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The Footprints of Consciousness
The Footprints of Consciousness
By Christof Koch
ILLUSTRATION BY ARMANDO VEVE
“It is in the brain that the poppy is red, that the apple is odorous, that the skylark sings.”
— Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
e moderns take it for granted that consciousness is intimately tied up with the
brain. But this assumption did not always hold. For much of recorded history,
the heart was considered the seat of reason, emotion, valor and mind. Indeed,
the fi rst step in mummification in ancient Egypt was to scoop out the brain
through the nostrils and discard it, whereas the heart, the liver and other internal
organs were carefully extracted and preserved. The pharaoh would then have ac-
cess to everything he needed in his afterlife. Everything except for his brain!
Several millennia later Aristotle, one of the greatest of all biologists, taxonomists,
embryologists and the fi rst evolutionist, had this to say: “And of course, the brain is
not responsible for any of the sensations at all. The correct view [is] that the seat and
source of sensation is the region of the heart.” He argued consistently that the primary
function of the wet and cold brain is to cool the warm blood coming from the heart.
Another set of historical texts is no more insightful on this question. The Old and the
New Testaments are filled with references to the heart but entirely devoid of any men-
tions of the brain.
Debate about what the brain does grew ever more intense over ensuing millen-
nia. The modern embodiment of these arguments seeks to identify the precise areas
within the three-pound cranial mass where consciousness arises. What follows is an
attempt to size up the past and present of this transmillennial journey.
The field has scored successes in delineating a brain region that keeps the neural
engine humming. Switched on, you are awake and conscious. In another setting, your
body is asleep, yet you still have experi- scientist by testing the hypothesis that ble for carrying out specific functions.
ences — you dream. In a third position, the brain controls all muscles by means Locationism rose to dominance after
you are deeply asleep, effectively off- of the nerves. Famously, Galen argued 1861, when French neurologist Paul
line. What is more, I and others have la- that the vital spirit that animates hu- Broca presented the landmark case of a
bored on discovering critical brain re- mans flows up from the liver to the heart patient unable to speak except for a sin-
gions that imbue us with specific forms and into the head. There, inside the ven- gle word. The patient’s brain exhibited
of conscious experience: perceptions of tricles— the brain’s interconnected fluid- widespread damage to the left inferior
the orange hues of a sunset, pangs of fi lled cavities — the vital spirit becomes frontal gyrus, part of the neocortex that
hunger or the stabbing pain of a tooth- purified and gives rise to thought, sensa- crowns the top part of the brain. An
ache. Those are in the neocortex, the tion and movement. analysis of a second patient reinforced
cal studies have by far been the most fe- pressed, consciousness will flee the vic- During and after World War I, a re-
cund source of knowledge concerning tim. Indeed, even a small injury to parts markable wave of “sleepy sickness,” or
the relation between the physical brain of it can lead to a profound and sus- encephalitis lethargica, swept the world.
and the conscious mind. tained loss of consciousness. The patient The condition helped to point to the
can go into stupor and can only be par- brain stem as a mediator of sleep and
The Brain’s Light Switch tially aroused after vigorous and pro- wakefulness. This form of encephalitis
Some areas of the brain are more in- longed stimulation. Worse, the patient induced in many of its victims a state of
strumental than others in generating a can lapse into a coma, an enduring, almost permanent and statuelike sleep,
conscious state. The brain stem at the sleeplike state of immobility with closed from which they would awaken only for
top of the spinal cord is one of them. If eyes, from which arousal may prove to a few hours at a time. It was the astute
the brain stem is damaged or com- be difficult. observation by Austrian neurologist
Occipital Cortex
A Guided Tour Broca’s Area
Visual information about form and
Scientists fall into two In 1861 Paul Broca discovered a small region
motion gets processed in this area
camps when discussing at the brain’s surface that is responsible for
at the back of the brain.
the brain. Holists argue producing speech.
that consciousness is gen-
erated by the entire three-
pound mass made up of
170 billion cells, of which
half are nerve cells. Loca-
tionists support the idea
that specific neural circuits Fusiform Gyrus
are responsible for specific Parts of this structure
functions, including con- play a critical role in
sciousness. On closer recognizing faces,
inspection, neuroanato- among other visual
mists have realized that tasks. Damage to it
one confined area, the causes face blindness.
brain stem, ensures that
we do not lapse into a coma
or suffer from a sleeping
sickness. Meanwhile rear
areas on the surface of the
brain are needed to gener-
ate mental imagery and oth-
er specific conscious expe- Cerebellum
riences, such as recognizing Brain Stem This mini brainlike structure
your grandmother. enables precise motor
Neurons in the brain stem con-
control. Lesions in part
trol the level of arousal or wake-
of the cerebellum do not
© I S T O C K .C O M
The brain stem (left, highlighted in yellow) serves as an engine of consciousness. When injured, it may extinguish all conscious activity.
The modern search for key brain loci that imbue us with consciousness began with Francis Crick, the author’s mentor (above), decades
after he had co-discovered the structure of DNA.
G E T T Y I M A G E S (l e f t ); D A N I E L M O R DZ I N S K I G e t t y I m a g e s (r i g h t )
of mammals — and the evolutionarily responding to the site of a pea-sized le- with pictures of body parts, cars or hous-
older archicortex. All available evidence sion in his right occipital visual cortex. es. These electrodes could also directly
points toward certain key regions with- A.R.’s low-level vision — detection of excite the underlying cortical tissue us-
in the 11 ounces of highly structured brightness, lines, and so on— and his mo- ing electrical pulses. Stimulating the
neocortical tissue as the location of con- tion and depth perception were normal. right fusiform gyrus led to reports of per-
tent-specific NCCs. The only other deficit was a difficulty ceiving faces. In one study, a patient who
Lesions to the rear section of the distinguishing — he could not read text— looked at his neurologist remarked:
neocortex— for instance, from a stroke but this problem was confined again, to “You just turned into someone else. Your
or some other damage — demonstrate the upper left quadrant. face metamorphosed. Your nose got sag-
what happens when activity in the back Functional MRI and EEG are some of gy and went to the left. You almost
of the brain shuts down. A patient so af- the most common ways to look for neu- looked like somebody I’d seen before but
flicted cannot recognize a set of keys on ral correlates of consciousness in healthy somebody different. That was a trip”
a chain dangling in front of her. She volunteers. These techniques can identify [see box on page 59].
looks at them and sees texture and lines a bevy of brain areas related to face rec- When the left fusiform gyrus was
M I N D. S C I E N T I F I C A M E R I C A N .C O M S C I E N T I F I C A M E R I C A N M I N D 57
ple become face-blind when this region tor of four. Despite this intricate physi- Tools in the hunt for consciousness include
is destroyed. ology, neural activity in the cerebellum EEG (1) and MRI brain scans (2). These
Sometimes not finding something does not give rise to consciousness. scans show a woman with an empty space
where her cerebellum should be.
where you expected it can be as impor- Even more intriguing than the cere-
tant and revealing as fi nding it. This ob- bellum are the frontal lobes of the neo-
servation applies to the cerebellum, cortex. Traditionally they are thought to the 20th century, when neurosurgeons
tucked below the cortex at the back of be the key hallmark of our species, hav- routinely excised large swathes of fron-
the brain, and even pertains to parts of ing expanded more in Homo sapiens tal or prefrontal cortex on both sides.
the cortex. than in all other higher primates. Func- What is remarkable is how unremark-
If the cerebellum is damaged, both tional MRI has also shown them to be able these patients appear from their
animals and people have difficulty mak- involved in tasks that involve planning, clinical description.
