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The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach 1st Edition

by Christof Koch (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 34 ratings
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Consciousness is one of science’s last great unsolved mysteries. How can the salty taste and crunchy texture of potato chips, the unmistakable smell of dogs after they have been in the rain, or the exhilarating feeling of hanging on tiny fingerholds many feet above the last secure foothold on a cliff, emerge from networks of neurons and their associated synaptic and molecular processes? In The Quest for Consciousness, Caltech neuroscientist Christof Koch explores the biological basis of the subjective mind in animals and people. He outlines a framework that he and Francis Crick (of the "double helix") have constructed to come to grips with the ancient mind-body problem. At the heart of their framework is a sustained, empirical approach to discovering and characterizing the neuronal correlates of consciousness – the NCC – the subtle, flickering patterns of brain activity that underlie each and every conscious experience.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0974707708
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0974707709
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Roberts & Co
  5. Publication date
    January 1, 2004
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    7.25 x 1.25 x 10 inches
  8. Print length
    429 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American

When he was still a student, Richard Feynman hinted at a career to come as a scientific wonderer when he wrote: "I wonder why. I wonder why. / I wonder why I wonder / I wonder why I wonder why / I wonder why I wonder!" Such wondering, and meta-wondering, takes us to the heart of what geneticist-cum-neuroscientist Francis Crick (who would know) calls "the major unsolved problem in biology"--explaining how billions of neurons swapping chemicals give rise to such subjective experiences as consciousness, self-awareness, and awareness that others are conscious and self-aware. The body of literature attempting to solve this problem is extensive, and getting one's mind around the field is a herculean task successfully executed by psychologist Susan Blackmore in her delightful introduction, Consciousness. Presented as a textbook, it is so highly engaging that I recommend it for general readers, too. In many ways, the book is structured like a brain, with loads of independent modules (boxes and sidebars featuring profiles, concepts and activities) tied together by a flowing narrative and integrated into a conceptual whole. The easy problem, Blackmore says, is explaining each of the functional parts of the brain, such as "the discrimination of stimuli, focusing of attention, accessing and reporting mental states, deliberate control of behavior, or differences between waking and sleep." In contrast, the hard problem in consciousness studies "is experience: what it is like to be an organism, or to be in a given mental state." Adding up all of the solved easy problems does not equal a solution to the hard problem. Something else is going on in private subjective experiences--called qualia--and there is no consensus on what it is. Dualists hold that qualia are separate from physical objects in the world and that mind is more than brain. Materialists contend that qualia are ultimately explicable through the activities of neurons and that mind and brain are one. Blackmore, uniquely qualified to assess all comers (she sports multihued hair, is a devotee of meditation, and studies altered states of consciousness), allows the myriad theorists to make their case (including her own meme-centered theory) so that you can be the judge. Making a strong case for the materialist position is Gerald M. Edelman's latest contribution, Wider Than the Sky, offered as a "concise and understandable" explanation of consciousness "to the general reader." Concise it is, but as for understandable, Edelman understates: "It will certainly require a concentrated effort on the part of the reader." As director of the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, Calif., a Nobel laureate and author of several books on consciousness (Neural Darwinism, The Remembered Present and Bright Air, Brilliant Fire), Edelman has impeccable credentials. But science writing for a general audience involves more than expunging scholarly references and providing a glossary of technical terms as a substitute for clear exposition. To wit, on memory Edelman writes that "it is more fruitfully looked on as a property of degenerate nonlinear interactions in a multidimensional network of neuronal groups." Such prose is common throughout the book, which is a shame because Edelman is a luminously entertaining conversationalist, and his theory that the brain develops in a Darwinian fashion of neuronal variation and selection, and that consciousness is an emergent property of increasingly complex and integrated neuronal groups, has considerable support from neuroscience research. An ideal combination of exquisite prose and rigorous science can be found in California Institute of Technology neuroscientist Christof Koch's The Quest for Consciousness. A rock climber adorned with a tattoo of the Apple Computer logo on his arm, Koch takes an unabashed neurobiological approach, the natural extension of what his longtime collaborator Francis Crick started in 1994 when he wrote in The Astonishing Hypothesis "that 'you,' your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules." To me, the most astonishing aspect of this theory is that it is astonishing to anyone. Where else could the mind be but in the brain? Nevertheless, finding the neuronal correlates of consciousness (NCC) has proved elusive, so instead of concocting a grand unified theory, Koch and Crick undertook a very specific research program focusing on the visual system, to understand precisely how photons of light striking your retina become fully integrated visual experiences. Koch and his colleagues, for example, discovered a single neuron that fires only when the subject sees an image of President Bill Clinton. If this neuron died, would Clinton be impeached from the brain? No, because the visual representation of Clinton is distributed throughout several areas of the brain, in a hierarchical fashion, eventually branching down to this single neuron. The visual coding of any face involves several groups of neurons--one to identify the face, another to read its expression, a third to track its motion, and so on. This hierarchy of data processing allows the brain to economize neural activity through the use of combinatorics: "Assume that two face neurons responded either not at all or by firing vigorously. Between them, they could represent four faces (one face is encoded by both cells not firing, the second one by firing activity in one and silence in the other, and so on). Ten neurons could encode 210, or about a thousand faces.... It has been calculated that less than one hundred neurons are sufficient to distinguish one out of thousands of faces in a robust manner. Considering that there are around 100,000 cells below a square millimeter of cortex, the potential representational capacity of any one cortical region is enormous." Given that the brain has about 100 billion neurons, consciousness is most likely an emergent property of these hierarchical and combinatoric neuronal connections. How, precisely, the NCC produce qualia remains to be explained, but Koch's scientific approach, in my opinion, is the only one that will solve the hard problem.

