The Limits of Consciousness

This book is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Martin Monti, Associate Professor in Psychology and Neurosurgery, Brain Injury Research Centre, UCLA. This extensive conversation examines Martin Monti's innovative work with patients who are in a vegetative state or minimally conscious state, which has led to some surprising results that might well prove to be integral to our development of a deeper understanding of consciousness.

This carefully-edited book includes an introduction, The Collective Unconscious, and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter:

I. Dualism and Science Journalism- Changing hearts and brains
II. Inside The Other- A constant concern
III. The Vegetative State- Evolving understanding
IV. Probing Vegetative States- Some experimental details
V. Beyond Reflex- A thin line
VI. Assessing Consciousness- Unlikely tennis players
VII. Extracting Information- Two types of controls
VIII. Quantifying Consciousness- Towards more rigorous models
IX. Interdisciplinary Interlude- Mathematics, cognitive science and other issues
X. Language and Thought- The Whorfian
Hypothesis and Italian football
XI. Structural Similarities? Comparing language, mathematics and music
XII. What Makes Us Human- In search of distinction