Neurophenomenology

Neurophenomenology is a hybrid scientific methodology that combines neuroscience with phenomenological philosophy in order to study consciousness. It is an interdisciplinary approach, the label for which was coined by Charles Laughlin, John McManus and Eugene d'Aquili in their 1990 book, Brain, Symbol and Experience: Toward a Neurophenomenology of Consciousness (New York: Columbia University Press).

Phenomenology, as a philosophical method interested in studying the ways in which first person experience manifests itself prior to any scientific or cultural biases, is most closely associated with the work of Edmund Husserl. Neuroscience is the scientific study of the brain, and deals with the objective and third person aspects of consciousness. Many scientists studying consciousness believe that the exclusive utilization of either first or third person methods will not provide answers to the questions of consciousness. Some neurophenomenologists, such as the Biogenetic Structuralism group, suggest that invariant patterns and structures discovered in first person explorations of consciousness may find their explanation in the physiology and functioning of the brain.