A framework for consciousness

By F. Crick, Christof Koch. Nature Neuroscience, 2003

1,413 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Here we summarize our present approach to the problem of consciousness. After an introduction outlining our general strategy, we describe what is meant by the term 'framework' and set it out under ten headings. This framework offers a coherent scheme for explaining the neural correlates of (visual) consciousness in terms of competing cellular assemblies. Most of the ideas we favor have been suggested before, but their combination is original. We also outline some general experimental approaches to the problem and, finally, acknowledge some relevant aspects of the brain that have been left out of the proposed framework.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8dcc86121219fdb9f813d43b35c632811da18b73

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In Cognitive Neuroscience

Citations in the corpus

The experience of emotion. (2007, background): “…of attention (supported by dorsolateral prefrontal, anterior cingulate, and parietal cortices) that is entrained by sensory stimulation of sufficient intensity or driven by an individual’s processing goals (Crick & Koch 2004, Dehaene & Changeux 2004, Maia & Cleeremans 2005, Naghavi & Nyberg 2005).”
Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness (2012, background): “THE EXPERIENTIAL PHENOMENOLOGICAL SELF (EPS) Distinctions have been made in phenomenology and the study of consciousness to portray a form of self-specifying experience in which there exists present-centered awareness, and in which the contents of awareness represented at the level of EES are access”
Measuring information integration (2003, background): “Considerable evidence also indicates that the thalamocortical system constitutes the necessary and sufficient substrate for the generation of conscious experience [11,34-36].”
A new neural framework for visuospatial processing (2011, background): “…to which she could not consciously orient led to the hypothesis that the dorsal stream was concerned with automatic, non-conscious, visually guided action rather than with spatial perception; according to this view, only the ventral stream produces representations accessible to consciousness 8,9 .”
Consciousness as Integrated Information: a Provisional Manifesto (2008, background): “The evidence suggests that the “neural correlate” (Crick and Koch, 2003) of color, including red, is probably a set of neurons and connections in the fusiform gyrus, maybe in area V8 (ideally, neurons in this area are activated whenever a subject sees red and not otherwise, if stimulated trigger…”
From the Phenomenology to the Mechanisms of Consciousness: Integrated Information Theory 3.0 (2014, background): “While identifying the ‘‘neural correlates of consciousness’’ is undoubtedly important [8], it is hard to see how it could ever lead to a satisfactory explanation of what consciousness is and how it comes about [11].”
New vistas for α-frequency band oscillations (2007, neutral): “in discrete ‘snapshots’ involving a-frequency band periodicity [30,66, 71 ,73,74].”
Is perception discrete or continuous? (2003, background): “system represents continuous events as a sequence of discrete perceptual ‘snapshots’ [ 53 ].”
Spectral fingerprints of large-scale neuronal interactions (2012, background): “This is achieved through the transient formation of large 'coalitions of neurons”
Language emergence: Implications for applied linguistics - Introduction to the special issue (2006, background): “There is considerable ongoing research into this 'gamma band' activity both as an index of attentive awareness and as a mechanism for solving the binding problem (Crick and Koch 2003; Dehaene and Changeux 2004; Edelman 1989; Edelman and Tononi 2000; Koch 2004; Singer 1999).”
Multisensory Integration in Complete Unawareness (2014, background): “Here, we suggest that consciousness may serve as an enabling factor, allowing for the establishment of novel networks that are subsequently used during unconscious multisensory integration (Crick & Koch, 2003; Dehaene & Naccache, 2001).”
Experimental and theoretical approaches to conscious processing. (2011, background): “In related proposals, Crick and Koch (1995, 2003, 2005) suggested that conscious access involves forming a stable global neural coalition.”
The anatomy of memory: an interactive overview of the parahippocampal–hippocampal network (2009, background): “An increasingly complex picture of the connectivity within and between the HF and the PHR has emerged over the years, and comprehensive knowledge of the PHR–HF network lies at the basis of understanding its function”