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BAARS, BERNARD Dr. Baars is interested in the psychology and brain basis of conscious experience, the ethical implications of consciousness for human and animal welfare, consciousness in animals, consciousness in the history of psychology, the scientific problem of volition, psychodynamics, conscious aspects of emotion, and bioethics. Baars, B. J., Banks, W. P., & Newman, J. B. (2003). Essential Sources in the Scientific Study of Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Baars, B.J. (2002). The conscious access hypothesis: Origins and recent evidence. Trends in Cognitive Science. |
BACHMANN, TALIS Dr. Bachmann’s research interests include: microgenesis of conscious representation, visual masking, flash-lag effect, visual spatial attention, visual form and face perception, perceptual latency priming, attentional blink and perception of objects in stream; the main methods used include tachistoscopic experiments programmed for PC, spatial quantization of visual images, algorithmic and quantitative modeling, and dichoptic presentation. He has developed the perceptual retouch theory of conscious perception microgenesis, based on the notion of interaction between specific cortical mechanisms of perceptual content representation and non-specific thalamic mechanisms of modulation. Bachmann, T. (2006). Microgenesis of perception: conceptual, psychophysical, and neurobiological aspects. In H. Ögmen, & B.G. Breitmeyer (Eds.), The first half second: The microgenesis and temporal dynamics of unconscious and conscious visual processes. (pp. 11-33). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Bachmann T. (2004). Inaptitude of the signal detection theory, useful vexation from the microgenetic view, and inevitability of neurobiological signatures in understanding perceptual (un)awareness. Consciousness and Cognition,13, 101-6. |
| BADGAIYAN, RAJENDRA
Assistant Professor Harvard Medical School http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~rajendra/ Dr. Badgaiyan has been using neuroimaging techniques to study nonconscious mind processes, particularly, nonconscious memory. After conducting a series of experiments, his lab has been able to localize a cortical area that is critically associated with retrieval of nonconsciously encoded information. This area (V3A), located at the occipito-temporal junction, is classically associated with visual information processing. His research has for the first time demonstrated that V3A is critical for cognitive processing and that it processes information across different sensory modalities. Another important finding that came out of his studies was the demonstration that nonconscious stimuli elicit well-processed cognitive responses even though they are not consciously perceived. Dr. Badgaiyan is currently working on a PET technique that allows mapping of the sitesof a neurotransmitter release in specified brain areas in human volunteers while they perform a cognitive or behavioral task associated with conscious action.
Badgaiyan, R.D. (2006). Cortical activation elicited by unrecognized stimuli. Behavioral and Brain Functions, 2, 17.
Badgaiyan, R.D. (2005). Conscious awareness and the brain processing. Elements, 3, 8-12. |
BANAJI, MAHZARIN Dr. Banaji studies human thinking and feeling as it unfolds in the social context. Her focus is primarily on mental systems that operate in implicit or unconscious mode. In particular, she is interested in the unconscious nature of assessments of self and other humans that reflect feelings and knowledge. Specifically, her research explores how people think and feel about the social world, with a focus on beliefs (stereotypes) about and preferences (attitudes) for social groups. It includes both experimental and correlational work, using primarily behavioral, but also brain measurements. With Anthony Greenwald and Brian Nosek, she maintains an educational website that has accumulated over 3 million completed tasks measuring automatic attitudes and beliefs involving self, other individuals, and social groups. It can be reached at www.implicit.harvard.edu. Cunningham, W., Johnson, M., Raye, C., Gatenby, J., Gore, J., & Banaji, M. (2004). Separable Neural Components in the Processing of Black and White Faces. Psychological Science, 15, 806-813. Mitchell, J., Macrae, C., & Banaji, M. (2005). Forming impressions of people versus inanimate objects: Social-cognitive processing in the medial prefrontal cortex. NeuroImage, 26, 251-25. |
BANKS, WILLIAM Dr. Banks is Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier journal Consciousness and Cognition. His current research is on the Libet "free will" paradigm and on implicit memory for unattended material in inattentional blindness paradigms. His previous work has been on psychophysics, Gestalt factors in perception, and judgment of magnitudes on the basis of memory information. Banks, W. P. (1995). Evidence for consciousness. Consciousness and Cognition, 4, 270-272. Banks, W. P. & Pockett, S. (in press) Libet’sWork on the Neuroscience of Free Will. The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness. Cambridge, England: Blackwell. |
