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The Boundaries of Consciousness: Neurobiology and Neuropathology
- 1st Edition - June 9, 2006
- Editor: Steven Laureys
- Language: English
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 0 8 - 0 4 7 6 2 0 - 9
Consciousness is one of the most significant scientific problems today. Renewed interest in the nature of consciousness - a phenomenon long considered not to be scientifically… Read more
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Request a sales quoteConsciousness is one of the most significant scientific problems today. Renewed interest in the nature of consciousness - a phenomenon long considered not to be scientifically explorable, as well as increasingly widespread availability of multimodal functional brain imaging techniques (EEG, ERP, MEG, fMRI and PET), now offer the possibility of detailed, integrated exploration of the neural, behavioral, and computational correlates of consciousness. The present volume aims to confront the latest theoretical insights in the scientific study of human consciousness with the most recent behavioral, neuroimaging, electrophysiological, pharmacological and neuropathological data on brain function in altered states of consciousness such as: brain death, coma, vegetative state, minimally conscious state, locked-in syndrome, dementia, epilepsy, schizophrenia, hysteria, general anesthesia, sleep, hypnosis, and hallucinations. The interest of this is threefold. First, patients with altered states of consciousness continue to represent a major clinical problem in terms of clinical assessment of consciousness and daily management. Second, the exploration of brain function in altered states of consciousness represents a unique lesional approach to the scientific study of consciousness and adds to the worldwide effort to identify the "neural correlate of consciousness". Third, new scientific insights in this field have major ethical and social implications regarding our care for these patients.
Neurologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, pharmacologists, and physiologists.
List of Contributors
Foreword
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: What in the world is consciousness?
Abstract
Introduction
Wakefulness versus awareness
Consciousness versus self-consciousness
Consciousness narrow versus consciousness broad
Consciousness inner versus consciousness outer
Hard versus easy questions of consciousness
Conclusion
Chapter 2: A neuroscientific approach to consciousness
Abstract
Introduction
The neuroscience portfolio: brain imaging
The neuroscience portfolio: beyond imaging
A paradigm for evaluating neuronal assemblies as indices of depth of consciousness: pain
Conclusions
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Chapter 3: Functional neuroimaging during altered states of consciousness: how and what do we measure?
Abstract
Lesions, deficits, and historical milestones leading to the neurobiology of cognition
Neuroimaging of individual brains: identification of functionally specialized cortical areas
Considerations that differentiate single subject mapping from group investigations
Neuroimaging of cortical areas specialized for highlevel cognitive tasks
Neuroimaging and deficits of consciousness
Chapter 4: Global workspace theory of consciousness: toward a cognitive neuroscience of human experience
Abstract
Introduction
The global access hypothesis
A theater metaphor and brain hypotheses
Sensory consciousness as a test case
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Chapter 5: Skill, corporality and alerting capacity in an account of sensory consciousness
Abstract
Introduction
Sensation as a skill: explaining intra- and intermodal sensory differences
Corporality and alerting capacity: explaining sensory presence
Application 1: intra- and intermodal differences in sensory quality
Application 2: dreaming and mental imagery
Application 3: spatial and temporal completeness of the visual world — “change blindness”
Consciousness
Description or explanation?
Chapter 6: Methods for studying unconscious learning
Abstract
Introduction
Sequence learning as an example of unconscious cognition
Dissociation studies
Verbal reports
Forced-choice tasks
Comparison between direct and indirect tasks
The process dissociation procedure
In search of the neural correlates of conscious and unconscious processes
Concluding remarks
Acknowledgments
Chapter 7: Computational correlates of consciousness
Abstract
Introduction
The functions of consciousness
The search for the CCC
Toward computational principles for the distinction between conscious and unconscious cognition
Forward models
Discussion and conclusions
Acknowledgments
Chapter 8: Machine consciousness
Abstract
Introduction
The conscious machine
A spectrum and a paradigm
Franklin’s intelligent distribution agent system
Consciousness in virtual machines
Cognitive neural architectures
Attention and consciousness
At the physicalist end of the spectrum
A depictive model
The emerging paradigm
Future prospects
Chapter 9: Consciousness, information integration, and the brain
Abstract
Neuroscience and consciousness: facts and challenges
Comparisons and conclusions
Chapter 10: Dynamics of thalamo-cortical network oscillations and human perception
Abstract
Gamma-band oscillations and cognitive processing
Neuronal substrates of human gamma band activity
Network dynamics and sensory perception
Network dysrhythmia in neurology and psychiatry
Fracture of thalamo-cortical networks during unconsciousness
Summary: interaction and dynamics of large-scale network oscillations in the normal and pathological brain
Acknowledgments
Chapter 11: From synchronous neuronal discharges to subjective awareness?
