Within the context of a matrix formulation of quantum mechanics and information theory, it is pointed out that microscopic components of the quantized extracellular potential of the animal cortex form the tape of a quantal Turing machine. The mechanism of the scanning of the tape by the machine is studied first by the application of the quantum theory of measurement to the interaction of a cell with a component of the potential, and then in macroscopic terms. In the macrocopic theory it is shown that scanning implies a large amplification of components of the potential with particular frequencies in the channels that permeate the cellular membrane, and is a necessary consequence of the electric metastability of the membrane.

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