Commentary on Crick and Koch’s ‘A Framework for Consciousness’

As other commentators on the target article have pointed out, and as Crick and Koch themselves acknowledge, their hypotheses regarding the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) have much in common with the work of other researchers. There now seems to be a well-established research consensus that the NCC are distributed, integrated, and semi-hierarchical, extending across many brain systems subserving various cognitive functions. Consciousness seems to involve neural coalitions, not central executives.

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Science and Consciousness Review has just published a summary and four commentaries about the significant new article by Francis Crick and Christof Koch, titled “A framework for consciousness.” Most SCR commentaries in this series have been critical. I understand the criticisms. What may be lost in the debate, however, is an understanding of how far we have come in the scientific study of consciousness, in little more than a decade. In my view, Crick and Koch give us a progress report: Yes, there are many remaining gaps, but we are consistently learning more and more. Consciousness is back on the scientific frontier as a major topic, and there are signs of an early consensus on a number of questions.

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The large footprints of the Crick/Koch duo at the frontier of knowledge can be a little daunting, which is why I was concerned at the very first paragraph of “A Framework for Consciousness” (1). It says that qualia are too hard and ‘it appears fruitless to approach them head on’. Qualia are then tacitly assumed emergent from the framework presented. I know the work is entitled ‘A’ framework, not ‘The’ framework, but from Crick and Koch it read a little like “Qualia cannot be approached from outside the framework”. I don’t think this was the intent, but it may be that the plausible explanation they need is stopped by the framework.

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It is not often that a top scientific journal features a lead article on consciousness, and we at SCR rejoice to see Francis Crick and Christof Koch’s commentary “A Framework for Consciousness,” featured in the February 2003 issue of Nature Neuroscience. In this article, Crick and Koch describe ten aspects of a framework that they believe offers a coherent scheme for explaining the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) in terms of competing cellular assemblies in the brain.

Amid the welter of speculation and philosophizing about consciousness that has grown in the past 10 years, Crick and Koch have remained steadfast in their chosen experimental and theoretical approach to consciousness:

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