X-Message-Number: 6004 From: Ralph Merkle <> Subject: Christof Koch on The Neuroanatomy and Neurophysiology of Consciousness Date: Fri, 29 Mar 1996 15:40:32 PST PARC Forum Thursday, April 4, 1996 4:00 p.m., PARC Auditorium Xerox PARC 3333 Coyote Hill Road Palo Alto CA 94304 The Neuroanatomy and Neurophysiology of Consciousness Christof Koch Professor of Computation and Neural Systems California Institute of Technology What is the relationship between the experience of visual perception and the underlying neuronal activity in the visual system? Dr. Francis Crick and I propose that the function of visual awareness is to produce an interpretation of the visual scene and to make it available, for a sufficient time, to the parts of the brain that contemplate, plan and execute voluntary motor outputs. This suggest that the neurons that express the neural correlate of consciousness must project from visual cortices to the frontal lobe. I will discuss electrophysiological, clinical and psychophysical evidence for this hypothesis. Finally, I will discuss the implications that such a strategy has for designing machine architectures that express some degree of awareness. This Forum is OPEN to the public. Refreshments will be served from 3:45 - 4:00 p.m. Requests for videotapes of this Forum (Xerox personnel only) should be addressed to Susie Mulhern, :com. Host: Eric Saund, (415) 812-4474, ----------------- The PARC Auditorium is located at 3333 Coyote Hill Road in Palo Alto. **From the 280 Freeway, exit east on Page Mill Rd. Turn right on Coyote Hill Rd. PARC is the first building on the left. **From the 101 Freeway, exit west on the Oregon Expressway. This becomes Page Mill Rd. where it crosses El Camino Real in Palo Alto. >From Page Mill Rd., turn left (south) on Foothill Expressway, then right (west) on Hillview Ave. Coming up Hillview Ave., PARC is the second driveway on the right. The PARC auditorium entrance is down the stairs to the left of the main entrance. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6004