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Axel Cleeremans, Université Libre de Bruxelles Consiousness, Cognition & Computation Group |
Consciousness: The radical plasticity thesis
Date and Time: Thursday 15 March 2012, 4.30 pm
Location: Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Pieter de la Court gebouw, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, room SB45
Abstract: Here, I explore the idea that consciousness is something that the brain learns to do rather than an intrinsic property of certain neural states and not others. Starting from the idea that neural activity is inherently unconscious, the question thus becomes: How does the brain learn to be conscious? I suggest that consciousness arises as a result of the brain's continuous attempts at predicting not only the consequences of its actions on the world and on other agents, but also the consequences of activity in one cerebral region on activity in other regions. By this account, the brain continuously and unconsciously learns to redescribe its own activity to itself, so developing systems of meta-representations that characterise and qualify the target first-order representations. Such learned redescriptions, enriched by the emotional value associated with them, form the basis of conscious experience. Learning and plasticity are thus central to consciousness, to the extent that experiences only occur in experiencers that have learned to know they possess certain first-order states and that have learned to care more about certain states than about others. This is what I call the ³Radical Plasticity Thesis². In a sense thus, this is the enactive perspective, but turned both inwards and
(further) outwards. Consciousness involves ³signal detection on the mind²; the mind is the brain's (non-conceptual, implicit) theory about itself. I illustrate these ideas through neural network models that simulate the relationships between performance and awareness in different tasks.
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Pim Levelt, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics |
Diagrams and diaries. How neural modeling of language acquisition took off
Date and Time: Thursday 12 April, 4.30 pm
Location: Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Pieter de la Court gebouw, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, room SB45
Abstract: to be announced |
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Gabriella Vigliocco, University College London, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience |
Deaf Cognition
Date and Time: Thursday 7 June 2012, 4.30 pm
Location: Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Pieter de la Court gebouw, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, room SB45
Abstract: to be announced |
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Stephen Smith, Oxford University Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain |
Mapping overlapping, dynamic brain networks from resting-state FMRI
Date and Time: Thursday 20 September 2012, 4.30 pm (changed date from 13 to 20 September!)
Location: Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Pieter de la Court gebouw, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, room SB45
Abstract: to be announced |
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Katharina Domschke, department of Psychiatry, University of Wuerzburg |
Patho-genetics of anxiety
Date and Time: Thursday 25 October, 4.30 pm
Location: Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Pieter de la Court gebouw, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, room SB45
Abstract: to be announced |
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Ulman Lindenberger, Max Planck Institute, The Center for Lifespan Psychology |
The Aging Brain
Date and Time: Thursday 8 November 2012, 4.30 pm
Location: Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Pieter de la Court gebouw, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, room SB45
Abstract: to be announced |
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Sylvius Lectures