Quantum Aether Neuroscience (QAN): Consciousness as Integrated Phase Information

Quantum Aether Neuroscience (QAN) extends the Quantum Aether Framework (QAF) into the domain of mind by proposing a physically grounded model of consciousness based on coherent phase integration in biological neural systems. Rather than treating the brain as a symbolic or computational device, QAN models neural activity as a resonant, impedance-mediated system operating within a continuous dielectric substrate. Within this framework, neurons are treated as nonlinear oscillators, synapses as impedance interfaces, and neural integration as a hierarchy of phase-locked coherence bands. Learning emerges as impedance adaptation driven by energetic optimization, memory as stable attractor states within a phase landscape, and conscious awareness as reflexive coherence closure—defined as a system’s ability to regulate its own integrated phase structure. QAN introduces seven core physical laws governing neural coherence, integration, learning, and awareness, along with a corollary describing the entropic fragility of conscious states under coherence degradation. The framework is explicitly constrained, falsifiable, and compatible with established electrodynamics, thermodynamics, and neuroscience, while offering an alternative physical interpretation to computational and emergentist models of mind. This work is intended as a foundational contribution, establishing a testable physical substrate for consciousness that bridges biology and physics without invoking metaphysical assumptions. Subsequent work extends these principles toward language, cognition, and symbolic compression. This paper is part of the Quantum Aether Framework (QAF) series, which develops a unified physical ontology across cosmology, electrodynamics, biology, and neuroscience. Other Works in the QAF Series Quantum Aether Neuroscience (QAN) Quantum Aether Linguistics (QAL) Quantum Aether Physics (QAP) Quantum Aether Science (QAS) Quantum Aether Cosmology (QAC) Quantum Aether Electrodynamics (QAE) Quantum Aether Harmonics & Chemistry (QAHC) Quantum Aether Biology (QAB) Terra Quantum Aether (TQA) The Drift Velocity Paradox: Why Electrical Current Cannot Be Particle Transport Quantum Aether Framework