Apart from occasional brief encounters, neurology has been content to leave ideas on the nature of consciousness to those who study the philosophy of mind and experts in the psychology of perception and behaviour. Neurologists know when their patients are unconscious and when they are not. They are aware that there are dualists and materialists and periodically themselves express opinion on one side or the other of the debate. Perhaps the majority are most comfortable with the middle position of consciousness as an emergent property that requires a material base; sleep as a busy process that differs from unconsciousness; and anaesthesia with absence of on-going experience or awareness of lapsed time as a state without consciousness during which physiological functions are sustained or artificially supported. The locked-in person is conscious but unable to register awareness of the outside world. The vegetative state represents physiological function in the absence of perception or awareness; these patients are unconsciousness.

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意识的演变。连同图解说明神经系统中某些同源性的图表。通过WHB斯图达特MD MRCP。大脑1903；26：432-439。与迈克尔·波兰尼（Michael Polanyi）的意识结构。脑1965年；88：799–810

除了偶尔的短暂相遇外，神经病学还满足于将意识的本质的思想留给那些研究心智哲学的人以及感知和行为心理学的专家。神经科医生知道他们的病人什么时候失去意识，什么时候没有。他们知道，存在二元论者和唯物主义者，并定期自己在辩论的一方或另一方发表意见。也许大多数人最满意意识的中间地位，因为它是一种需要物质基础的新兴属性。睡眠是一个忙碌的过程，不同于无意识；缺乏持续经历或对经过时间的了解的麻醉，因为这种状态是没有意识的，在此状态下维持或人工支持了生理功能。锁定的人有意识，但无法记录外界的意识。营养状态代表在没有知觉或意识的情况下的生理功能。这些病人是昏迷状态。