How the SELF Controls Its BRAIN

In this book the author has collected a number of his important works and added an extensive commentary relating his ideas to those of other prominent names in the consciousness debate. The view presented here is that of a convinced dualist who challenges in a lively and humorous way the prevailing materialist 'doctrines' of many recent works. Also included is a new attempt, co-authored by the quantum physicist F. Beck, to explain the mind-brain interaction via a quantum process affecting the release of neurotransmitters. John Eccles received a knighthood in 1958 and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine/Physiology in 1963. He has numerous other awards honouring his major contributions to neurophysiology. Contents: The Problem.- Dualist-Interactionism - My story.- Commentaries on the Mind-Brain Problem.- New Light on the Mind-Brain Problem: How mental events could influence neural events.- Do mental events cause neural events analogously to the probability fields of quantum mechanics?- A unitary hypothesis of mind-brain interaction in the cerebral cortex.- Evolution of Consciousness.- Evolution of complexity of the brain with the emergence of consciousness.- Quantum Aspects of Brain Activity and the Role of Consciousness.- The Self and its Brain: The Ultimate Synthesis.

John Eccles, Nobel prize winner for Neurophysiology and collaborator of Sir Karl Popper, addresses here the ultimate human mystery of the mind-brain interaction. Recent scientific advances have led to a new wave of interest in this subject. This book will appeal to a broad audience of scientists as well as lay readers.