Piezoelectricity in the Pineal Gland: Bio-Crystal Studies Explained

What would it mean if there was piezoelectricity in the pineal gland?

It would mean ambient electromagnetic fields could affect our circadian rhythms. When pressure is applied to piezoelectric crystals, they conduct electricity. The piezoelectric effect is reversible too, so in presence of electric current the crystal will deform on small scales. The pineal gland is responsible for synthesizing melatonin from serotonin, and secretes non-image forming vision receptors. Dysfunction of the pineal gland may be involved in Alzheimer’s, and melatonin irregularities may be involved in depression and sleep disturbances [1].

A quick history of the pineal gland thru time. In ancient Egypt, the eye of Horus represented the pineal gland. In Taoism (China), the pineal gland was mainly referenced as an energy center to be accessed in meditation. Here you can read an explanation of the Taoist practices involving the pineal gland.

Circa 130 BC, Galen provided one of the first descriptions of the pineal gland. Called “conarium”, cone-like in Latin, “pineapple” in Greek, the pineal gland was described as being related to the soul. Syrian Qusta Ibn Luqa circa 130 AD saw the pineal gland as a memory valve or sphincter. He stated those who wish to remember allow the passage between brain ventricles and those who wish to think will isolate the ventricles. Now, the pineal gland isn’t exactly mobile, but it could have electric flow through it, as we will see. This influenced Descartes view, which is often the first instance scholars acknowledge. Descartes called the pineal gland the seat of the soul in the 1500s. People called the pineal gland the “third eye” in Indian traditions of both Hinduism and Buddhism.

In regard to the “third eye” interpretation: The pineal gland secretes a receptor molecule called melanopsin. Melanopsin, has the same prefix as melanin and melatonin meaning “dark”. It is a “dark” receptor, it can detect light but does not form an image. Melanopsin, a retinal ganglion cell, absorbs light centered about 480 nm, in the blue range. [2] This is completely related to why people are saying you should use blue light blocking glasses for viewing computer screens at night for your melatonin production!

Piezoelectricity in the pineal gland: broken pinecone symmetry

We know there are crystals in the brain, some that are supposed to be there, and others that we picked up from modern life. Verified magnetic crystals called magnetite in the brain may be involved with memory. The crystals in the pineal gland are at least calcite, vaterite, aragonite, and hydroxyapatite. [3] These crystals are piezoelectric under certain conditions, such as an asymmetrical arrangement or an electric field changing between AC and DC. The piezoelectric effect in the pineal gland means ambient fields could disrupt its function. If the calcite was arranged like shingles in a pinecone, this would cause sensitivity to electric fields from the inverse piezoelectric effect.

In [5], the first main work on this, faceted and “mullberry-like” crystalline structures were first seen on microscope in a human pineal gland. They concluded the presence of piezoelectric properties present since the probing found non-symmetric forms.

Some researchers noted the resemblance between the calcite and the otoconia in the cochlea of the human ear, as well as the calcite formed by sea urchins. [4] This work finds the second generation harmonic of compounds in the pineal gland. The second generation harmonic is a hallmark of piezoelectric properties. If there is piezoelectricity in the pineal gland, it would produce a second generation harmonic. Calcite, is not normally piezoelectric as it has a symmetric crystalline structure. The researchers propose pineal calcite must have some symmetry breaking properties like the otoconia to produce these results.

“This symmetry breaking would allow both SHG and piezoelectricity. If piezoelectricity were to exist, an electromechanical coupling mechanism to external electromagnetic fields may be possible.”

Baconnier et al 2002 [4]

Read about how the piezoelectric effect works.

The piezoelectric crystals found in the brain

In that 1996 study above, the crystalline forms contained a compound similar to hydroxyapatite, as well as aluminum deposits. They also found relative amounts of other elements present in the tissue, such as aluminum, silicon,
chlorine, potassium, titanium, and zinc. Researchers found many more elements besides those in 1977, such as phosphorus, sulfur, sodium, and nitrogen (consulted, Michotte et al.)

Calcite crystal forms in the pineal gland

Later on in 2002 researchers determined the form of calcium found in the pineal gland was not hydroxyapatite like bone but actually of calcite.

There is considerable effort to ascertain if the concretions in the pineal gland seen time and time again are pathological, from some condition, or physiological, from a bodily function. In 2018 there was more work done to characterize the concretions in the pineal gland. [6] We have mixed phase calcium carbonates. So oxygenated carbon attached to calcium. The concretions have also been called brain sand, made of mixed phase calcite and hydroxyapatite.

