Brain Science with Ginger Campbell, MD: Neuroscience for Everyone BS 163 Christof Koch on the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness
Nov 22, 2019
Christof Koch, Chief Scientist at the Allen Institute for Brain Science and a leading mind on consciousness, discusses his new book, revealing why neural correlates alone don't capture our subjective experience. He dives into Integrated Information Theory, proposing a quantifiable way to understand consciousness. Koch contrasts this with panpsychism and shares insights from clinical cases, highlighting ethical implications of consciousness in non-communicative patients. His exploration broadens the understanding of consciousness as a physical property and its potential presence in simple organisms.
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The Explanatory Gap Of Consciousness
- Conscious experience is absent from physics and chemistry yet undeniably present in brains.
- The central challenge is explaining how subjective experience arises from ordinary matter.
Working With Francis Crick
- Koch recounts meeting Francis Crick and their shared interest in consciousness research.
- They felt mainstream neuroscience largely ignored what it is like to be the owner of a brain.
Limits Of Neural Correlates
- Neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) identify minimal brain mechanisms tied to specific experiences.
- NCCs locate where experiences map in the brain but do not explain why experience exists.
