Abstract
Feelings are by definition subjectively felt by organisms, but their molecular basis remains enigmatic. Assuming that feelings evolved, selection must act on some kind of biophysical patterning. Analogous processes seem to operate at a cellular level because anaesthetics work on single-celled protists, as well as animals such as Drosophila with relatively simple brains. Volatile anaesthetics suppress respiratory complex I, which we show induces reversal of the ATP synthase, increasing membrane potential and ROS flux. Recent work suggests that anaesthetics may disrupt the chirally induced spin polarization of respiratory electrons in complex I. Given that this spin polarization must be lost on quinone reduction, we argue that anaesthetics disrupt local magnetic fields generated by complex I alone. We calculate that oscillating fields from parallel cristae could be amplified up to hundreds of micro-Tesla, sufficient to influence the behaviour of voltage-gated channels in neuronal membranes over distances of 1-10 μm, potentially modulating neural firing and so conscious states. These oscillating fields depend on the specific orientation and morphology of cristae in synaptic or brainstem mitochondria, which we predict would be dynamic in real-time, influencing EEG traces directly. But why would mitochondrial electromagnetic fields become associated with sentience? Mitochondria derive from bacteria, whose plasma membrane interfaces between the outside world and metabolism within, acting as a Markov blanket. Metabolism dynamically generates electrical membrane potential while at once being powered by it, making membrane potential uniquely sensitive to global changes in cell state relative to the environment. Cells detect multiple stimuli through automated feedback loops, but genetic responses typically take minutes or hours, when decisions must be immediate and binary (move or stay put). A feeling is an organism’s best guess (inference) as to its state in the world, given incomplete information. We show that the shifting balance of electrostatic to electromagnetic fields from the plasma membrane can give an integrated real-time readout of state that guides action. Feelings are intrinsically subjective membrane-derived fields corresponding to physiological states, elaborated by selection in the brains of sentient animals.