They probed and saw the Raman spectra were indicative of CaCO₃ (Vaterite, Calcite and Aragonite). With TEM-SAED probing as well they found “magnetite, wustite, maghemite, hematite, aragonite, calcite, and vaterite.” Magnetite and hematite are magnetic and I explain about magnetite in your brain here.

Next some researchers looked at other biological forms of the crystals in the pineal gland – namely aragonite and types of calcite. “Calcite microcrystals that occur in the pineal gland of the human brain have shown a rare hexagonal morphology that lacks a centre of symmetry – a traditional hallmark of piezoelectricity – as demonstrated by weak but measurable second harmonics generation.” [7]

Specifically they wanted to test longitudinal piezoelectricity, and look at smaller, nano and micro-crystals as they would actually occur in the pineal gland. An important part of this work was that the non-centro-symmetric properties of calcite contributed to the piezoelectric response, and these forms were in the early crustaceans used as samples. Basically, we have reason to believe that if sea urchins could form asymmetrical calcite, so could we.

Structure of Calcite in the pineal gland

During formation, calcite stacks on its longitudinal axis, leading to non-linear optical properties.

Nacre, the iridescent coating on mother of pearl or abalone shell, is an organic bio-mineral containing calcite. One of the most interesting studies elucidating the actual morphology of the pineal gland looked at how the calcite structures might form based on crystal nucleation, similar to nacre. [6]

A protein that regulates calcite formation

Transthyretin, or TTR is made in the pancreas, eye, and brain. TTR has a variety of functions, like transporting retinol, protection from amyloid plaques and the like. But the build up of too much, especially because it is susceptible to mis-folding, inhibit the antioxidant action of melatonin, which is up-regulated by ROS (free radicals). Due to evidence in other animals they decided to test if TTR has any impact on the mineralization process. TTR seems to selectively disallow the growth of calcium carbonate in certain directions.

“We found that the crystals grown in the presence of TTR displayed features such as porosity, incomplete layers, rounded edges and corners and surface dissolutions, which suggested an inhibitory effect of TTR on the mineralization process. We also found a correlation between the effect exerted by TTR and the stability of TTR molecules. The most unstable, aged TTR samples exerted the strongest effect on crystal morphology and formed numerous precipitates on the crystal surfaces, resulting in subsurface voids and fibrillary inclusions. The obtained data lead to the conclusion that unstable TTR molecules precipitate and form a hydrogel that organizes and controls the growth of calcium carbonate crystals.”

Wieczorek et al 2018

Take a look at source [6] if you’d like to see all the different pictures of the crystals that formed. They also took a Raman spectrum and found bands for calcite, so that allotrope of calcium carbonate is in the aggregate as well. Asymmetric calcite thus could lead to piezoelectricity in the pineal gland.

Aged and destabilized TTR molecules produced the most pronounced effects. The result was porous and amorphous crystals. So, TTR controls the morphology of the mineralization and damaged TTR leads to inappropriate formations, it would seem. This only will lead in the future to looking at TTR in studies and possibly correlating to brain scans to see if this nucleation process is pathological, perhaps indirect from TTR quality, or physiological.

Functions of Calcite the pineal gland

What causes the piezoelectric effect in this form of calcite?

In all piezoelectric crystals, there is no center of symmetry. This means that, if you were inside the lattice, the crystal structure DEPENDS on which direction you look. So when the crystal encounters pressure, a physical squeeze, the planes are deformed asymmetrically. Because the deformation is asymmetrical, there is a NET flow of electrons in a particular direction!

Broken crystal symmetry & piezoelectricity explained

Net electron flow = electric current. So there must be electric polarization present, analogous to the magnetic polarization that must be present for a material to be magnetic. Electric dipole is another word for this. In applications of technology, the material is polarized in an electric field, and then retains the polarization as long as it remains above the Curie temperature. Heat will introduce entropic randomness and “re-confuse” the polarization.

A change in pressure, or mechanical stress, can cause the polarization to occur. But the inverse piezoelectric effect is always present as well. So a changing electric field produces a mechanical strain. This is significant with implications for the pineal gland if the piezoelectric calcite crystals are arranged such that piezoelectricity is present.

