Minnesota NeuroSpin Initiative Seminar Series: Dec 2022

The Minnesota NeuroSpin Initiative is pleased to invite you to its fourth seminar for the Fall 2022/Spring 2023 season. On December 2, Christian Kerskens, PhD, Lead Physicist, Trinity Institute of Neurosciences will discuss his recent work related to:

Exploring the quantum brain with MRI entanglement witnesses 
Speculations about quantum operations in consciousness and cognition have a long history. Here, I will explore the idea that an unknown quantum operator in the brain could mediate entanglement to known quantum systems, like the proton spins measured with MRI. This indirect approach has the advantage that it can circumvent the problem to measure unknown quantum systems. This measurement problem is probably the foremost reason why quantum effects of the brain haven't been found before. Further, I will discuss how entanglement may influence the MRI signal, and under which circumstances it can be clearly differentiated from non-entangled signals. Finally, I will investigate if the brain may also “disentangle”.

Seminar Details

Seminar Host

  • Prof. Jian-Ping Wang, University of Minnesota 

Seminar Speaker

  • Christian Kerskens, PhD, Lead Physicist, Trinity Institute of Neurosciences

Date and Time

  • December 2, 2022
  • 11:30am-12:30pm CT

Location
Virtual Via Zoom - Link will be provided upon registration

This is past event and Registration is closed. 

Watch the Video Recording 

Speaker Bio

Christian Kerskens.

Christian Kerskens received a diploma (M.Sc.) in physics from the University of Cologne (1993), where he also obtained his PhD after holding a Scholarship at the Max-Planck Institute for neurological research (1997). After postdoctoral positions at the Humboldt University in Berlin and the Donders Center in Nijmegen, he moved to his current position at the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience.