How the Self Controls Its Brain
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'''''How the Self Controls Its Brain'''''<ref>John C. Eccles, ''How the Self Controls its Brain'', Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1994. ISBN 3-540-56290-7.</ref> is a book by [[Sir John Eccles]], proposing a theory of philosophical [[dualism]], and offering a justification of how there can be mind-brain action without violating the principle of the [[conservation of energy]].
Eccles called the fundamental neural units of the [[cerebral cortex]] "[[dendron (cerebral cortex)|dendrons]]", which are [[Cortical column|cylindrical bundles]] of [[neurons]] arranged vertically in the six outer [[Cerebral cortex#Laminar pattern|layers or laminae]] of the cortex, each cylinder being about 60 [[micrometre]]s in diameter. Eccles proposed that each of the 40 million dendrons is linked with a mental unit, or "[[psychon]]", representing a unitary [[consciousness|conscious]] experience. In willed actions and thought, psychons act on dendrons and, for a moment, increase the probability of the firing of selected [[neuron]]s, while in perception the reverse process takes place.
==References==
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==See also==
* [[Dualistic interactionism]]
* [http://www.enformy.com/$dual.html Eccles' Model of the Self Controlling Its Brain] by Donald Watson and Bernard Williams.
* [http://www.enformy.com/tesintro.htm Introduction to the Theory of Enformed Systems] by Donald Watson and Bernard Williams.
[[Category:Science books]]
[[Category:Consciousness studies]]
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