CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE BRAIN

February 11, 2003 | Source: Nature Neuroscience

Nobel laureate Francis Crick and and neuroscientist Christof Koch outline a strategy to develop a coherent scheme for determining the neural correlates of consciousness in philosophical, psychological and neural terms in the February issue of Nature Neuroscience.

Their approach centers on the visual system of primates, drawing on data from electrical recordings in awake monkeys, behavioral studies in humans and the effects of specific brain damage. Much of the discussion concerns various ways in which interconnected coalitions of neurons might compete with each other — with the “winner” embodying our conscious perceptions.