 | |
| Author | John Carew Eccles |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Psychology |
| Publisher | Springer-Verlag |
Publication date | 1994 |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Media type | |
| ISBN | 3-540-56290-7 |
| OCLC | 29634892 |
| 128/.2 20 | |
| LC Class | B105.M55 .E33 1994 |
How the Self Controls Its Brain[1] is a book bySir John Eccles, proposing a theory of philosophicaldualism, and offering a justification of how there can be mind-brain action without violating the principle of theconservation of energy. The model was developed jointly with the nuclear physicistFriedrich Beck in the period 1991–1992.[2][3][4]
Eccles called the fundamental neural units of thecerebral cortex"dendrons", which arecylindrical bundles ofneurons arranged vertically in the six outerlayers or laminae of the cortex, each cylinder being about 60micrometres in diameter. Eccles proposed that each of the 40 million dendrons is linked with a mental unit, or"psychon", representing a unitaryconscious experience. In willed actions and thought, psychons act on dendrons and, for a moment, increase the probability of the firing of selectedneurons throughquantum tunneling effect insynapticexocytosis, while in perception the reverse process takes place.
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 inRobert Heinlein's short storyGulf, wherein a character refers to the fastest speed of thought possible as "one psychon per chronon".
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