Francis Crick and Christof Koch

[Diane]

I found a very good paper from 1990, written by Crick and Koch, laying out the roadmap for the investigatory paths they took through the 90's, and taken by Koch alone since Crick's death in 2004.
Check it out. It's free access, a 13 page pdf.

Toward a neurobiological theory of consciousness (http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/SC/B/C/F/D/_/scbcfd.pdf).

One (of the abundant) noteworthy tidbits in there is toward the very end of the paper; after laying out all the groundwork needed for even just approaching study of the issue, Crick and Koch say in parentheses, (Incidentally we see no reason at all why this global unity should require fancy quantum effects.) :thumbs_up

Also, brain oscillation theory gets a firm nod in this paper. I found it (number 52) attached to Francis Crick's very extensive biography in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crick).

Here is another attachment, an interview (http://www.artboy.info/strange/listen.html) with Crick and Koch about 65 minutes long, while Crick was still alive. (You'll find it a bit further than half way down the page.)

And we have Dr. Ginger Campbell's brainsciencepodcast #22 (http://brainsciencpodcast.wordpress.com/2007/10/05/brain-science-podcast-22-christof-koch-discusses-consciousness/), an interview with Christof Koch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christof_Koch) whose book The Quest for Consciousness (http://www.questforconsciousness.com/) was published 2004, carrying on the duo's legacy.

Here is a link to an old thread (http://www.somasimple.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2336) about them.

[Diane]

Here is a better link to that book (http://books.google.com/books?id=YIHFiQjye5UC&dq=Quest+for+Consciousness&lr=&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0), with much of it available to read online.

[Diane]

Here is a very informative Scholarpedia article on the Mind-Body Problem (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Mind-body_problem), which refers to several people we've examined before here on SS. Apparently (according to this article) Crick and Koch moved their combined attention from a "40-Hz" model for consciousness to something called a "neural coalition", in 2003. Well worth a read. I will try to track down some neural coalition references.

(Also in this paper I see that Craig will be contributing the paper on "pain" at some future date.)

[Diane]

Nothing like going straight to the source. Here are "C&K" (as they tend to be called by other researchers) themselves, on the issue of neural coalitions (http://books.google.ca/books?id=YIHFiQjye5UC&pg=PA203&lpg=PA203&dq=neural+coalitions&source=web&ots=JOZAX3aRqF&sig=snzQ5FEc529iSQSnK6raUBJJL1o&hl=en).

[Diane]

A Framework for Consciousness (http://cbcl.mit.edu/projects/cbcl/publications/ps/crick-koch-03.pdf), by Crick and Koch, 2003, an 8-page pdf. It discusses neural coalitions as being in competition with each other.

This idea appeals to me a lot. It could help to eventually explain pain maybe. It discusses parts of a "framework" within which consciousness, or at least that neural correlates thereof, might be scientifically addressed. These parts are, in order;

1. The (unconscious?) homunculus
2. Zombie modes and consciousness
3. Coalitions of neurons
4. Explicit representations
5. Higher levels first
6. Driving and modulating connections
7. Snapshots
8. Attention and binding
9. Styles of firing
10 Penumbra and meaning

About neural coalitions they say, We believe that the framework we have proposed knits all these ideas together so that for the first time we have a coherent scheme for the NCC in philosophical, psychological and neural terms.

What ties all these suggestions together is the idea of competing coalitions. The illusion of a homunculus inside the head looking at the sensory activities of the brain suggests that the coalition(s) at the back are in some way distinct from the coalition(s) at the front. The two types of coalitions interact extensively, but not exactly reciprocally.

[Diane]

Here is an older paper, called The Problem of Consciousness (http://faculty.dbcc.edu/tulsian/interestingReading/biology/the-problem-of-consciousness.pdf) from 1997 (by C&K), 9-page pdf with some great illustrations of visual deceptions.

[Diane]

Here is a recent article in Scholarpedia, on Neural Correlates of Consciousness (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Neural_correlates_of_consciousness), by Chris Koch. :thumbs_up

[Diane]

See the previous post for "Neural Correlates of Consciousness" by C. Koch (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/User:Koch).

Here is a list of 64 articles (http://www.google.com/custom?domains=www.scholarpedia.org&q=neural%20correlates&sitesearch=www.scholarpedia.org&sa=Google+Search&client=pub-4974185664450092&forid=1&channel=9313298532&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acente r%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000% 3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A1&hl=en) from Scholarpedia on the topic of neural correlates.

Some other favorites:

1. Consciousness and attention (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/CODAM_model/consciousness_and_attention) (co-authored by CK); consciousness (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Consciousness)

2. Intentionality (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Intentionality)

3. Visual salience (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Visual_salience) (and salience in general); visual illusions (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Visual_illusions:_An_Empirical_Explanation)

4. Awareness of intention (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Awareness_of_intention)

5. Self models (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Self_models) (Discusses first-, second- and third-order embodiment)

6. Memory (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Memory)

7. Cognition and emotion (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Cognition_and_emotion)

8. Saliency maps (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Saliency_map) (implications for other sensory systems)

9. Intrinsic plasticity (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Intrinsic_plasticity)

10. (What is the) Habenula (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Habenula) ?

11. Models of thalamocortical system (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Models_of_thalamocortical_system)

I found the attached doc wandering around all by itself out in the land of google. I don't know who transcribed it (not me), but it's Oliver Sacks reviewing the book.