MINDWORKS: Time and Conscious Experience

by Ernst Poppel ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 31, 1988

Cognitive psychology has staked out certain fields of perception that at first glance seem fairly modest: reaction times, judgments of simultaneity, abilities to ""chunk"" data into units handy for storage and recall--all things that can be measured in straightforward experiments. So it is that Munich-based neuroscientist Poppel begins this short work. Before long, however, he has used the experimental data to illuminate profound questions concerning the meaning of time and consciousness, introducing Kant and Heidegger, St. Augustine and Richard Feynman (quoted as saying that time is what happens when nothing else happens!). Poppel's thesis is that there are certain constraints on human concepts of time that are a result of the structure and function of the brain. He finds, for example, a period of about three seconds that corresponds to ""nowness""--an interval in which one can integrate sounds into beats or meaningful experience: consciousness. If nothing new is presented, this integrative capacity is exhausted, and something new must take its place. (Some data offered as back-up show that individuals, when instructed to hold a particular perspective of an optical illusion like the Necker cube, cannot do this beyond circa three seconds--the image flips.) Poppel goes on to explore the implications of his thesis for brain-damaged patients. There is a desynchronizing of the brain clock, with the result that events (including language) cannot be ordered appropriately, leading to the various aphasias and confabulations seen in some stroke patients. Poppel ends with a science-fictional view of earthlings by creatures of different body symmetries and perceptions--a neat way to underscore the relativity that his thesis calls for: that our consciousness is the direct result of human nervous system variables. A demanding, absorbing and provocative book.

Pub Date: March 31, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION