Half a century ago, many did not think it was possible to understand the secret of life. Then Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA, forever changing biology. We are facing a similar pursuit in determining the material basis of consciousness. How does the unmistakable smell of dogs after they have been in the rain, or the awfulness of throbbing tooth pain emerge from networks of neurons and their associated synaptic processes?

In this public lecture, Dr. Koch will summarize what is known about the neurobiology of consciousness, argue that attention is distinct from consciousness, outline the limits to our knowledge, and describe ongoing experiments using visual illusions to manipulate the relationship between physical stimuli and their associated conscious percepts via fMRI and single unit recordings in human medial temporal lobe. He will conclude with a discussion of a promising information-theoretical approach to consciousness that is grounded in circuit complexity.

Christof Koch is the Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology and Professor of Computation and Neural Systems at Caltech.