Michael Shermer writes the Skeptic column for Scientific American and is publisher of Skeptic and author of The Science of Good and Evil (Henry Holt and Company, 2004).

Review

"An extraordinary book that outlines in clear terms the issues the biology of the mind will confront in upcoming decades." -- Eric Kandel, Author of Principles of Neural Science and winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

"Once you start "The Quest for Consciousness" your mind makes you read through to the end as fast as possible." -- James Watson, Author of The Double Helix and winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

"The Quest for Consciousness promises to be the most deeply informed and scientifically thoughtful book ever published on the subject." -- Joseph E. Bogen, Clinical Professor of Neurological Surgery, University of Southern California

"not only a mine of information, and full of provocative thoughts and insights, but a delight to read and ponder." -- Oliver Sacks, Author of Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and Uncle Tungsten

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Roberts & Co; 1st edition (January 1, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 429 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0974707708
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0974707709
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.25 x 1.25 x 10 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 34 ratings

About the author

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Christof Koch

Christof Koch

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Christof Koch is a neuroscientist at the Allen Institute in Seattle and the Chief Scientist of the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation in Santa Monica, the former president of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and a former professor at the California Institute of Technology. Author of four previous titles, Christof is a frequent public speaker and writes regularly for a range of media, including Scientific American.

Christof is married, a vegetarian who lives in the Pacific Northwest, who loves big dogs (in particular Bernese Mountain Dogs), running, rowing crew, climbing and biking.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
34 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Vedant Misra
5.0 out of 5 stars Technical, thorough, and engaging
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2012
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Koch's research is fascinating, and his presentation in this book is highly engaging. The book is packed with references and footnotes for further reading. This is a fantastic read for someone who wants an introduction to some of the most interesting problems in neuroscience.
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Robert busconi
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book on conciousness
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2015
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Extraordinary neuroscience text book appropriate for advanced undergraduates or graduate students but then again I have read many articles by Christop Koch
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Karen
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating!
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2013
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Because my husband asked me for this book I assumed he thought it would be a wonderful read. I thought it was an easy way to give a present!
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JETAGEDOC
3.0 out of 5 stars AN INTERESTING VENTURE
Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2013
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Written by the head of the Neurophysiology Department and also the Computer Sciences Department of CALTEC, whose Doctoral Adviser was Francis Crick, this is written entirely in "Complexity Theory" speak and, although having become a textbook, is a bit outdated inasmuch as we have come much farther in studies of live human subjects, both through direct observation and through advances in imaging techology. Contains much personal superfluous information concerning the author's relationship with Crick (who, together with Crick's fellow Britisher, Watson, had been the Nobel Prize Winner for the DNA double-helix model).
4 people found this helpful
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linny
5.0 out of 5 stars but truly wonderful stuff!
Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2016
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Working my way through it, but truly wonderful stuff!
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Carlos Camara
4.0 out of 5 stars Good
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2004
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For the last couple of years, few sicentific progress seems to have been made in the study of consicousness. Philosophical books do not claim to make much progress. I mean, philosophers have been debating over things like representationalism for over 20 years now. But science is supposed to be different. But as hard as I look, most recent books are nothing but reviews of the literature of the last decade and popular sicence, simplified for the lay reader, that seems to make no progress.

This book is not that different. Koch is one of the pioneers in the field, along with the late Francis Crick. It seems the quarrell between the nobelists Crick and Edelman is over, as can be seen in chapter 19 of this book, since mostly their theories agree on the important points. THAT is progress enough.

The bulk of the book is not about the neural correlates of consicousness at all, but about visual neuroscience, and the relationship between cosnciousness and memory and attention. All these chapters offer few truly novel insights, but are not to be skipped by the begginer. The ideas of neural assemblies and competition of neuronal coalitions have been around a while (Susan Greenfields work, and Taylor's Race for Consicousness), but it certainly is exiting to see the breaktrhoughs made with studies on binocular rivalry. Now it is hard to see how useful the unconscious homunculus can be as a theorethical tool. I read it on a joint paper Koch wrote with Crick in a collection edited by Metzinger, I did not get it then and I do not get it now. As I understand it, Koch just talks about a central executive in the frontal cortex, an idea not new nor very groundbreaking. Koch's idea on the necessity for involvent of frontal cortex (through intersignaling with posterior areas) in the NCC is confusing. Maybe differetn types of consciousness could clarify the concept. Sensory consciousness seems to only depend on posterior regions, while working-memory-type consicousness seems to need the frontal areas. It seems clear, considering Koch's ideas on qualia, that he means something like this.

