The ancient origins of consciousness : how the brain created experience

Feinberg, Todd E.2016

Books, Manuscripts

Find it!
Remove The ancient origins of consciousness : how the brain created experience from your current list Save The ancient origins of consciousness : how the brain created experience to your current list

Total copies: 1

Availability by location

Place reservation

Summary

How is consciousness created? When did it first appear on Earth, and how did it evolve? What constitutes consciousness, and which animals can be said to be sentient? In this book, Todd Feinberg and Jon Mallatt draw on recent scientific findings to answer these questions - and to tackle the most fundamental question about the nature of consciousness: how does the material brain create subjective experience? After assembling a list of the biological and neurobiological features that seem responsible for consciousness, and considering the fossil record of evolution, Feinberg and Mallatt argue that consciousness appeared much earlier in evolutionary history than is commonly assumed. About 520 to 560 million years ago, they explain, the great 'Cambrian explosion' of animal diversity produced the first complex brains, which were accompanied by the first appearance of consciousness.