12th December 2000: "The Conscious Brain"

Susan Greenfield is Professor of Pharmacology at Oxford University, and Director of the Royal Institution. She has made frequent TV and radio appearances, as well as writing for the press. She recently presented "Brain Story" a series for BBC TV, accompanied by abook of the same name. Her other publications include "The Private Life of the Brain", as well as "The Human Brain: a Guided Tour".

How does the grey matter beneath our skulls generate our conscious experience of the world? We need to develop a way of describing consciousness, that on the one hand caters for different states of the physical brain, whilst at the same time respects the individuals experience of the world that is all too often ignored by scientists.

We shall explore the properties that would be required of the physical brain, to cater for the individual experience of consciousness and how it fits in to our everyday lives.