Consciousness with Christof Koch (BSP 22)

Brain Science Podcast #22 is an interview with Dr. Christof Koch of Cal Tech, one of the pioneers in the neurobiological study of consciousness.  About two decades ago, when Koch and Francis Crick began looking for what they called the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC), such a quest was considered controversial; but now the field is increasing in popularity.  In our interview, we talked a little about his book,The Quest for Consciousness, as well as his on-going research and his thoughts about what the future might bring.

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Here is a list of some of the topics we discussed:

• Why Francis Crick was an outstanding mentor and colleague.

• A Working definition of consciousness.

• How consciousness relates to awareness.

• What are neural correlates of consciousness.

• Why vision is the focus of Koch's research.

• The search for the "footprints" of consciousness.

• The role of functional imaging and the use of monkeys.

• Neurons-"the atoms of perception".

• Why we need a theory of consciousness.

• The role of the frontal lobes in consciousness.

• Is consciousness an emergent property?

• What about zombies?

• Why do we need consciousness?

• Will artificial intelligence become conscious?

• The hard problem:  how does the brain generate subjective experience  (qualia).

Links:

• Christof Koch's homepage.

• The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach (2004)

Update on 2012-05-03 15:42 by Ginger Campbell, MD

Christof Koch returned to the Brain Science Podcast in Episode 84.