It was not long ago when the consciousness was not considered a problem for science. However, this has now changed and the problem of consciousness is considered the greatest challenge to science. In the last decade, a great number of books and articles have been published in the field, but very few have focused on the how consciousness evolves and develops, and what characterizes the transitions between different conscious states, in animals and humans. This book addresses these questions. Renowned researchers (...) from different fields of science (including neurobiology, evolutionary biology, ethology, cognitive science, computational neuroscience and philosophy) contribute with their results and theories in this book, making it a unique collection of the state-of-the-art of this young field of consciousness studies. - First book on the topic - Focus on different levels of consciousness, including: Evolutionary, developmental, and functional - Highly interdisciplinary. (shrink)

The dynamical view of the brain that Tsuda presents is thoroughly substantiated by theory and computer simulations, but strong experimental evidence for chaotic brain processes is still lacking. New methods are called for. It is also important to make a distinction between the generating mechanisms and the observed behavior, which is complicated by a mixing of stochastic and deterministic processes.

This commentary focuses on how the large-scale cortical dynamics described in Nunez's target article are related to various phenomena at different scales, both spatial and temporal, in particular, how the brain dynamics measured with EEG could relate to (i) experience and mental state, (ii) neuromodulatory effects, and (iii) spontaneous firing and autogenerated electromagnetic effects.

We present simulation results of an olfactory cortex model complementing the results presented in Wright & Liley's target article. We show how the cortical dynamics as expressed in EEG can be regulated by neuromodulation and discuss how the system can attain global stability without cortical-subcortical interaction, as presumed necessary by Wright & Liley. Network structure is shown to be crucial.

Report on the Agora Workshop, in Sigtuna, Sweden, on 11-3 August 2001, Agora for Biosystems, P.O. Box 57, SE-193 22 Sigtuna, Sweden.

In recent years new findings in vertebrate neuroanatomy have challenged received views on the evolution of the brain. Established theories suggesting that new structures are added to older structures or that old structures are modified into new ones are being re-evaluated. Modification processes, such as invasion and parcellation, have proved to be less valid than originally assumed. Discoveries of neuroanatomical homologies add to the cladistic interpretation problems.