New Horizons in the Neuroscience of Consciousness

Front Cover
Elaine K. Perry
John Benjamins Publishing, 2010 - Psychology - 330 pages
A fascinating cornucopia of new ideas, based on fundamentals of neurobiology, psychology, psychiatry and therapy, this book extends boundaries of current concepts of consciousness. Its eclectic mix will simulate and challenge not only neuroscientists and psychologists but entice others interested in exploring consciousness. Contributions from top researchers in consciousness and related fields project diverse ideas, focused mainly on conscious nonconscious interactions: 1. Paving the way for new research on basic scientific - physiological, pharmacological or neurochemical - mechanisms underpinning conscious experience ( bottom up approach); 2. Providing directions on how psychological processes are involved in consciousness ( top down approach); 3. Indicating how including consciousness could lead to new understanding of mental disorders such as schizophrenia, depression, dementia, and addiction; 4. More provocatively, but still based on scientific evidence, exploring consciousness beyond conventional boundaries, indicating the potential for radical new thinking or quantum leaps in neuroscientific theories of consciousness. (Series B)"
 

Contents

The slow cortical potential hypothesis on consciousness
3
Distinct characteristics of conscious experience are met by large neuronal synchronization
17
Gamma oscillations and the cellular components of consciousness?
29
Dopamine modulation of decision making processes
39
The endocannabinoid system
53
The neuroscience of general anaesthesia
65
Consciousness and neural time travel
73
II Psychological processes
81
Why depression feels bad
169
Dementia and the boundary between conscious and nonconscious awareness
179
Consciousness as the spinoff and schizophrenia as the price of language
187
Consciousness and psychosis associated with schizophrenia
201
Perspectives from the Charles Bonnet Syndrome
215
The reciprocal nature of consciousness
227
Connecting states of consciousness
239
Conscious awareness versus optimistic beliefs in recreational EcstasyMDMA users
249

Consciousness and the relation between implicit and explicit memory
83
Two varieties of unconscious processes
91
Operating characteristics and awareness
103
Noise in the brain decisionmaking determinism free will and consciousness
113
Social consciousness
121
A processing perspective
129
From magic to science
139
Dreaming as a model system for consciousness research
149
Lucid dreaming and the bimodality of consciousness
155
III Psychopathologies and therapies
167
Conscious and unconscious placebo responses
259
IV Expanding boundaries
269
The paradoxes of creativity
271
Potential contributions of research on meditation to the neuroscience of consciousness
281
Selfinduced altered states of consciousness
289
Beyond the boundaries of the brain
301
Plants of the gods and shamanic journeys
309
Index
325
The series Advances in Consciousness Research
331
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