Abstract
From 1984 onwards I realized that the Margenau story was inadequate. What was needed was a rigorous mathematical treatment that would give precision to the action of mental events on neural events, not just the ill-defined probability field. When I was attached to the Neuroscience Research Program at the Rockefeller University for some months in 1986 and 1987, I organized two mini-symposia in the hope that there could be progress beyond the stage where Margenau left it in The Miracle of Existence. Henry Margenau came to both these informal gatherings in New York. Unfortunately Margenau and Wigner were not well enough to make the progress that I hoped for. John Archibald Wheeler was unable to attend, but he nominated two physicists. I have all the documents of these two most disappointing projects. It was evident that the physicists did not realize that here was a great chance for quantum physicists. One physicist insisted that it could all be done by thermal physics, not quantum physics!
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References to Chapter 9
Akert, K., Peper, K., and Sandri, C. (1975) in Cholinergic Mechanisms, edited by P. G. Waser (Raven, New York), pp. 43–57.
Deecke, L., and Lang, V. (1990) in The Principles of Design and Operation of the Brain, edited by J. C. Eccles and O. Creutzfeld (Experimental Brain Research, Series 21) (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg), pp. 303–341.
Donald, M. J. (1990) Proc. Roy. Soc. London A 424, 43–93.
Eccles, J. C. (1982) Arch. Psychiatr. Nervenkrank. 231, 423–441.
Eccles, J. C. (1990) Proc. Roy. Soc. London B 240, 433–451.
Edelman, G. M. (1989) The Remembered Present: A Biological Theory of Consciousness (Basic Books, New York).
Einstein, A., Rosen, N., and Podolsky, B. (1935) Phys. Rev. 47, 777–780.
Everett, H. (1957) Rev. Mod. Phys. 29, 454–462.
Gray, E. G. (1982) Trends Neurosci. 5, 5–6.
Ingvar, D. H. (1990) in The Principles of Design and Operation of the Brain, edited by J. C. Eccles and O. Creutzfeld (Experimental Brain Research, Series 21) Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg), pp. 433–453.
Jack, J. J. B., Redman, S. J., and Wong, K. (1981) J. Physiol. London 321, 65–96.
Jessel, T. M., Kandel, E. R., Lewin, B., and Reid, L. (eds) (1993) Signaling at the synapse, Review Supplement to Cell 72/Neuron 10.
Kelly, R. B., Deutsch, J. W., Carlson, S. S., and Wagner, J. A. (1979) Ann. Rev. Neurosci. 2, 399–446.
Korn, H., and Faber, D. S. (1987) in New Insights into Synaptic Function, edited by G. M. Edelman, W. E. Gall, and W M. Cowan (Wiley, New York), pp. 57–108.
Libet, B. (1990) in The Principles of Design and Operation of the Brain, edited by J. C. Eccles and O. Creutzfeld (Experimental Brain Research, Series 21) (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg), pp. 185–205, plus General Discussion, pp. 207–211.
Margenau, H. (1984) The Miracle of Existence (Ox Bow, Woodbridge, CT).
Messiah, A. (1961) Quantum Mechanics (North Holland, Amsterdam), pp. 231–242.
Mountcastle, V. B. (1978) in The Mindful Brain, edited by F. C. Schmitt (MIT Press, Cambridge MA), pp. 7–50.
Peters, A., and Kara, D. A. (1987) J. Comp. Neurol. 260, 573–590.
Pfenninger, K., Sandri, C., Akert, K., and Eugster, C. H. (1969) Brain Res. 12, 10–18.
Popper, K. (1990) A World of Propensities (Thoemmes, Bristol).
Popper, K., and Eccles, J. C. (1977) The Self and Its Brain (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg).
Posner, M. I., Petersen, S. E., Fox, P. T., and Raichle, M. E. (1988) Science 240, 1627–1631.
Redman, S. J. (1990) Physiolog. Rev. 70, 165–198.
Roland, P. E., Larsen, B., Lassen, N. A., and Skinhpj, E. (1980) J. Neurophysiol. 43, 118–136.
Sayer, R. J., Friedlander, M. J., and Redman, S. J. (1990) J. Neurosci. 10, 626–636.
Sayer, R. J., Redman, S. J., and Andersen, P. (1989) J. Neurosci. 9, 845–850.
Schmolke, C., and Fleischhauer, K. (1984) Anat. Embryol. 169, 125–132.
Squires, E. J. (1988) Found. Phys. Lett. 1, 13–20.
Stapp, H. P. (1991) Found. Phys. 21, 1451–1477.
Szentágothai, J. (1978) Proc. Roy. Soc. London B 201, 219–248.
von Neumann, J. (1955) Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics (Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ), Chap. IV.
Walmsley, B., Edwards, F. R., and Tracey, D. J. (1987) J. Neurosci. 7, 1037–1046.
Wigner, E. P. (1967) Symmetries and Reflections (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN), pp. 153–184.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Beck, F., Eccles, J.C. (1994). Quantum Aspects of Brain Activity and the Role of Consciousness. In: How the SELF Controls Its BRAIN. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-49224-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-49224-2_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-49226-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-49224-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive