“…We have previously proposed a novel body rhythm which may explain a variety of instantaneous effects observed due to respiration. This rhythm is the distribution of free electrons throughout body and brain from and generated by the lungs [120]. We have proposed that electrons are "harvested" from oxygen via redox reactions in the lungs during inspiration and travel via conduction to cells throughout the body where they attach to intracellular proteins and acids.…”