BAYNE, TIM Tim Bayne is a major philosopher in the theory of mind. Dr. Bayne’s current projects include writing a book on the unity of consciousness, editing the Oxford Companion to Consciousness (with Axel Cleeremans & Patrick Wilken), and editing a volume on delusions and self-deception (with Jordi Fernandez). Together with Neil Levy (CAPPE, Melbourne) he has an ARC grant to investigate the implications of recent work in cognitive science for accounts of moral responsibility. He is also currently conduct research with Elisabeth Pacherie on delusions and with Avery Kolers on ethical issues related to procreation. In addition, he is the editor of PSYCHE, and on the organizing committee of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness Bayne, T. & Pacherie, E. (2005). In Defence of the Doxastic Conception of Delusions Mind and Language, 20/2: 163-88. Bayne, T. (2004). Closing the Gap? Some Questions for Neurophenomenology Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 3/4: 349-64. |
BLACKMORE, SUSAN Sue Blackmore is a freelance writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and a Visiting Lecturer at the University of the West of England, Bristol. She has a degree in psychology and physiology from Oxford University and a PhD in parapsychology from the University of Surrey. Her research interests include memes, evolutionary theory, consciousness, and meditation. Blackmore, S. (2005). Conversations on Consciousness, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Blackmore, S. (2003). Consciousness: An Introduction, London, Hodder & Stoughton. |
BLASCOVICH, JAMES Dr. Blascovich’s two major research interests are social motivation and social influence within technologically mediated environments. Relevant to the former, he has developed a biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat. He has validated patterns of cardiovascular responses as markers of challenge and threat motivation using them along with subjective and behavioral measures in empirical investigations guided by his theoretical model. Dr. Blascovich has applied his model to various social phenomena including intraindividual processes such as attitudes and dispositions as well as interindividual processes such as stigma, stereotypes, social comparison, and social facilitation. He uses immersive virtual environment technology to empirically investigate social influence processes within virtual environments including conformity, non-verbal communication, collaborative decision-making and leadership. This work is guided by his formal model of social influence within immersive virtual environments. He has recently combined his areas of research, focusing on distinguishing conscious, unconscious, and metaconscious processes using immersive virtual environment technology and neurophysiological assessments. Blascovich, J., Mendes, W., & Tomaka, J. (2003). The robust nature of the biopsychosocial model challenge and threat: A reply to Wright and Kirby. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7, 234-243 Blascovich, J., Loomis, J., Beall, A., Swinth, K., Hoyt, C., & Bailenson, J. (2002). Immersive virtual environment technology as a research tool for social psychology. Psychological Inquiry, 13, 103-125. |
| BLOCK, NED Silver Professor of Philosophy & Psychology New York University http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/faculty/block/ Ned Block is a philosopher of mind who has made important contributions to matters of consciousness and cognitive science. Dr. Block is famous for presenting an argument against the Turing Test as a test of intelligence in a paper entitled Psychologism and Behaviourism by using a thought experiment in which he suggests the creation of a computer which has come to be known as Blockhead. Block also tried to develop a counterexample to functionalism. There might exist a system which has the same functional states as a human but no consciousness. Selected Publications: Block, N. (2005). Two neural correlates of consciousness. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol 9, pp. 46-52. Block, N. (2002). "The Harder Problem of Consciousness”, The Journal of Philosophy, No. 8, 1-35. |
BLUMENFELD, HAL Dr. Hal Blumenfeld’s guiding research interest is in exploring the relationship between brain activity and conscious thought. He has chosen epilepsy as a model system for investigating consciousness, because in epilepsy there is a spectrum in the levels of consciousness, which may be explained in terms of different states of brain activity. Ongoing studies in his laboratory include experiments to explore electrophysiologic and network mechanisms common to seizures and other states of impaired consciousness. In particular, he investigates the role of subcortical structures such as the thalamus and brainstem in the propagation and behavioral manifestations of seizures. Current projects include cellular neurophysiology experiments using brain slices, in vivo electrophysiology and fMRI recordings from animal models of epilepsy, as well as SPECT and fMRI imaging of cortical and subcortical seizure foci in humans. Blumenfeld H, McNally K, Vanderhill S, Paige A, Chung R, Davis K, Norden A, Stokking R, Studholme C, Novotny E, Zubal I, Spencer S. (2004). Positive and negative network correlations in temporal lobe epilepsy. Cerebral Cortex, 14, 892-902. Blumenfeld H, & Taylor, J. (2003). Why do seizures cause loss of consciousness? The Neuroscientist, 9, 301-10. |
