How can the content of consciousness be so replete with particular and evocative details? There are no pictures inside my skull of me climbing, only a brown-grayish organ with the consistency, size, and shape of overcooked cauliflower. This tofu-like tissue, buffered by blood and cerebrospinal fluid, consists of nerve and glial cells. Neurons and their interconnecting synapses are the atoms of perception, memory, thought, and action. If science is ever to comprehend these processes, it must be able to explain them in terms of the interactions of large coalitions of neurons embedded within a
...more
