An old hypothesis and new tools: Alfred Fessard's approach to the problem of consciousness

In 1954, a symposium was held in Canada on "Brain Mechanisms and Consciousness." It was a time for the promotion of international and interdisciplinary scientific cooperation, of new technological expectation, and of speculating about complex human behavior. Alfred Fessard's lecture on "Mechanisms of Nervous Integration and Conscious Experience" was one of the outstanding presentations, rich in critical analysis of the then available experimental data and in working hypothesis proposals. Reading the concept expressed by Fessard, it was found that several of his ideas had anticipated data obtained in modern research with new technologies.