I. On the brain, consciousness and self-awareness

Neuropathologist František Koukolík has once again focused on an old and open question - how and why the brain creates consciousness and what is the relationship between the brain, consciousness and self-awareness. The third edition of the book traces research on the relationship between the brain and consciousness during the years 2013–23. During that time, methods for studying the human and animal brains have expanded and improved in a way that was previously unknown before the first edition in 1991. Few people could imagine 2003. The half-life of information in neuroscience is less than five years. Previous, second edition from 2011 It was therefore necessary to update 2013. The revised text describes contemporary definitions of consciousness, the neural correlates, and the evolution of consciousness, including self-awareness; altered states of consciousness such as sleep, anesthesia, hypnosis, meditation, and the effects of psychedelics; some types of impaired consciousness, e. g. coma, functional disorders, autism, schizophrenia and depression; the question of free will, and also how consciousness is influenced by the culture in which we grew up and live.