Abstract
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Chapter 12: Genes and experience shape brain networks of conscious control
Abstract
Anatomical network
Self-regulation
Development of self-regulation
Sensory awareness
Focal awareness
Acknowledgment
Chapter 13: Visual phenomenal consciousness: a neurological guided tour
Abstract
Introduction
Blindsight: highlighting the role of visual cortex
Visual form agnosia, optic ataxia and visual hallucinations: the key role of the ventral pathway
Unilateral spatial neglect: the necessity of attentional allocation
Source and effects of top-down attentional effects: attention is not consciousness
Four principles accounted by a theoretical sketch of consciousness
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Chapter 14: The mental self
Abstract
Meditation and the medial core of consciousness
The medial core and self-representation
Chapter 15: Posterior cingulate, precuneal and retrosplenial cortices: cytology and components of the neural network correlates of consciousness
Abstract
Introduction
Anatomical overview of posterior cingulate gyrus and precuneal cortex
Epilepsy, stroke and vegetative state
Cerebral metabolism
Anteroventral thalamic link between conscious wakefulness and cognitive awareness
Sleep
Anesthetic sensitivity
Self reflection and complex information processing
Anatomical relationships between mental and conscious information processing
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Chapter 16: Human cognition during REM sleep and the activity profile within frontal and parietal cortices: a reappraisal of functional neuroimaging data
Abstract
Introduction
Meta-analysis of PET data during human sleep
Lateral prefrontal cortex and executive functions
Lateral prefrontal cortex and episodic memory
The ventral parieto-frontal system of attention
The frontal and parietal areas and mind representation during REM sleep
Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Chapter 17: General anesthesia and the neural correlates of consciousness
Abstract
Consciousness as the dependent variable
The anesthetic approach to the consciousness problem
The definitive anesthetic study versus reality
Neuroimaging studies of anesthesia in humans
The basis for the original observation of anesthetic effects on the thalamus
Recent anesthesia studies continue to demonstrate the thalamic effect
Is consciousness in the parietal cortex?
Network activity, anesthetic-induced signal suppression or signal scrambling?
The dose-dependent effects of anesthetics, keys to future study
Conclusions
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Chapter 18: Brain imaging in research on anesthetic mechanisms: studies with propofol
Abstract
Introduction
Anesthetic drugs and the CNS: target sites
Neural correlates of concentration-dependent effects: tactile transmission
Neural correlates of concentration-dependent effects: pain processing
PET and neurotransmission during anesthesia: cholinergic muscarinic processes
Conclusion
Chapter 19: The cognitive modulation of pain: hypnosis- and placebo-induced analgesia
Abstract
Introduction
Hypnosis
Placebo
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Chapter 20: Consciousness and epilepsy: why are patients with absence seizures absent?
Abstract
Introduction
Epilepsy models for studying impaired consciousness
Electrophysiology
Behavior
Neuroimaging and molecular mapping
Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Chapter 21: Two aspects of impaired consciousness in Alzheimer’s disease
Abstract
Introduction
Controlled and automatic processes in AD
Anosognosia in AD
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Chapter 22: Functional brain imaging of symptoms and cognition in schizophrenia
Abstract
Introduction
Methodological and conceptual background
Correlates of psychopathological symptoms in schizophrenia
Neuropsychological and emotional deficits
Connectivity
Conclusion
Chapter 23: Hysterical conversion and brain function
Abstract
Introduction
Incidence and evolution
Body, mind, and brain diseases
History and theories
Electrophysiological correlates of conversion disorders
Hemodynamic brain imaging
More questions and new directions
Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Chapter 24: The out-of body experience: precipitating factors and neural correlates
Abstract
Introduction
Neurology
Psychiatry
Body position
Sleep
Drugs
General anesthesia
Cognitive neuroscience of OBE and self
Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Chapter 25: Near-death experiences in cardiac arrest survivors
Abstract
Introduction
Theoretical approaches to NDEs
Studies of NDEs in cardiac arrest patients
Chapter 26: The concept and practice of brain death
Abstract
Introduction
History
The concept of death
The definition and criterion of death
The tests of death
Brain death determination in practice
Religious views
Organ donation
Chapter 27: The minimally conscious state: defining the borders of consciousness
Abstract
The problem of consciousness
Rationale for defining the minimally conscious state
Definition and diagnostic criteria
Incidence and prevalence
Pathophysiology and residual brain function
Prognosis and outcome
Life expectancy
Specialized neurobehavioral assessment methods
Case study
Directions for future research
Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Chapter 28: Behavioral evaluation of consciousness in severe brain damage
Abstract
Introduction
Clinical evaluation of consciousness
Consciousness scales
Conclusions
Chapter 29: Evoked potentials in severe brain injury
Abstract
Introduction
Basics of EEG and EPs
Pathophysiological considerations
EPs at the acute stage of severe head trauma
Final remarks
Conclusions
Chapter 30: Event-related potential measures of consciousness: two equations with three unknowns
Abstract
Non-REM sleep
REM sleep
Anesthesia
Coma and vegetative state
Neglect
Subthreshold, weak, and brief stimuli in normal subjects
Masked stimuli in normal subjects
Conclusion
Abbreviations
Acknowledgment
Chapter 31: Novel aspects of the neuropathology of the vegetative state after blunt head injury
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and methods
Results
Discussion
Chapter 32: Using a hierarchical approach to investigate residual auditory cognition in persistent vegetative state
Abstract
Introduction
Acoustic processing
Perceptual processing
Phonological processing
Semantic processing
Discussion and conclusions
Chapter 33: Modeling the minimally conscious state: measurements of brain function and therapeutic possibilities
Abstract
Introduction
Nosology
Models of the vegetative state
Models of MCS
Possible therapeutic strategies
Implications and research directions
Acknowledgments
Chapter 34: The locked-in syndrome : what is it like to be conscious but paralyzed and voiceless?
Abstract
Classical, incomplete and total locked-in syndrome
Etiology
Misdiagnosis
Survival and mortality
Prognosis and outcome
Communication
Residual brain function
Quality of life
The right to die or the right to live?
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Chapter 35: Brain-computer interfaces — the key for the conscious brain locked into a paralyzed body
Abstract
Introduction
The locked-in syndrome
A generic brain–computer interface system
Regulation of brain responses for BCI control
Invasive recording
BCIs based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
Shortcomings and future of BCI research and development
Acknowledgments
Chapter 36: Neural plasticity and recovery of function
Abstract
Introduction
Plasticity in the damaged brain
Cerebral reorganization in chronic stroke patients
The relationship between sensory and motor function after stroke
Adaptation within the motor system
The evolution of cerebral reorganization after stroke
Driving functional reorganization
Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Chapter 37: Thirty years of the vegetative state: clinical, ethical and legal problems
Abstract
Introduction
Frequency of occurrence
Causes and pathology
Diagnosis
Prognosis for recovery and survival
Attitudes to the permanent vegetative state
Ethical issues
Legal issues
Chapter 38: Assessing health-related quality of life after severe brain damage: potentials and limitations
Abstract
Introduction
Health-related quality of life research
HRQoL assessment
HRQoL research in severe traumatic brain injuries
Challenges of measuring HRQoL in TBI
Conclusions
Chapter 39: Outcome and ethics in severe brain damage
Abstract
Introduction
Definitions
Intensive care unit decisions
The decision-makers
Practicalities
Conclusion
Chapter 40: Clinical pragmatism and the care of brain damaged patients: toward a palliative neuroethics for disorders of consciousness
Abstract
Introduction
John Dewey and clinical pragmatism
Clinical pragmatism and disorders of consciousness
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Subject Index
- No. of pages: 632
- Language: English
- Edition: 1
- Published: June 9, 2006
- Imprint: Elsevier Science
- eBook ISBN: 9780080476209
SL
Steven Laureys
Affiliations and expertise
University of Liege, Belgium