ing precise movements, and the move- short-term memory, language, reason- The most dramatic example is Mr. A,
ments they do make lose precision and ing and self-monitoring. Yet more than a patient of neurosurgeon Walter Dandy
become erratic, jerky and uncoordinat- a century of reports describing electrical in 1930. Because of Mr. A.’s massive tu-
ed. Yet patients with cerebellar lesions brain stimulation carried out during mor, the surgeon had to amputate the pa-
do not complain of being unable to see, neurosurgery while the patient is awake tient’s frontal poles, the protruding sec-
hear or feel. Nor do they experience suggest that it is difficult to directly elic- tions at the front of the brain. The patient
transient or permanent loss of con- it sensory experiences from stimulation survived this bilateral frontal lobectomy
sciousness. Their subjective experience of frontal sites. for 19 years and continued to speak. A
Front of brain
1 2 3 4
“Like you weren’t you. “You turned into some- “That orange part “[The eye] looked
You were a different one else. Your face looked like a person ... like a circle and
person. I noticed the metamorphosed.... like a face and a body.... then changed to
eyes. I was able to see Your nose got saggy Like a hallucination a rectangle shape.”
almost your whole body and went to the left.” of the curtains.”
on your right side.”
E F F EC T S I N C O N S C I O U S FA C E P E R C E P T I O N ,” B Y V I N I T H A R A N G A R A J A N E T A L ., I N J O U R N A L O F N EU R O S C I E N C E ,
note in his file observed that “one of the might then be involved in unconscious brain that make us conscious appear to be
S O U R C E : “ E L EC T R I C A L S T I M U L AT I O N O F T H E L E F T A N D R I G H T H U M A N F U S I F O R M GY R U S C A U S E S D I F F E R E N T
salient traits of Mr. A’s case was his abil- planning, strategizing, forming memo- centered on a more restricted hot zone in
ity to pass as an ordinary person under ries and focusing attention. the posterior part of the neocortex, with
casual circumstance.” When he toured some possible additional contributions
the Neurological Institute in the compa- The Hot Zone from some anterior regions.
V O L . 3 4, N O. 3 8; S E P T E M B E R 17, 2 0 14; D E A G O S T I N I P I C T U R E L I B R A R Y G e t t y I m a g e s (b r a i n)
ny of distinguished neurologists, “no one Since the modern quest for the NCCs These fi ndings raise the question of
noticed anything unusual.” Mr. A. did at the end of the 20th century, progress why the seats of consciousness are so cir-
exhibit some of the behaviors associated has been rapid compared with previous cumscribed. Is there something so differ-
with frontal lobe removal, such as child- millennia. First, conceptual work has ent in the wiring or behavior of neurons
like behavior, lack of inhibition and a clarified the importance of investigating in the back of the cortex from those in the
need to tell jokes. Neither he nor other pa- the neural correlates of both specific con- front? Future investigations will be need-
tients who submitted to similar surgeries scious contents and consciousness as a ed in the decades — maybe centuries —
were robbed of conscious behaviors. whole. Second, some parts of the brain ahead to further illuminate the types of
Their capacity to see, hear or experience have been identified as contributing little neural activity that underlie the infinite
the world remained intact, despite the to conscious experience. The areas of the varieties of human experience. M
drastic surgical intervention.
That the anterior cortex may not be
necessary for sensory consciousness does MORE TO EXPLORE
not imply that it does not contribute di- ■ Brain of Patient A. after Bilateral Frontal Lobectomy; Status of Frontal-Lobe Problem.
rectly to any given aspect of conscious- R. M. Brickner in AMA Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, Vol. 68, No. 3, pages 293–313; 1952.
ness. After all, being self-conscious (re- ■ Electrical Stimulation of the Human Brain: Perceptual and Behavioral Phenomena
Reported in the Old and New Literature. A. Selimbeyoglu and J. Parvizi in Frontiers in Human
flecting on what one perceives) is differ-
Neuroscience, Vol. 4, Article 46, pages 1–11; May 2010.
ent from perceiving something, yet both ■ The Neural Correlates of Consciousness: Progress and Problems. C. Koch, M. Massimini,
are subjective experiences. Perhaps re- M. Boly and G. Tononi in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Vol. 17, pages 307–321; May 2016.
flection, effort, and so on are generated From Our Archives
by the anterior cortex, although no firm ■ The Face as Entryway to the Self. Christof Koch; Consciousness Redux, January/February 2015.
evidence exists yet. The prefrontal cortex ■ Sleeping While Awake. Christof Koch; Consciousness Redux, November/December 2016.