Table Of ContentBRAIN 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
