  This paper presents a theory of how feedback cooling in the cortex reduces
thermal noise to the point where quantum mechanics can operate at body
temperature. It revisits the Eccles model of consciousness and builds on it so
that its core anatomical units -- which Eccles called psychons -- function like
a quantum accelerator, a type of quantum computer that supercharges a normal
computer. When the accelerator is idle, as in sleep, we have a neural computer
operating unconsciously, but when switched on, the psychons light up, computing
power multiplies, and consciousness arises. Switching depends on feedback
cooling -- which permits amplifiers to act as refrigerators -- allowing both
Bose-Einstein condensation and quantum computation. Consciousness can then be
identified as the quantum field accompanying that cooling-induced transition.
The model explains how and why consciousness evolved, is testable, and is
philosophically neutral. Quantum accelerators are now commercially available,
but perhaps nature got there first.

Neurons and Cognition;Biological Physics