Brain and Conscious Experience: Study Week September 28 to October 4, 1964, of the Pontificia Academia Scientiarum PDF
Preview Brain and Conscious Experience: Study Week September 28 to October 4, 1964, of the Pontificia Academia Scientiarum
BRAIN and CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE BRAIN and CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE Study Week September 28 to October 4, 1964, of the Pontificia -A cademia Scientiarum Edited by JOHN C. ECCLES SPRINGER-VERLAG NEW YORK INC. 1966 ISBN-13: 978-3-642-49170-2 e-lSBN-13: 978-3-642-49168-9 DOl: 10.1007/978-3-642-49168-9 The scientific papers and discussions of the Study Week are originally published in volume 30 of PONTIFICIAE ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARUM SCRIPTA VARIA © 1965 by Pontificia Academia Scientiarum, Citta del Vaticano Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1965 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 66-20376 Title No. 1363 Dedicated to the memory of two eminent Pontifical Academicians who contributed so much to the scientific and philosophical con cepts that are the theme of this Study Week: C. S. Sherrington (1857-1952), E. Schrodinger (1887-1961). Preface The planning of this Study Week at the Pontifical Academy of Science from September 28 to October 4, 1964, began just two years before when the President, Professor Lemaitre, asked me if 1 would be responsible for a Study Week relating Psychology to what we may call the Neurosciences. 1 accepted this responsibility on the understanding that 1 could have as sistance from two colleagues in the Academy, Professors Heymans and Chagas. Besides participating in the Study Week they gave me much needed assistance and advice in the arduous and, at times, perplexing task that 1 had undertaken, and 1 gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to them. Though there have been in recent years many symposia concerned with the so-called higher functions of the brain, for example with percep tion, learning and conditioning, and with the processing of information in the brain, there has to my knowledge been no symposium specifically treating with brain functions and consciousness since the memorable Laurentian Conference of 1953, which was later published in 1954 as the book, "Brain Mechanisms and Consciousness." It was therefore my pur pose from the beginning not only to bring together for the Study Week those who had contributed significantly to a wide range of problems related to the theme of the Study Week, but also to have their Contribu tions and particularly their Discussions published for world distribution, and not merely in a limited edition for private circulation, as has recently occurred with two Study Weeks of the Academy. 1 must express my grati tude and deeply felt appreciation to the publishers, Springer-Verlag, and particularly to Dr. Heinz G6tze, for their cooperation and tenacity in bringing this project eventually to a successful conclusion. I should mention that 1 was not able to invite any professional philoso phers to the Study Week. Early in the planning I was instructed by the Chancellor that "the Academy by its constitution has for aim to promote the study and progress of the physical, mathematical and natural sciences and their history. Thus the discussion of philosophical questions is ex cluded." I replied, "I fear that some of your concern derives from the different linguistic usages that we have. For example, to me all sciences vii viii / Preface have a philosophical basis and it is generally agreed that there is a philosophy of science which is in fact basic to all scientific investigations and discussions. Certainly when one comes to a Study Week devoted to brain and mind it is not possible to exclude relations with philosophy, though I agree that there are certain philosophical questions which the Academy would be well advised to avoid. I do not think that any of the proposed subjects fall into this category." After this somewhat inauspicious beginning I am happy to state that there has never been any attempt to change any Contributions and Dis cussions during the Study Week, which was conducted with the complete freedom customary in all scientific symposia. It must be admitted that the subject matter of this Study Week raises the most important questions that man can ask about himself and his relation to the material world. It is for the reader to judge if we have contributed significantly to a clearer understanding of these questions and in any way aided in their solution. Besides the published lectures, I would refer the reader to the discussions that I think have a special merit be cause in the five days of meeting under excellent and convivial (in the best sense!) conditions many of us were prepared to talk with an unusual ease and freedom. This book therefore serves as a record of an intimate disputation between scholars of quite different approaches to the central theme, and in this respect it was an occasion