BOGEN, JOSEPH Bogen was part of a research team at Caltech with Sperry and Gordon which conducted the first split brain study. His early surgical interventions to control epilepsy laid the foundation for the development of modern ideas about the unique identities of the right and left brains. Bogen argued that consciousness is subjective, and that looking for consciousness is like looking for the wind, you can only see its effects. Bogen suggested that scientists look for a center (a nucleus) that has inward and outward connectivity as a site that produces subjectivity as consciousness. At the time of his death, Bogen had been researching the site in the brain where consciousness is located and was preparing a book about his findings. Bogen, J. (1997). Some neurophysiologic aspects of consciousness. Seminars in Neurology, 17, 95-103. Bogen, J. (1997). An example of access consciousness without phenomenal consciousness? Behavioral Brain Sciences, 20, 144. |
BRIDGEMAN, BRUCE Bruce Bridgeman studies spatial aspects of vision. His research has clarified the relationships between two distinct representations of visual space in the brain, one underlying visual perception and the other controlling visually guided behavior. In the laboratory, these two aspects of visual processing have been isolated, with different spatial values assigned to each representation. The behavioral system has been shown to be unconscious and to have no memory, but it codes position accurately even when the perceptual system codes position inaccurately. Bridgeman has developed a simple "eyepress" method for separating the motor commands to the eye from the position of gaze in space. The method has been adapted to investigate the role of motor commands in visual function and the role of visual backgrounds in spatial orientation. Another interest in Bridgeman's laboratory is spatial processing associated with eye movements. Bridgeman, B. (2003). Psychology and Evolution: The Origins of Mind. Thousand Oaks, Ca.: Sage Publications. Bridgeman, B. (2002). The grand illusion and petit illusions; Interactions of perception and sensory coding. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 9, 29-34. |
CHALMERS, DAVID David Chalmers is Director of the Center for Consciousness at the Australian University. His work focuses on the philosophy of mind, and in related areas of philosophy and cognitive science. He is interested in all areas of the philosophy and science of consciousness. He was one of the founders of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, and is one of the main organizers of the Toward a Science of Consciousness conferences in Tucson. For more information on Dr. Chalmer's directory of online papers related to consciousness, please visit http://consc.net/online.html. Chalmers, D.J. (1996). The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. Oxford University Press. Chalmers, D.J.(1995). Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2, 200-19. |
CLEEREMANS, AXEL Dr. Cleeremans is focused on the relationships between learning and consciousness. While much that we learn is available for conscious inspection, many elementary learning mechanisms are implicit. The extent to which we can learn without awareness remains a highly controversial issue in different domains from subliminal priming to implicit learning and memory, and associative conditioning to skill acquisition. Cleeremans suggests that traditional dichotomies (between implicit and explicit learning; between conscious and unconscious information processing) should be replaced by a graded characterization of consciousness. From this perspective, while consciousness is often associated with learning, it is neither a prerequisite for, nor a necessary consequence of cognitive change. To explore these issues, Cleeremans's lab uses a combination of behavioural, computational modeling, and imaging methods. Cleeremans, A. (2005). Computational correlates of consciousness. Progress in Brain Research, 150, 81-98. Cleeremans, A. (Ed.) (2003). The Unity of Consciousness: Binding, Integration, and Dissociation. Oxford University Press. |
COMBS, ALLAN Allan Combs is a consciousness researcher, neuropsychologist, and systems theorist. He holds appointments at the Saybrook Graduate School, The California Institute of Integral Studies, and the Assisi Conferences. He is also Professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina-Asheville and past Director of the Integral Studies program leading to an MA in Conscious Evolution at the Graduate Institute of Connecticut. Allan is author of over fifty articles, chapters, and books on consciousness and the brain. Combs, A. & Goerner, S. (1998) Consciousness as a Self-Organizing Process: An Ecological Perspective: an attempt to integrate ideas about consciousness and the physical world. Biosystems,46, 123-127. Combs, A. (1997) Commentary on Baars' In the theatre of consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 4,314-316. |
