How the Self Controls Its Brain
{{short description|1994 book by John Carew Eccles}}
{{Infobox book
| name = How the Self Controls Its Brain
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = How the Self Controls Its Brain - bookcover.jpg
| caption =
| author = John Carew Eccles
| illustrator =
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| country = Australia
| language = English
| series =
| subject = Psychology
| genre =
| publisher = Springer-Verlag
| release_date = 1994
| english_release_date =
| media_type = Print
| pages =
| isbn = 3-540-56290-7
| dewey= 128/.2 20
| congress= B105.M55 .E33 1994
| oclc= 29634892
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}
How the Self Controls Its Brain{{Cite book |last=Eccles |first=John C. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/29634892 |title=How the self controls its brain |date=1994 |publisher=Springer-Verlag |isbn=3-540-56290-7 |location=Berlin |oclc=29634892}} is a book by Sir John Eccles, proposing a theory of philosophical dualism, and offering a justification of how there can be mind-brain action without violating the principle of the conservation of energy. The model was developed jointly with the nuclear physicist Friedrich Beck in the period 1991–1992.{{Cite journal |last=Beck |first=Friedrich |year=2008 |title=My Odyssey with Sir John Eccles |url=http://www.neuroquantology.com/index.php/journal/article/view/170 |journal=NeuroQuantology |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=161–163|doi=10.14704/nq.2008.6.2.170 |url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last1=Beck |first1=Friedrich |last2=Eccles |first2=John C. |year=1992 |title=Quantum aspects of brain activity and the role of consciousness |url=http://www.pnas.org/content/89/23/11357.full.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727094440/http://www.pnas.org/content/89/23/11357.full.pdf |archive-date=2018-07-27 |url-status=live |journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. |volume=89 |issue=23 |pages=11357–11361 |bibcode=1992PNAS...8911357B |doi=10.1073/pnas.89.23.11357 |pmc=50549 |pmid=1333607 |doi-access=free}}{{Cite journal |last1=Beck |first1=Friedrich |last2=Eccles |first2=John C. |year=1998 |title=Quantum processes in the brain: A scientific basis of consciousness |url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jcss/5/2/5_2_2_95/_pdf |journal=Cognitive Studies: Bulletin of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=95–109}}
Eccles called the fundamental neural units of the cerebral cortex "dendrons", which are cylindrical bundles of neurons arranged vertically in the six outer layers or laminae of the cortex, each cylinder being about 60 micrometres in diameter. Eccles proposed that each of the 40 million dendrons is linked with a mental unit, or "psychon", representing a unitary conscious experience. In willed actions and thought, psychons act on dendrons and, for a moment, increase the probability of the firing of selected neurons through quantum tunneling effect in synaptic exocytosis, while in perception the reverse process takes place.
Previous mention of the "psychon"
The earliest prior use of the word "psychon" with a similar meaning{{Cite web |title=psychon |url=https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=psychon&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cpsychon%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Cpsychon%3B%2Cc1 |website=Google Books ngram viewer}} of an "element of consciousness" is in the book "Concerning Fluctuating and Inaudible Sounds" by K. Dunlap in 1908.{{Cite web |last=Dunlap |first=K. |year=1908 |title=Concerning Fluctuating and Inaudible Sounds |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-DgvAAAAYAAJ&q=%22psychon%22&pg=RA1-PA40}}
The most popular prior use is in Robert Heinlein's short story Gulf, wherein a character refers to the fastest speed of thought possible as "one psychon per chronon".