I of the vortex
Subtitle: from neurons to self
By: Rodolfo Llinás
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 302
Subjects: Consciousness; Brain; Neural networks (Neurobiology); Brain -- Evolution
Description: "In I of the Vortex, Rodolfo Llinas, a founding father of modern brain science, presents an original view of the evolution and nature of mind. According to Llinas, the "mindness state" evolved to allow predictive interactions between mobile creatures and their environment. He illustrates the early evolution of mind through a primitive animal called the "sea squirt." The mobile larval form has a brainlike ganglion that receives sensory information about the surrounding environment. As an adult, the sea squirt attaches itself to a stationary object and then digests most of its own brain. This suggests that the nervous system evolved to allow active movement in animals.

To move through the environment safely, a creature must anticipate the outcome of each movement on the basis of incoming sensory data. Thus the capacity to predict is most likely the ultimate brain function. One could even say that Self is the centralization of prediction."--Jacket.
Notes: "A Bradford book."

Includes bibliographical references (p. [267]-293) and index