Quantum Interference in Cognition: Structural Aspects of the Brain

We identify the presence of typically quantum effects, namely superposition and interference, in what happens when human concepts are combined, and provide a quantum model in complex Hilbert space that represents faithfully experimental data measuring the situation of combining concepts. Our model shows how ‘interference of concepts ’ explains the effects of underextension and overextension when two concepts combine to the disjunction of these two concepts. This result supports our earlier hypothesis that human thought has a superposed two-layered structure, one layer consisting of classical logical thought and a superposed layer consisting of quantum conceptual thought. Possible connections with recent findings of a grid-structure for the brain are analyzed, and influences on the mind/brain relation, and consequences on applied disciplines, such as artificial intelligence and quantum computation, are considered