脳と進化 : 意識はどこからきたか

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Abstract　How has the consciousness, which is characteristically observed in human beings, developed in the history of evolution? The author first describds the outline of evolution, from prokaryotic cells to Homo sapience, on the basis of molecular biology. The evolution of a species becomes realized when mutations accidentally occuring in the genes are fixed for generations. Human beings, a strange creature with consciousness, is also produced as the results of fortunate accumuIation of numbers of mutations during three billions years. In the next, the evolution of the animal brains is overviewed from the point of view of comparative physiology. The causal relation between the ability of holding long term memory and the development of consciousness is discussed. Finally, the chdracteristics of the consciousness and its possible origin are discussed, introducing, the opinions of two famous Novel prize winners in the medical and physiological field, F. Crick, the discoverer of DNA model, and J. C. Eccles, the discoverer of inhibitory synapse. Crick asserts the totally material process of the brain activities including consciousness, while Eccles holds a Descartes type dualism. A hypothesis of R. Penrose, a mathematist, based on the quantum mechanics, is also introduced.
山形大学の論文
2001-02-15