There are some very important contributions, however. Chapter 6 almost resolves the debate on wether V1 is consicous (it is not), and as Koch points out, this is a positive thing, sicne it shows that cortical areas can be analyzed separatedly, and explaining their contribution to consicousness is possible. It would be magnificent if we could further reduce the candidate cortical areas further, if only slowly. I am skeptic of Koch's ideas that maybe different types of neurons can be so characterized. What if we found allegedly "conscious" neurons in V1? It seems to me more plausible that the role a neuron plays in context to the region it is in is far more important than ther cell type instead. Of course, Im speculating here.

But speculation is something Koch does quite well. However, as it is custom, scientists speculate on philosophical issues in their science books, and I like to wonder what philosophers would have to say about that. Lets see. Koch mantains that the function of consciousness is to summarize the present state of the world to the organism, so that it can plan accordingly. This is a very good function, but by no means a novel hypothesis. Cambell, i his book reference and consicousness, mantains that consicousness determines the reference of a demonstrative and therefore justifies the cognitive processing (planning) of the object refered too. Cambell is a philospher and argues for this point forcibly. So here Koch could be on the right track. What about qualia?

Qualia, Koch argues, are symbols, mental shorthand, for the vast content of those mental states. Qualia, then, are the way it feels to represent the content (Koch talks of meaning, which by his use is familiar to intentionality) of those states. In essence, Koch is saying (Im interpreting here, i COULD be doing itt wrong) that qualia are representational, and that it is vy virtue of that fact that they have a function. Now this is a thesis with a lot of philosophical baggage, but that I think is highly plausible. Koch mantains that the content of a quale is determined by the context (penumbra) in where the quale lies, This certainly seems right. The neural correlates of a quale would appear in the context of surrounding neural activity, and the interconnection between these systems would link qualia to its content (meaning). All of this, however, sidesteps the issue of in virtue of what properies does the penumbra, or the quale for that matter, represent anything at all. This is not the same as asking why qualia feel like anything at all, question that neither I nor Koch can answer. So although Koch's speculations are interesting, they fail to really explain anything at all, unless he gives us bridging principles. He tries, when he writes about how meaning arose out of sensimotor interactions, intermodality connections, or genetical predispositions. However, the details have to be inferred by the reader.

Koch is also highly simplistic in his dealing of split-brain studies. It is by no means obvious that splitting the brain means splitting conscousness. There is a whole book dealing with this issue (Alexanders tHE Unity of consicousness), and there are some good arguments that Koch ignores. (not to be blamed for he is a scientist.....he did start the speculation game, though)

So this book is a good review of the field, presents some novel ideas and interesting speculations. It is recomendable for novel readers, and a must have for cosnciousness fans. But I still wait for a landmark book, the Astonishing Hypothesis of the new decade. Koch is a wonderful writer and a brilliant scientist, and I do not doubt he will someday deliver.
60 people found this helpful
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Claudia g.
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2016
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Very happy with the purchase and service.
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John Harpur
4.0 out of 5 stars Pure eliminativism without philosophical sophistication
Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2005
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Vision. Attention. Temporal procesing. Consciousness. Subject these areas to orderely analysis and the neurl correlates of consciousness are vaguely hoving into view. This essentially is the strategy pursued in the book. Since the visual cortex has received an enormous amount of scrutiny, the book has a rich stream of theory and result to draw upon. Secondly, the connection between visual processing and attention has long been noted in early infant development - joint attention being a developmental milestone. A range of studies of various brain insults have indicated that impaired temporal processing affects the unity of report self-awareness. So far the book is on the winning track. However, when it comes to grounding consciousness the evidence is much thinner. There is a still a huge amount about the brain we simply do not understand, e.g. from what kind of computational model (if any) is appropriate to the function and organisation of large ranges of nuclei. Koch has shielded himself somehat by sticking with largely established results. There is an amount of question-begging nevertheless. Overall the latter fifty pages focus on the NCC idenitifcation probelsm and in line with our lack of knowledge, the coverage is patchy. One naggign question that is not addressed is whether consciousness is the 'same' for everyone? For example, research into autism, congential blindness and congenital deafness has revealed that the world of people and self are apprehended differently. It would have been interesting to have Koch's views on the 'consciousness' of the impaired mind - or impaired brain.

While I found the book intersting to read I was not very satisfied at the end of it. A savannah of philosophical questions are simply overlooked. Secondly, many paragraphs and arguments are prefixed with the phrase 'Francis and I...' This was entirely unnecesary and suggested either grandiosity or else a thinness of argument that needed the heft of the fame of a historical figure to get it through the door. It would be very intersting to read another edition of this book where more weight was given to the philosophical and computational conundrums that accompany eliminativist thinking. Despite these reservations, it is a book worth musing over.
29 people found this helpful
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