How the Self Controls Its Brain: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
imported>OAbot m Open access bot: url-access updated in citation with #oabot. |
imported>Comp.arch No longer exists at target, seems to be closest sub-chapter. Maybe (rather) link directly to mind–body problem. Use [The] Brain and the mind for piping? Even "mind (self)" or just self? |
||
| Line 27: | Line 27: | ||
}} | }} | ||
'''''How the Self Controls Its Brain'''''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eccles |first=John C. | '''''How the Self Controls Its Brain'''''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eccles |first=John C. |title=How the self controls its brain |date=1994 |publisher=Springer-Verlag |isbn=3-540-56290-7 |location=Berlin |oclc=29634892}}</ref> is a book by [[John Carew Eccles|Sir John Eccles]], proposing a theory of philosophical [[Mind-body dualism|dualism]], and offering a justification of how there can be mind-brain action without violating the principle of the [[conservation of energy]]. The model was developed jointly with the nuclear physicist [[Friedrich Beck]] in the period 1991–1992.<ref name="Odyssey">{{Cite journal |last=Beck |first=Friedrich |year=2008 |title=My Odyssey with Sir John Eccles |url=http://www.neuroquantology.com/index.php/journal/article/view/170 |journal=[[NeuroQuantology]] |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=161–163|doi=10.14704/nq.2008.6.2.170 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Beck1992">{{Cite journal |last1=Beck |first1=Friedrich |last2=Eccles |first2=John C. |year=1992 |title=Quantum aspects of brain activity and the role of consciousness |url=http://www.pnas.org/content/89/23/11357.full.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727094440/http://www.pnas.org/content/89/23/11357.full.pdf |archive-date=2018-07-27 |url-status=live |journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. |volume=89 |issue=23 |pages=11357–11361 |bibcode=1992PNAS...8911357B |doi=10.1073/pnas.89.23.11357 |pmc=50549 |pmid=1333607 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Beck1998">{{Cite journal |last1=Beck |first1=Friedrich |last2=Eccles |first2=John C. |year=1998 |title=Quantum processes in the brain: A scientific basis of consciousness |url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jcss/5/2/5_2_2_95/_pdf |journal=Cognitive Studies: Bulletin of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=95–109}}</ref> | ||
Eccles called the fundamental neural units of the [[cerebral cortex]] ''"dendrons"'', which are [[Cortical column|cylindrical bundles]] of [[neurons]] arranged vertically in the six outer [[Cerebral cortex#Laminar pattern|layers or laminae]] of the cortex, each cylinder being about 60 [[micrometre]]s in diameter. Eccles proposed that each of the 40 million dendrons is linked with a mental unit, or ''"psychon"'', representing a unitary [[consciousness|conscious]] experience. In willed actions and thought, psychons act on dendrons and, for a moment, increase the probability of the firing of selected [[neuron]]s through [[quantum tunneling]] effect in [[synapse|synaptic]] [[exocytosis]], while in perception the reverse process takes place. | Eccles called the fundamental neural units of the [[cerebral cortex]] ''"dendrons"'', which are [[Cortical column|cylindrical bundles]] of [[neurons]] arranged vertically in the six outer [[Cerebral cortex#Laminar pattern|layers or laminae]] of the cortex, each cylinder being about 60 [[micrometre]]s in diameter. Eccles proposed that each of the 40 million dendrons is linked with a mental unit, or ''"psychon"'', representing a unitary [[consciousness|conscious]] experience. In willed actions and thought, psychons act on dendrons and, for a moment, increase the probability of the firing of selected [[neuron]]s through [[quantum tunneling]] effect in [[synapse|synaptic]] [[exocytosis]], while in perception the reverse process takes place. | ||
;Previous mention of the "psychon" | |||
The earliest prior use of the word "psychon" with a similar meaning<ref>{{Cite web |title=psychon |url=https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=psychon&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cpsychon%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Cpsychon%3B%2Cc1 |website=Google Books ngram viewer}}</ref> of an "element of consciousness" is in the book "Concerning Fluctuating and Inaudible Sounds" by K. Dunlap in 1908.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dunlap |first=K. |year=1908 |title=Concerning Fluctuating and Inaudible Sounds |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-DgvAAAAYAAJ&q=%22psychon%22&pg=RA1-PA40}}</ref> | The earliest prior use of the word "psychon" with a similar meaning<ref>{{Cite web |title=psychon |url=https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=psychon&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cpsychon%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Cpsychon%3B%2Cc1 |website=Google Books ngram viewer}}</ref> of an "element of consciousness" is in the book "Concerning Fluctuating and Inaudible Sounds" by K. Dunlap in 1908.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dunlap |first=K. |year=1908 |title=Concerning Fluctuating and Inaudible Sounds |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-DgvAAAAYAAJ&q=%22psychon%22&pg=RA1-PA40}}</ref> | ||
| Line 37: | Line 37: | ||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
* [[Human brain# | * [[Human brain#The mind|Brain and mind]] | ||
* [[Dualism (philosophy of mind)#Interactionism|Dualistic interactionism]] | * [[Dualism (philosophy of mind)#Interactionism|Dualistic interactionism]] | ||
Latest revision as of 09:53, 25 September 2025
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Wikidata image
How the Self Controls Its Brain[1] is a book by Sir John Eccles, proposing a theory of philosophical dualism, and offering a justification of how there can be mind-brain action without violating the principle of the conservation of energy. The model was developed jointly with the nuclear physicist Friedrich Beck in the period 1991–1992.[2][3][4]
Eccles called the fundamental neural units of the cerebral cortex "dendrons", which are cylindrical bundles of neurons arranged vertically in the six outer layers or laminae of the cortex, each cylinder being about 60 micrometres in diameter. Eccles proposed that each of the 40 million dendrons is linked with a mental unit, or "psychon", representing a unitary conscious experience. In willed actions and thought, psychons act on dendrons and, for a moment, increase the probability of the firing of selected neurons through quantum tunneling effect in synaptic exocytosis, while in perception the reverse process takes place.
- Previous mention of the "psychon"
The earliest prior use of the word "psychon" with a similar meaning[5] of an "element of consciousness" is in the book "Concerning Fluctuating and Inaudible Sounds" by K. Dunlap in 1908.[6] The most popular prior use is in Robert Heinlein's short story Gulf, wherein a character refers to the fastest speed of thought possible as "one psychon per chronon".