Any changing electric field felt by glands containing piezoelectric calcite would produce a mechanical deformation, and this could inhibit or promote the synthesis of hormones like melatonin. When glands synthesize hormones, physically the hormones are built by very precise distances between the structures that pass different building blocks around. If a distance or size of substructure changes, the correct building block won’t fit in the puzzle and this could lead to dysfunction.

If you are interested more in visualizing the lack of center of symmetry in piezoelectric materials, this web textbook page has some really nice diagrams. To see how to visualize radial symmetry explained for different shapes, see my full article on seeing angles of rotational symmetry.

Take-aways from these Pineal Crystals

It is almost like if you put a piezoelectric signal through a golden ratio tuned acoustic oscillator, you can create biomimetic devices capable of powerful biofeedback.

Nearly every study included references the neuropathologies implication with the influx of calcium to the pineal gland, such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, and advanced aging. The exact nature of the connection is only idea for looking further. Now after seeing this perspective, you may see consciousness, dreams, or memory in a different light. There are more roads from here at Abnormal Ways besides just piezoelectricity in the pineal gland, such as the golden ratio in the pineal gland, calcite crystals in the cochlea, and other piezoelectric crystals in the human body.

Sources:

[1] Sergina, S. N., Ilyukha, V. A., Morozov, A. V., Antonova, E. P., Bruler, E. S., & Volodina, A. D. (2019). Taxonomic and ethnical dispersion of the phenomenon of pineal concretions in the gerontological context. Advances in Gerontology, 9(2), 232–243. https://doi.org/10.1134/s2079057019020206

[2] Spitschan M. Melanopsin contributions to non-visual and visual function. Curr Opin Behav Sci. 2019 Dec;30:67-72. doi: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2019.06.004. Epub 2019 Jul 28. PMID: 31396546; PMCID: PMC6687502.

[3] Tofail, S. A. M., Mouras, R., McNamara, K., Patyk-Kazmierczak, E., Geaney, H., Zaworotko, M., … Kopáni, M. (2018). Multimodal surface analyses of chemistry and structure of biominerals in rodent pineal gland concretions. Applied Surface Science. doi:10.1016/j.apsusc.2018.10.270 

[4] Baconnier, S., Lang, S. B., Polomska, M., Hilczer, B., Berkovic, G., & Meshulam, G. (2002). Calcite microcrystals in the pineal gland of the human brain: First physical and chemical studies. Bioelectromagnetics, 23(7), 488–495. doi:10.1002/bem.10053 

[5] Lang, S. B., Marino, A. A., Berkovic, G., Fowler, M., & Abreo, K. D. (1996). Piezoelectricity in the human pineal gland. Bioelectrochemistry and Bioenergetics, 41(2), 191–195. doi:10.1016/s0302-4598(96)05147-1 

[6] Wieczorek, E., Chitruń, A., & Ożyhar, A. (2018). Destabilised human transthyretin shapes the morphology of calcium carbonate crystals. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) – General Subjects. doi:10.1016/j.bbagen.2018.10.0

[7] Guerin, S., Tofail, S. A. M., & Thompson, D. (2018). Longitudinal piezoelectricity in natural calcite materials: Preliminary studies. IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, 25(3), 803–807. doi:10.1109/tdei.2017.007045

Consulted:

Jain, G., Pendola, M., Huang, Y.-C., Gebauer, D., & Evans, J. S. (2017). A Model Sea Urchin Spicule Matrix Protein, rSpSM50, Is a Hydrogelator That Modifies and Organizes the Mineralization Process. Biochemistry, 56(21), 2663–2675. doi:10.1021/acs.biochem.7b0008

Калинина, Светлана & Чаженгина, Светлана & Илюха, Виктор & Svetov, Sergei & Хижкин, Евгений & Kalinina, Svetlana & Chazhengina, S. & Ilyukha, Viktor & Svetov, Sergey & Khizhkin, Evgeny. (2021). MORPHOLOGY AND MINERAL COMPOSITION OF PINEAL GLAND CONCRETIONS IN VULPES LAGOPUS L., 1758 (MAMMALIA: CARNIVORA). Proceedings of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 89. 10.17076/them1413.

Historical Sources:

Gheban BA, Rosca IA, Crisan M. The morphological and functional characteristics of the pineal gland. Med Pharm Rep. 2019 Jul;92(3):226-234. doi: 10.15386/mpr-1235. Epub 2019 Jul 31. PMID: 31460502; PMCID: PMC6709953.