that I think we can all remember with appreciation because we learned so much in this mutual interplay of ideas. I therefore recommend the Discussions as providing a good model of "symposium behaviour" if I may use such an expression! I think it is important to appreciate the excellent convivial arrange ments under which this symposium was held. The Academy building itself stands in the most delectable spot in the Vatican gardens, being built in 1561 as a Casino for Pius IV. The room in which we met had still the lovely tiled floor and the frescoed walls and ceiling of that period, and outside there was always the sound of the fountains in the marble paved court. Then we all lived (most of us with our wives who were also guests of the Academy) in the stately Hotel Reale, where we were magnificently entertained. We returned there between the sessions of each day for a sumptuous lunch with time even for a brief siesta before the late after noon session. And in the evenings there were the pleasant social occasions of dinner and gatherings thereafter. From a rather large experience of symposia in the last decade I am convinced that the most fruitful have been the most enjoyable, because it is under these conditions that the human spirit (if I may use this phrase!) operates most creatively in debate. It is in this belief that I as editor present for world circulation this Preface / ix volume as the conjoint creative effort of my colleagues during this most enjoyable Study Week that was devoted to the greatest scientific and philosophic problem confronting man: Brain and Conscious Experience. JOHN C. ECCLES January 10, 1966. Contents Preface vii List of Participants xiii Introduction xv The Audience and Address by Pope Paul VI xix 1 Structural design of the neo.cortex M. L. Colonnier 1 2 Cerebral synaptic mechanisms J. C. Eccles 24 3 Structure and function of archicortex P. O. Andersen 59 4 Neural replication of somatic sensory events V. B. Mountcastle 85 5 Sensory mechanisms in perception R. Granit 116 6 Information transmission in the visual system O. Creutzfeldt, et al. 138 7 Brain stimulation and conscious experience B. Libet 165 8 Perception after brain injury H.-L. Teuber 182 9 Speech, perception and the cortex W. Penfield 217 10 Consciousness E. D. Adrian 238 Discussion: developing the themes of preceding papers R. Granit, Chairman 249 11 Brain mechanisms and states of consciousness H. H. Jasper 256 xi xii I Contents 12 Neurophysiological correlates of mental unity F. Bremer 283 13 Brain bisection and consciousness R. W. Sperry 298 14 Conscious experience and memory J. C. Eccles 314 15 Functional significance of sleep for brain mechanisms G. Moruzzi 345 16 Precentral motor area C. G. Phillips 389 17 Conscious control of action D. M. MacKay 422 18 Brain-consciousness problem A. O. Gomes 446 19 Ethology and consciousness W. H. Thorpe 470 20 Dopamine and central neurotransmission C. Heymans and A. de Schaepdryver 506 21 Psychosomatic problems H. Schaefer 522 Final discussion J. C. Eccles, Chairman 548 Convergences, divergences, lacunae H.-L. Teuber 575 Index 585 List of Participants Lord Adrian of Cambridge, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Eng land. Dr. P. O. Andersen, Anatomical Ins/titute, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. Professor F. Bremer, Professor of General Pathology, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium. Professor C. Chagas, Professor of Biophysics, University of Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Dr. M. L. Colonnier, Department of Physiology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada. Priv. Doz. Dr. O. Creutzfeldt, Abteilung fiir Experimentelle Neurophysi ologie, Max-Planck-Institut, 8 Miinchen 23, Germany. Sir John Eccles, Institute for Biomedical Research, American Medical Association, Chicago, U.S.A.; formerly Professor of Physiology, Aus tralian National University, Canberra, Australia. Dr. A. Gomes, Instituto de Bionsica, Universidade do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Professor R. A. Granit, Nobel Professor of Neurophysiology, Karolinska, Stockholm, Sweden. Professor C. Heymans, Director, Instituut J. F. Heymans, Farmakologisch and Terapeutisch Laboratorium der Rijksuniversiteit, Gent, Belgium. Professor Sir Cyril Hinshelwood, Chemistry Department, Imperial Col lege, London, England. Professor H. H. Jasper, Department of Physiology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada. Professor B. Libet, Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, U.S.A. Professor D. MacKay, Professor of Communications, University of Keele, Keele, England. Professor G. Moruzzi, Professor of Physiology, Istituto di Fisiologia dell' Universita, Pisa, Italy. Professor V. B. Mountcastle, Professor of Physiology, Johns Hopkins Uni versity, Baltimore, U.S.A. Professor W. Penneld, Honorary Consultant, Montreal Neurological Insti tute, McGill University, Montreal 2, Canada. xiii
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