Wk12 - Koch & Crick's Consciousness Hunches Flashcards
What did Koch & Crick believe the purpose of consciousness is?
The purpose of consciousness is for planning
Is consciousness necessary for all of our behaviour?
No. From an evolutionary standpoint, we could do most things without consciousness.
What is consciousness important for?
Planning
What brain region is important/necessary for planning?
Prefrontal cortex
Can people plan if they don’t have a prefrontal cortex?
No
What does consciousness’ link with planning suggest about brain regions that could be important?
Prefrontal cortex is important for planning. Consciousness is important for planning. Thus, the prefrontal cortex must be involved in consciousness.
What cortex is important in conscious vision?
Inferior temporal cortex (monkey)
What were Koch & Crick’s consciousness hunches?
There is a direct loop between neurons in higher-order sensory regions (e.g., the inferior temporal cortex in vision) and their targets in the prefrontal cortex.
These are the neural correlates of consciousness.
The prefrontal neurons then reach their axons back to the inferior temporal cortex (higher-order sensory regions), creating a reverberating feedback loop.
What did Koch & Crick suggest the neural correlates of consciousness are?
The neural correlates of consciousness centre on the establishment of a direct loop between neurons in higher-order sensory regions and their targets in the prefrontal cortex
What did Kock & Crick say was important in consciousness?
Reverberating feedback loops between neurons in higher-order sensory regions and prefrontal neurons are important in consciousness
Where did Kock & Crick suggest there were feedback loops to and from?
Between prefrontal neurons and higher-order sensory regions
What evidence is there to support Koch & Crick’s idea of feedback loops?
EEG recordings from brain-damaged patients
Some patients would recover awareness but others would remain unconscious.
It was found that it was the communication between prefrontal regions and the temporal sensory cortical regions which was critical in whether a patient was going to regain consciousness or not.
What area of the brain is important for conscious concepts?
Hippocampus.
There are feedback loops between the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.
Does feedback go in one direction?
No. Feedback comes back to sensory regions too.
Non-linear dynamics in relations between neurons.
Feedback increases the processing of early regions.