CRICK, FRANCIS After co-discovering of the structure of the DNA molecule, Crick taught himself neuroanatomy and studied many other areas of neuroscience research. It took him several years to disengage from molecular biology, but eventually, in the 1980s Crick was able to devote his full attention to his other interest, consciousness. Upon taking up work in theoretical neuroscience, Crick was struck by several problems in the field. There were many isolated subdisciplines within neuroscience and little contact between researchers, and consciousness was viewed as a taboo subject by many neurobiologists. He made it a goal to change this rift in science, and is known as one of the founding fathers in the study of consciousness. Crick F., & Koch, C. (1998). Consciousness and Neuroscience. Cerebral Cortex, 8, 97-107. Crick F., & Koch, C. (1995). Why neuroscience may be able to explain consciousness. Scientific American, 273, 84-85. |
DAMASIO, ANTONIO Antonio Damasio is an internationally recognized leader in neuroscience. His research has helped to elucidate the neural basis for the emotions and has shown that emotions play a central role in social cognition and decision-making. His work has also had a major influence on current understanding of the neural systems, which underlie memory, language and consciousness. Damasio is a Professor of Neuroscience, and directs the newly created Brain and Creativity Institute. Parvizi J, Van Hoesen G, Buckwalter J, Damasio A. (2006). Neural connections of the posteromedial cortex in the macaque: Implications for the understanding of the neural basis of consciousness. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, 103, 1563-1568. Damasio, A. (1998). Investigating the biology of consciousness. Transactions of the Royal Society, 353,1879-1882. |
DELORME, ARNAUD Dr. Arnaud Delmore is currently a Project scientist in Scott Makeig's laboratory at the Institute of Neural Computation at the University of California San Diego. He is presently interested in studying transfer of information between brain areas during visual processing using Independent Component Analysis applied to EEG recordings. He is also the main author of the EEGLAB software for EEG analysis. Delorme, A., Rousselet, G., Mace, M., & Fabre-Thorpe M. (2004) Interaction of Bottom-up and Top-down processing in the fast visual analysis of natural scenes. Cognitive Brain Research, 19, 103-113. Delorme, A., Thorpe, S. (2001) Face processing using one spike per neuron: resistance to image degradation. Neural Networks, 14, 795-804 |
DENNETT, DANIEL Daniel Dennett’s research centers on philosophy of mind and philosophy of science, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. He is currently University Professor, Professor of Philosophy and Co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies. Dennett is the author of several major books on evolution and consciousness. He is a leading proponent of the Multiple Drafts Model of consciousness and was an early exponent of the idea, known by some as Neural Darwinism, that learning is an evolutionary process in the brain. Dennett is also well known for his argument against qualia, which claims that the concept is so confused that it cannot be put to any use or understood in any non-contradictory way, and therefore does not constitute a valid refutation of physicalism. Dennett, D. (2001). Are we explaining consciousness yet? Cognition, 79, 221-237. Dennett, D. (1997). Kinds of Minds: Towards an Understanding of Consciousness, Basic Books. |
DRETSKE, FRED Dr. Fred Dretske is one of the most influential epistemologists and philosophers of mind of his time. He was awarded the Jean Nicod Prize in 1994. Dretske taught for a number of years at the University of Wisconsin before moving to Stanford University. After retiring from Stanford he moved to Duke University where he is now a research professor of philosophy. Dretske, F. (2006). Perception without Awareness, in Perceptual Experience, edited by Tamar Gendler and John Hawthorne, Oxford University Press. Dretske, F. (2004). Change Blindness. Philosophical Studies, 120, 1-18. |
EAGLEMAN, DAVID The long range goal of Dr. Eagleman’s lab is to understand the neural mechanisms of time perception. He combines psychophysical, behavioral, and computational approaches to address the relationship between the timing of perception and the timing of neural signals. His lab is currently engaged in experiments that explore time warping, manipulations of the perception of causality, and time perception in high-adrenaline situations. He uses this data to explore how neural signals processed by different brain regions come together for a temporally unified picture of the world. Eagleman, D.M. (2005). News & Views: Distortions of time during rapid eye movements. Nature Neuroscience, 8, 850-851. Eagleman, D.M. & Sejnowski, T.J. (2000). Motion integration and postdiction in visual awareness. Science, 287, 2036-8. |
ECCLES, JOHN CAREW Sir John Carew Eccles was a neurophysiologist whose research explained how nerve cells communicate with one another. He demonstrated that when a nerve cell is stimulated it releases a chemical that binds to the membrane of neighboring cells and activates them in turn. He further demonstrated that by the same mechanism a nerve cell can also inhibit the electrical activity of nearby nerve cells. For this research, Eccles shared the 1963 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley. Eccles, J. & Beck, F. (1998). Quantum processes in the brain: A scientific basis for consciousness. Cognitive Studies, 5, 95-109. Eccles, J. (1982). How the self acts on the brain. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 7, 271-283. |
