A Neurobiological Approach
By Christof Koch
Roberts&Company Publishers
Consciousness is the major unsolved problem in biology. How do the elemental feelings and sensations making up conscious experience, the redness of red and painfulness of pain, arise from the concerted actions of nerve cells and their associated synaptic and molecular processes? Can such feelings be explained by modern science, or is some quite different kind of explanation needed? And how can this seemingly intractable problem be approached experimentally? Designed as an introduction to the field and drawing upon anatomical, physiological, clinical and psychological observations, this book seeks answers to these questions within a neurobiological framework; that is, how do the operations of the conscious mind emerge out of the specific interactions of myriads of neurons.
"Christof Koch has written a superb introduction to the modern exploration of the biology of consciousness, based on his collaborative work with Francis Crick. The Quest for Consciousness is an extraordinarily well-written book that outlines in clear terms the key issues that the biology of the mind will be confronting in the next several decades. The book is a must for both the general reader as well as for scientists in the field."--- Eric Kandel, Author of Principles of Neural Science and winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
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