GIULIO TONONI

What goes on in our head when we have a thought? Why do the physical events that occur inside a fistful of gelatinous tissue give rise to the world of conscious experience? In The Universe of Consciousness , Gerald Edelman and Giulio Tononi present for the first time a full-scale theory of consciousness based on direct observation of the human brain in action. Their pioneering work, presented here in an elegant style, challenges much of the conventional wisdom about consciousness. The Universe of Consciousness has enormous implications for our understanding of language, thought, emotion, and mental illness.

What goes on in our heads when we have a thought? With this book, Edelman and Tononi present an empirically-supported full-scale theory of consciousness. They apply all of the resources and insights of modern neuroscience, from the largest computermodels ever constructed to new experiments that detect the changes in brain activity. This pioneering work represents a landmark in our growing understanding of consciousness. Praise for Gerald Edelman: "The new Darwin...His theory is an enrichment of life itself" - Oliver Sacks, The Times

This title is printed in full color throughout.From one of the most original and influential neuroscientists at work today, here is an exploration of consciousness unlike any otheras told by Galileo, who opened the way for the objectivity of science and is now intent on making subjective experience a part of science as well. Galileos journey has three parts, each with a different guide. In the first, accompanied by a scientist who resembles Francis Crick, he learns why certain parts of the brain are important and not others, and why consciousness fades with sleep. In the second part, when his companion seems to be named Alturi (Galileo is hard of hearing; his companions name is actually Alan Turing), he sees how the facts assembled in the first part can be unified and understood through a scientific theorya theory that links consciousness to the notion of integrated information (also known as phi). In the third part, accompanied by a bearded man who can only be Charles Darwin, he meditates on how consciousness is an evolving, developing, ever-deepening awareness of ourselves in history and culturethat it is everything we have and everything we are. Not since Godel, Escher, Bach has there been a book that interweaves science, art, and the imagination with such originality. This beautiful and arresting narrative will transform the way we think of ourselves and the world.

¿Que pasa en nuestras cabezas cuando pensamos? ¿Cómo es que los fenómenos físicos que se producen en el interior de un tejido gelatinoso dan lugar al fantasmagórico mundo de las experiencias conscientes, un mundo que contiene todo lo que sentimos y conocemos, todo, en definitiva, lo que somos? Cientificos y filosofos se han enfrentado a preguntas como estas a lo largo de siglos y siglos, ofreciendo respuestas con nula o escasa base experimental. Solo recientemente el tan oscuro como fascinante universo de la consciencia y el pensamiento humano esta comenzando a convertirse en una autentica ciencia, aunque en ningun caso lo ha hecho de una forma tan evidente y atrevida como mediante las ideas propuestas por el premio Nobel de Medicina de 1972, Gerald M. Edelman, ideas que el mismo presenta y desarrolla en este libro, escrito en colaboracion con otro distinguido neurobiologo, Giulio Tononi. Al igual que Galileo revoluciono nuestra comprension del cosmos explotando las posibilidades de un entonces nuevo instrumento, el telescopio, Edelman se esta enfrentando a ese "Santo Grial" de las neurociencias que es explicar que es la consciencia, beneficiandose de las posibilidades que abre una ingeniosa tecnologia que permite detectar minusculas corrientes y ondas cerebrales asociadas a