"Accelerating Research on Consciousness"
Event details
| Date | 26.08.2019 |
| Hour | 11:00 › 11:45 |
| Speaker | Prof. Lucia MELLONI (Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics & New York University School of Medicine) |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Abstract: Thirty years ago, a seminal paper by Crick and Koch (re)introduced the scientific study of consciousness to the fields of psychology and neuroscience. This triggered a surge of research on the neural basis of consciousness, and concurrently the development of multiple empirically-based theories of consciousness. Since then, the science of consciousness has progressed from a nascent to a more established field. With growing maturity, new challenges emerge: how do we test the validity and predictive power of current theories? How do we know which theory best ‘explains’ consciousness? Consciousness research today is confronted with the question of how to move forward. How do we go from the accumulation of empirical findings supporting one theory or another, to solid theoretical foundations that can explain consciousness, predict its presence and absence, and improve the diagnosis and treatment of disorders in which consciousness is compromised? Here, we will discuss efforts underway to accelerate and transform research on consciousness based on best practices established in other fields, such as physics: large, collaborative team efforts oriented towards a common goal, adversarial collaboration, preregistration, open data and open science protocols. The use of such practices has the potential to bring the science of consciousness forward and help arbitrate among competing theories. This approach entails a new sociology of science, and we will discuss how this by itself can help make progress, while also creating unique challenges. Given adequate resources and buy-in from our research community, these efforts may not only enable progress in research on consciousness but may also position our field at the frontier of science by providing a new model of how science can be done.
Bio: Lucia Melloni is a research group leader at the Max Planck for Empirical Aesthetics and an assistant professor at NYU school of medicine. In her research she uses a combination of neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and behavior to dissect the neural circuits that give rise to perception and cognition in humans. Her research primarily focuses on two questions: 1) consciousness – what make us to have an experience – and 2) language – how do we communicate infinite number of ideas with a limited set of string. Her approach aims at revealing the elementary computations and neural mechanisms of those processes, and to develop a novel framework to study the physiology of uniquely human cognitive processes.
Bio: Lucia Melloni is a research group leader at the Max Planck for Empirical Aesthetics and an assistant professor at NYU school of medicine. In her research she uses a combination of neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and behavior to dissect the neural circuits that give rise to perception and cognition in humans. Her research primarily focuses on two questions: 1) consciousness – what make us to have an experience – and 2) language – how do we communicate infinite number of ideas with a limited set of string. Her approach aims at revealing the elementary computations and neural mechanisms of those processes, and to develop a novel framework to study the physiology of uniquely human cognitive processes.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free