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".
^Eccles, John C. (1994). How the self controls its brain. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 3-540-56290-7. OCLC 29634892.
^Beck, Friedrich (2008). "My Odyssey with Sir John Eccles". NeuroQuantology. 6 (2): 161–163. doi:10.14704/nq.2008.6.2.170.
^Beck, Friedrich; Eccles, John C. (1992). "Quantum aspects of brain activity and the role of consciousness" (PDF). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 89 (23): 11357–11361. Bibcode:1992PNAS...8911357B. doi:10.1073/pnas.89.23.11357. PMC 50549. PMID 1333607. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-07-27.
^Beck, Friedrich; Eccles, John C. (1998). "Quantum processes in the brain: A scientific basis of consciousness". Cognitive Studies: Bulletin of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society. 5 (2): 95–109.
^"psychon". Google Books ngram viewer.
^Dunlap, K. (1908). "Concerning Fluctuating and Inaudible Sounds".
and 19 Related for: How the Self Controls Its Brain information
factual knowledge about the colors she now sees, such as the fact of howthe experience of seeing red relates to the physical brain states underlying it...
in vegetative states. Activation in the medial parietal cortex and adjacent posterior cingulate cortex are brain regions that seem to differ between patients...
upon them. Executive functioning skills are howthebrain plans and reacts to situations. Offering new self-regulation strategies allow children to improve...
clawed hands. The joints of Living Brain's limbs can rotate nearly 360 degrees. Originally, Living Brain had external controls on its thorax, with which...
Thebrain is the central organ of the human nervous system, and with the spinal cord makes up the central nervous system. Thebrain consists of the cerebrum...
with the specialist hemispheric functioning of thebrain. The differing world views of the right and left brain (the "Master" and "Emissary" in the title...
project maps the human brain". euractiv. Thornton, Angela (26 June 2023). "How uploading our minds to a computer might become possible". The Conversation...
of whole brain emulation in which a brain scan is used to completely emulate the mental state of the individual in a digital computer. The computer would...
that it is based on a misunderstanding of howthe neurotransmitter dopamine, which operates within thebrain to reward behavior, actually works and can...
the afflicted person may believe themselves to be in a state of rapture or possession. Two areas of thebrain that are important in retrieving self-knowledge...
side of thebrain or the other. The median longitudinal fissure separates the human brain into two distinct cerebral hemispheres, connected by the corpus...
The construct of subjective awareness is thebrain's efficient but imperfect model of its own attention. This approach is intended to explain how awareness...
facility. TheBrain is highly intelligent, self-centered and scheming, while Pinky is good-natured but feeble-minded. In each episode, TheBrain devises...
'passive' limb movement in which an active self does not participate). This brain mechanism is proposed to involve the production of a parallel "efference copy"...
dividing theself that have existed since ancient times: mind vs body left brain vs. right brain (lateralisation of brain function) old brain vs. new brain (frontal...
and autoprogramming and self-maintenance function. Igor Aleksander suggested 12 principles for artificial consciousness: thebrain is a state machine, inner...
patterns increase self-control and social insight. Studies newer than 2005 indicate that thebrain is changing in efficiency well past its twenties, a 'point...
‘idle’ state. These areas of thebrain light up in sequence only when daydreaming. There has yet to be a consensus on howthe process of mind wandering occurs...
Global Information