The Quest for Consciousness

Advance Praise for The Quest for Consciousness

"The Quest for Consciousness promises to be the most deeply informed and scientifically thoughtful book ever published on visual consciousness."
--- Joseph Bogen, Clinical Professor of Neurological Surgery, University of Southern California and author, along with Sperry and Gazzaniga, of the first split-brain study.

"It will be so nice to have a no-nonsense book that sheds light on this 'final frontier' from a point of view of reason and scientific evidence!"
--- Ernst Niebur, Johns Hopkins University

"Christof Koch is totally serious about making progress in understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of consciousness. Thus his book stands in sharp contrast with the spate of consciousness books that concoct futile thought-experiments, indulge in theatrical naysaying, or speculate grandly far from the neurobiological action. Koch knows a lot of neuroscience, knows it first hand, and understands how to put it work. He and Crick have assembled a sensible general framework for attacking the problem, and he has a well-measured humility about what we do not yet understand. Consequently, this book on consciousness is well worth reading, and reading again."
--- Patricia Smith Churchland, Chair and UC President's Professor of Philosophy

"Once you start "The Quest for Consciousness" your mind makes you read through to the end as fast as possible."
--- James D. Watson, Author of Molecular Biology of the Gene and winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

"The Quest for Consciousness is a lively (and crisp and original) outline of the problem of consciousness."
--- Tomaso Poggio, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"As a biologist I have always found the spiritual, philosophical and psychological explanations of consciousness lacking. I enjoy gaining insight from the other non-scientific perspectives, but I crave biological explanations. The author does an excellent job explaining to the novice reader the important concepts and facts of neurobiology required to understand the argument for a neuronal correlate of consciousness."
--- Alison Gammie, Princeton University

"Although there have been a number of books on consciousness, I think it's time for a neuroscientist, rather than a physicist, philosopher, psychologist, to write a book, from the neuron's point of view. That Koch really grapples with the material substance of the brain --- its gross and its fine anatomy --- makes the book very different from other recent ones on similar topics."
--- Anya Hurlbert, University of Newcastle upon Tyne

"Together with Francis Crick, Christof Koch helped to make consciousness a legitimate scientific topic more than a decade ago, and he remains a pre-eminent investigator of what is arguably science's most profound remaining riddle. In his new book, he serves as a charming, trustworthy guide through the jungle of consciousness studies, telling us how much science has learned and what questions remain unanswered. Although rigorous enough for insiders, this book is so lucid and witty that it should appeal to anyone curious about consciousness --- and who isn't?"
--- John Horgan, author of Undiscovered Mind (Houghton Mifflin) and The End of Science (Addison Wesley)