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Preface
Reliable scientific evidence about consciousnesshas often been di‰cult to find. This volumepresents more than five dozen significant articlesin the brain and cognitive sciences, all with adirect bearing on the subject. Our guiding ideahas been to select studies that ask, ‘‘What
di¤er-ence
does consciousness make? What are itsproperties, and what role could it play in thenervous system? How do conscious brain func-tions di¤er from unconscious ones?’’ Amongthe published articles that satisfy this standardwe have aimed for the most definitive, the pio-neering, the most articulate, and the briefest. Webelieve they are of fundamental importance.We have thought especially about readers whoare new to this fast-growing literature. Whereverpossible we have looked for good introductoryarticles, and our own introductions are meantto highlight briefly why each one is important.We are painfully aware that we have had to omitmany significant articles. Each selection shouldtherefore be considered a point of entry to alarger body of published work.Although we emphasize breadth, we have notcovered neighboring topics such as voluntarycontrol and self. A new literature is emergingthere, such as the remarkable reconstruction byHannah Damasio and coauthors of the brainof Phineas Gage, the nineteenth-century brain-injured patient who underwent a great change of personality when his frontal cortex was pene-trated by an explosively driven railroad spike(1994). An equally important body of findings isnow growing on voluntary control, includingwork by psychologists like Daniel Wegner onagency (Wenzla¤ and Wegner 2000) and byneurologists on brain conditions that dissociatevoluntary from involuntary control. Conscious-ness, self, and voluntary control are indeed sisterissues, but they cannot be covered in depth in asingle volume.Finally, we omitted ideas that are unsupportedby evidence at this time. There has been muchdiscussion of quantum-theory claims about con-sciousness, for example, for which we have nodirect evidence at present. Although no hypoth-esis can be excluded a priori, this volume pre-sents ideas for which we have reasonably directevidence today.
The Rediscovery of Consciousness
Because of the curious history of consciousnessin the twentieth century, this most fundamentalhuman question has been oddly neglected. Yetfor decades now, the evidence has been mount-ing in quantity and quality. The scientific com-munity has responded with rising interest. Afteralmost a century of neglect, consciousness hasbecome a major focus for research. Each monthnew findings appear in leading journals. In thecoming century this new ferment is likely toreshape our understanding of mind and brain inthe most basic way.Consciousness has long been seen as centralto the human condition, with a serious literaturedating to the earliest written records from Asiaand the Fertile Crescent. It interpenetrates allhuman functions. Sensory perception, attention,and language can be usefully divided into con-scious and unconscious aspects. Many memoryresearchers now believe that consciousness par-titions their field in crucial ways, in distinguish-ing between fundamental concepts like ‘‘recall’’and ‘‘recognition,’’ for example. Motivation,action control, emotion, learning, and develop-ment all interact with consciousness in funda-mental ways.With the advent of a body of scientific evi-dence bearing directly on the subject, a corestudy program seems to be emerging. In thebrain sciences, psychology, and philosophy, newcourses and seminars are being taught. Special-ized doctoral programs have been organized in afew places, and many laboratories are refocusingtheir e¤orts. Even where the word ‘‘conscious-ness’’ is still treated with caution, the samequestions are debated. We believe this volumecan contribute to informed discussion by pre-
 
senting the breadth and depth of the field, show-ing the strength of the scientific foundations andhighlighting pathways for the future.Our gratitude goes to the authors presentedhere and to those who deserved to be included,but for the limitations of space. We honor thepioneers, who often had to work in very di‰cultcircumstances. All who care about understand-ing human consciousness are in their debt.
Note:
After the manuscript of this book wasessentially complete, James Newman died un-expectedly, to the great shock and regret of hisfriends. Jim was a pioneer in scientific studies of consciousness. He made noteworthy contribu-tions to the interpretation of thalamocorticalmechanisms, as well as to scientific organizationsand activities in the field. He was a‰liated withColorado Neurological Institute. This book isgratefully dedicated to his memory.
References
Damasio, H., Grabowski, T., Frank, R., Galaburda,A. M., and Damasio, A. R. (1994) The return of Phi-neas Gage: Clues about the brain from the skull of afamous patient.
Science
264: 1102–1105.Gray, J. A., Wedderburn, A. A. I. (1960) Groupingstrategies with simultaneous stimuli.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
12, 180–184.Wenzla¤, R. M., Wegner, D. M. (2000) Thought sup-pression.
Annual Review of Psychology
51: 59–91.
Bernard J. Baars*The Neurosciences InstituteWilliam P. BanksPomona College
*Supported by The Neurosciences Institute and TheNeurosciences Research Foundation, which are grate-fully acknowledged.
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