Being and becoming

Jose Luis Perez Velazquez was born in Zaragoza (Spain) and received an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and a PhD in Molecular Physiology & Biophysics. His research attempts at understanding the brain-behaviour relation at a high level of description, seeking principles of biological organisation. He worked as a Senior Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and was Professor at the University of Toronto, where he taught a graduate course on consciousness and self-awareness. Currently he is a Research Scholar at the Ronin Institute and lives in the natural paradise of Asturias, in Northern Spain.Vera Nenadovic is a nurse practitioner, neuroscientist and entrepreneur. She has 30 years of experience in healthcare from First Nations communities to intensive care units.  Her research focuses on predicting brain injury outcomes, particularly in pediatrics. She is currently a clinician and researcher at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab Hospital. Her startup company BrainsView is commercializing software that analyzes brainwaves to monitor and track brain function and recovery after head injury. She is married and lives in Toronto, with her husband and Rottweiler.

• Part 1: The Neuroscience Perspective — Where is my self?.- Chapter 1: The emergence of the self.- Chapter 2: The origins and the fallacy of a central commander in the brain: the emergence of agency and the demise of the concept of free will.- Chapter 3: The strange world of split brain patients: in search of the interpreter of our actions.- Chapter 4: Dissociative identity disorders. Are multiple personalities ever lonely, or, can a psychiatrist charge twice a person with dual personality?.- Chapter 5: The enduring self, or how to annihilate the self.- Chapter 6: A recipe for high cognition: is consciousness and self-awareness a matter of   numbers?.- Chapter 7: Demystifying consciousness.- Part 2: The Biophysics perspective — What is my life?.- Chapter 8: The Biophysics perspective — What is my life?.- Chapter 9: Let there be life.- Chapter 10: The special ones.- The special ones.- Chapter 11: The enduring life.- Chapter 12: And why there is something instead of nothing.- Part 3: The philosophical perspective — How do I experience reality?.- Chapter 13: The self and consciousness throughout history.- Chapter 14: The power of contemplation —Explorations on the self and consciousness in the Buddhist tradition.- Chapter 15: Shrinking the self.- Chapter 16: Naturalising death —The ultimate becoming.- Chapter 17: Law and Neuroscience: the impact of brain research on criminal justice.