The Single-Neuron Theory ─ Closing in on the Neural Correlate of Consciousness

This book presents an engaging account of a provocative new theory which explores how our brain generates conscious experience and where this occurs. It suggests that conscious experience happens not at the whole brain level but at the level of individual nerve cells. The notion that the brain as a whole is sentient is an illusion created by the exquisite organization of the individually conscious neurons. Despite appearances to the contrary, conscious behavior that seems to be the product of a single macroscopic mind is actually the integrated output of a chorus of microscopic minds, each associated with an individual neuron. The result is a theory that revolutionizes our conception of who and what we are.

Steven Sevush is Emeritus Associate Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Miami, USA. He has been a teacher, researcher, and clinician in behavioural neurology and neuropsychiatry for over thirty years. His written works include The Single-Neuron Theory of Consciousness published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology.