Exploring the puzzle of consciousness

The Wellcome Collection's new exhibition States of Mind uses science and art to unravel mysteries from memory loss to sleepwalking

On a crumpled sheet of tin foil in the Wellcome Collection's conservation studio lies an odd assortment of plasticine forms. One looks suspiciously like the footprint of a chicken, another like a deformed pot, while a large, red lump bears more than a passing resemblance to a gammon joint. But the comparisons are hopelessly wide of the mark. For these are, in fact, part of a determined effort by a great scientist to explore one of the most curious facets of being: consciousness. Yet while Francis Crick revealed the hidden secrets of DNA through a model, his attempts at applying similar techniques to neuroanatomy in an exploration of our inner sense of "self" were less successful. "We brought a couple of neuroscientists in to look at them and bafflement was the result of that encounter too," admits Emily Sargent, curator of the Wellcome Collection's latest exhibition States of Mind: Tracing the Edges of Consciousness. Nevertheless Crick's wide-ranging work in the field was influential, not least in breaking the taboo of tackling the topic in scientific circles.

Although Crick was pivotal in bringing the study of consciousness into the scientific arena, he wasn't the only one to be captivated by its mysteries. From Descartes on the separation of mind and body to modern musings on whether consciousness is an illusion, many have struggled to tease the phenomenon apart. Yet progress is being made. "I think we understand a lot more about what makes us conscious and what we are conscious of, but we still don't really know how consciousness happens at the deepest levels of explanation," says the exhibition's scientific adviser, Professor Anil Seth. "It is still a bit of a mystery."