edited by C Taddei-Ferretti (Istituto di Cibernetica, CNR, Arco Felice, Napoli, Italy) & C Musio (Istituto di Cibernetica, CNR, Arco Felice, Napoli, Italy)

For a few decades, the puzzle of consciousness, which for centuries was analysed by philosophers, has been finding a wide interest in the scientific field, where previously it was not entitled to be a member. It has become one of the most-debated problems in the cognitive sciences. The anatomical bases, neurophysiological correlates and elementary mechanisms underlying complex processes arising with consciousness have been compared with the psychological (perceptive, cognitive, volitive, emotional) aspects of conscious expressions, in normal and pathological conditions. Various theories, which attempt to fit systematically and coherently neural and psychological data, have been debated, proving the emergence of the phenomenon of consciousness.

• Introductory Lecture:
  • Consciousness Studies: An Overview (S Hameroff)
• Neuronal Bases of Consciousness:
  • Neuroanatomy of Memory (H J Markowitsch & P Calabrese)
  • Attentional Resolution: The Grain and Locus of Visual Awareness (P Cavanagh et al.)
• Perceptive, Cognitive, Volitive and Emotional Aspects of Consciousness:
  • Visual Search: Preattentive Processing and the Guidance of Visual Attention (J M Wolfe)
  • A Possible Neuropsychology Underlying Aberrations of Conscious Experience in Schizophrenia (J A Gray)
• Consciousness and Theories of Mind:
  • What's Wrong with Claims for the Neurobiology of Consciousness? (S P R Rose)
  • Understanding Consciousness: Beyond Dualism and Reductionism (M Velmans)
• Special Topic:
  • Who Gets to Explain Consciousness? And Who Might in the Future? (H Rose)
  • and other papers