The Cooperative Neuron Cellular Foundations of Mental Life

The Cooperative Neuron is part of a revolution that is occurring in the sciences of brain and mind. It explores the new field of cellular psychology, a field built upon the recent discovery that many neurons in the brain cooperate to seek agreement in deciding what's relevant in the current context. This cooperative context-sensitivity provides the cellular foundations for knowledge, doubt, imagination, self-development, and the search for purpose in life. This emerging field has far-reaching and fundamental implications for psychology, neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and the philosophy of mind. In a clear and accessible style, the book explains the neuroscience to psychologists, the psychology to neuroscientists, and both to philosophers, students of the behavioral and brain sciences, and to anyone intrigued by the enduring mystery of how brains can be minds.

1 - Introduction
2 - Life, Brain, and Mind: Marvels of Cooperation Between Diverse Individuals
3 - Cerebral Neocortex: Hierarchies of Abstraction in Physical Matter That Knows and Doubts, Thinks and Feels, Intends, and Hopes
4 - Neocortical Pyramidal Cells That Cooperate by Being Sensitive to Context
5 - Cooperative Neurons in Various States of Mind and Brain
6 - What Cooperative Neurons Do for Mental Life
7 - Evolution and Development of Cooperative Neurons
8 - Pathologies of Cooperative Neuronal Processing
9 - An Information-Theoretic View of Context-Sensitivity
10 - Difficulties and Unresolved Issues
11 - Mind's Place in Nature

Professor Williams A. Phillips began his career as a Research Fellow at the University of Sussex from 1967 to 1971. He was a Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer at the University of Stirling from 1971 to 1992 before becoming a Professor in 1992. He was also a Fellow of the Frankfurt Institute of Advanced Studies from 2006 until 2013, specializing in theoretical neuroscience. Since 2003, he has been a Professor Emeritus at the University of Stirling.