This work presents the notion of consciousness as it can be described and understood by contemporary neuroscience without ignoring its traditional philosophical context. It discusses the problem of how the workings of synaptic connections might give rise to consciousness and describes the current neuroscientific concepts and techniques used to identify and explore those parts of the human brain that may be involved. This book is intended as an introduction to the subject.

This work presents the notion of consciousness as it can be described and understood by contemporary neuroscience without ignoring its traditional philosophical context. It discusses the problem of how the workings of synaptic connections might give rise to consciousness and describes the current neuroscientific concepts and techniques used to identify and explore those parts of the human brain that may be involved. This book is intended as an introduction to the subject.

The History of the Synapse provides a history of those discoveries concerning the identification and function of synapses that provide the foundations for research during this new century with a personal view of the process by which new concepts have developed. Previously published as essays, the chapters in this book provide a history of various aspects of synaptic function, beginning with the evolution over two and a half thousand years and how progress was made in the establishment of a conceptual structure that would allow the synapse to be identified at the beginning of the 20th century. Numerous illustrations explain either the technical approach or the experimental finding.