Francis Crick: The Astonishing Hypothesis (惊人的假设) 1953年，弗朗西斯·克里克（Francis Harry Compton Crick, 1916-2004）与詹姆斯·沃森（James Watson）共同发现了DNA的双螺旋结构；他们也为此获得了1962年的诺贝尔生理学或医学奖。1976年左右，克里克从英国剑桥大学转到了美国的索尔克研究所（Salk Institute），其科学兴趣也转向到了意识的神经机制这一课题。 1994年，克里克出版了一本科普性质的书： 《惊人的假设》 。如果您对意识的神经机制这一课题感兴趣，此书还是值得一读。我将此书英文版pdf附上。 The-Astonishing-Hypothesis-Francis-Crick-part1.pdf The-Astonishing-Hypothesis-Francis-Crick-part2.pdf The-Astonishing-Hypothesis-Francis-Crick-part3.pdf NOTE: 1. The PDF book that I am attaching here consists of scanned images. If someone has a text-based PDF version, I would greatly appreciate obtain that PDF version; 2. I have splitted the whole book into 3 PDF files. If you want to combine the three parts into one file, find a tool to do so. (On a Linux machine, you can use the tool qpdf to do so.)
First Letter from Francis Crick to Me 1953年，弗朗西斯·克里克（Francis Harry Compton Crick, 1916-2004）与詹姆斯·沃森（James Watson）共同发现了DNA的双螺旋结构；他们也为此获得了1962年的诺贝尔生理学或医学奖。1976年左右，克里克从英国剑桥大学转到了美国的索尔克研究所（Salk Institute），其科学兴趣也转向到了意识的神经机制这一课题。1988-1992年间，我在美国卡内基梅隆大学（CMU）学习认知心理学，也对意识的神经机制感兴趣；所以我开始和克里克进行一些通信。 克里克给我的第一封信长达3页，其中包含一些有趣的想法和问题。如果您对意识的神经机制这一课题感兴趣，今天看来，这些想法和问题仍然值得进一步思考。因此，我将克里克给我的第一封信的拷贝附上。 crick-to-wu-1991.pdf Note: On my end, I had lost the original copy of this letter. Fortunately enough, Crick did archive all the correspondences that he had with other people. Now, all such archived materials are saved at the Wellcome Trust Library in London and are available online at: https://wellcomelibrary.org/collections/digital-collections/makers-of-modern-genetics/digitised-archives/francis-crick/
意识研究: Layer 5 Pyramidal Neurons for Consciousness: WRONG! The subject matter of the neural mechanims for consciousness is an important and interesting problem in brain science and psychology. Recently,there has been some news about consciousness research: New Theory Says Only Brain Activity Involving ‘L5p Neurons’ Enters Conscious Awareness The above news reported that a group of researchers have developed a new theory as to which part(s) of the brain and what special types of neurons are the neural substrate for consciousness -- their theory is mainly that Layer 5 Pyramidal Neurons in the Brain is for Consciousness First of all, the above idea is NOT NEW at all: That group of researchers did cite a paper by Francis Crick and Christof Koch, published in 1992, in which the above idea was mentioned; but even before 1992, Crick had been communicating with some other researchers in the neuroscience community about the above idea (reference source yet to be determined). Of course, in a certain sense, that group of researchers have now developed that idea more fully. Second, that idea is WRONG! Why? Because our visual consciousness is mostly monocular, but in layer 5 of the primary visual cortex (V1) of the primate brain, most neurons are binocular.
标签: 意识研究
