Building a consciousness meter with Christof Koch

05/26/22 • 21 min

Can we put a number on human consciousness? Neuroscientist Christof Koch is leading an effort to build a consciousness meter that could have real-world applications to determine whether coma patients are in a true vegetative state. Christof joined Lab Notes to talk about the science of consciousness, what psychedelic drugs have to do with consciousness, and how this new project could one day have applications in hospitals and clinics.

Behind every science headline, there is a human story. Hear about the scientific advancements aiming to shape the cures of tomorrow with Lab Notes: A podcast from the Allen Institute. Streaming everywhere.

05/26/22 • 21 min

Lab Notes - Building a consciousness meter with Christof Koch

Transcript

Christof Koch

You lose almost everything it's very close... it's a close cousin to near death experiences you can you lose yourself, there's no more you there's no more self, the external world totally disappears. And then people report different things you know, sometimes it's just a feeling of ecstasy, sometimes terror sometimes both sometimes a light sometimes people have some other strange what William James called ineffable experience... pretty powerful stuff.

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