What happens when the physical body and the subjective sense of self part company? How do we explain phantom limbs and alien abduction? What are the cognitive, neurobiological mechanisms that support such phenomena? In this special issue of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Spence and Halligan explore all these issues and more, with contributions drawn from an internationally renowned panel of authors, most of whom contributed to a symposium held in Sheffield, England in June 2001 ('The Neuropsychiatry of the Body in Space'). That meeting was primarily concerned with those bizarre and...

Is free will just an illusion? What is within the brain that allows us to pursue our own actions and objections? What is it about this organ that permits the emergence of seemingly purposeful behaviour, giving us the impression that we are "free"? This book takes a journey through the anatomy and physiology, the structures and the processes, of the human brain to demonstrate what is known about the control of voluntary behaviour, when it is "normal" and when it breaks down. It starts by taking the reader from the basic "hard" anatomy supporting simple hand and finger movement, through to the...

What happens when the physical body and the subjective sense of self part company? How do we explain phantom limbs and alien abduction? What are the cognitive, neurobiological mechanisms that support such phenomena? In this special issue of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Spence and Halligan explore all these issues and more, with contributions drawn from an internationally renowned panel of authors, most of whom contributed to a symposium held in Sheffield, England in June 2001 ('The Neuropsychiatry of the Body in Space'). That meeting was primarily concerned with those bizarre and...