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Neurochemistry of consciousness: neurotransmitters in mind

Edited by Elaine Perry, Heather Ashton, and Allan Young (Pp 346, EUR65.00). Published by John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 2002. ISBN 90-272-5156-8

Keywords: neurochemistry; consciousness; neurotransmitters

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Consciousness is a portmanteau word, full of rich and different meanings: contrast Marxian, Freudian, and anaesthesiologists' use of the term. In recent years it has also become a fashionable hunting ground for neuroscientists, who are rarely troubled by such complexities. For them, consciousness is being awake rather than asleep, being reducible to awareness. Sweeping aside centuries of philosophical debate, they ponder over whether "it" "resides" in specific anatomical brain structures, in microtubules, in patterns of neurotransmitter release, or whatever. The present book is typical of this type of cheerfully unsophisticated empiricism: its hunt for what the editors call "NCCs"—neural correlates of consciousness—focuses on neurotransmitters, hence the subtitle. However, the concern with "mind" ceases at that point; this elusive phenomenon finds no place in the book's index. The central question for the editors seems to be whether the acetylcholine or the dopaminergic system is the more likely substrate for conscious awareness. . . . [Full text of this article]