Neural Basis of Mentalisation

The Symposium on the Neural Basis of Behavior, from which this volume was produced, was held at the Alfred I. duPont Institute on June 7 and 8, 1979. It brought outstanding investigators in four fundamental areas of behavioral neurobiology into juxtaposition, there to provide an integrated, multidisciplinary perspective on behaviorally significant brain mechanisms. Particular emphasis was placed on topics of interest to neurobiologists as well as to clinicians in neurological and psychiatric disciplines. The session on central activity states was selected as an appropriate point of departure because the continuum of brain activity states extending from the natural depression of hibernation through the heightened levels of arousal accom­ panying learning is such a clear and basic determinant of behavioral output. The papers on learning and memory outlined diverse approaches to un­ derstanding the basis of these interrelat~d CNS capabilities that constitute the neural basis of behavioral adaptation. Finally, the topics of affective states and mechanisms of pain provided a focus of clinically relevant discus­ sion covering multiple levels of functional and anatomical CNS organiza­ tion.

A neuroscientific perspective on the mind–body problem that focuses on how the brain actually accomplishes mental causation.

The goal of this book is to make a link between fundamental research in the field of cognitive neurosciences, which now benefits from a better knowledge of the neural foundations of cerebral processing, and its clinical application, especially in neurosurgery – itself able to provide new insights into brain organization.