FRANKLIN, STAN Dr. Franklin is interested in Cognitive Modeling using the IDA Model. Like the Roman god Janus, the IDA project has two faces, its science face and its engineering face. Its science side fleshes out Baars' global workspace theory of consciousness and cognition, while its engineering side explores architectural designs for software agents that promise more flexible, more human-like intelligence within their domains Sun, R., and S. Franklin. (2006). Computational Models of Consciousness: A Taxonomy and some Examples. In Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness, ed. P. D. Zelazo, and M. Moscovitch. New York: Cambridge University Press. Franklin, S. (2003). IDA: A Conscious Artifact? Journal of Consciousness Studies, 10, 47-66. |
FREEMAN, WALTER Dr. Freeman's research is on analyses electroencephalographic (EEG) and unit activity patterns in cortex that occur during goal-directed behavior. Behaviorally relevant information is expressed in spatial patterns of amplitude modulation of gamma waves that are triggered in the cortex. The patterns recur like cinematographic frames at rates in the theta range.. Behavioral testing has shown that amplitude patterns of gamma activity are invariant with respect to learned odor stimuli, but change with context and reinforcement under conditioning. The same algorithms hold for olfactory, visual, auditory and somatic cortexes. He concludes that the patterns manifest not the features of stimuli, but the meaning of the stimuli for the animals as an expression of their knowledge base. He models the dynamics of the cortex by networks of nonlinear differential equations. The solutions to these equations show landscapes of equilibrium, limit cycle and chaotic attractors. The models conceptualize the most essential functions of sensory cortex: abstraction, generalization, and classification. Freeman, W.J. (2000) Mesoscopic neurodynamics. From neuron to brain. Journal of Physiology 94, 303-322. Freeman, W. J. (2001) How Brains Make Up Their Minds. New York: Columbia University Press. |
FRITH, CHRIS Dr. Christopher Frith runs a research group which is establishing a new scientific discipline (neural hermeneutics), concerned with the neural basis of social interaction. In particular he is trying to delineate the mechanisms underlying the human ability to share representations of the world. It is this ability that makes communication possible. Results will be relevant for our understanding of psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia. One characteristic of the mistaken perceptions (hallucinations) and beliefs (delusions) associated with this disorder is their resistance to change in spite of their incompatibility with the perceptions of others. This indicates a failure in the mechanism by which we align our representations of the world with those of others. Frith C. (2005) The self in action: Lessons from delusions of control. Consciousness & Cognition. 2005, 14, 752-770. Frith, C.D., Perry, R. & Lumer, E. (1999). The neural correlates of conscious experience: an experimental framework. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 105-114. |
FRITH, UTA Dr. Uta Frith is a senior scientist in the Cognitive Development Unit of the Medical Research Council in London. Her current research interests include: Autism and Asperger Syndrome, Developmental Dyslexia, Social Cognition, and the impact of neuroscience on teaching and learning Hamilton, A., Wolpert, D., Frith, U., & Grafton,S. (2006). Where does your own action influence your perception of another person's action in the brain? Neuroimage, 29, 524-535. Frith,C.D., Frith,U. (2006). How we predict what other people are going to do. Brain Research 1079(1), 36-46 |
GALIN, DAVID
Dr. Galin’s professional background encompasses medicine, neuroscience, and cognitive psychology with a focus on lateral specialization of the cerebral hemispheres and psychiatric implications. In the past he managed an electrophysiology lab. After years of studying disconnections, dissociations, and fragmentations he realized what really mattered was what makes people whole. A person is more than a bunch of parts; the parts are integrated, to constitute an entity. Science has no technical term to denote "wholeness," but Galin conceptualizes this as what is commonly referred to as the "self." Unfortunately, the word "self" as used in psychology is only vaguely defined. Galin conceives of the self as an emergent phenomenon which cannot be grasped or entirely represented only at one level; not just mind or brain or chemistry or culture. By examining what we know already at these levels, he believes we can develop a better idea of the landmarks and boundaries which any full account of self will have to consider. Galin, D. (2000). Comments on Epstein's Neurocognitive Interpretation of William James's Model of Consciousness. Consciousness and Cognition, 9, 576-583. Galin, D. (1992). Theoretical reflection on awareness, monitoring, and self in relation to anosognosia. Consciousness and Cognition. 1, 152-162. |
GAGE, FRED Fred H. Gage, a professor in the Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, concentrates on the adult central nervous system and unexpected plasticity and adaptability to environmental stimulation that remains throughout the life of all mammals. His work may lead to methods of replacing or enhancing brain and spinal cord tissues lost or damaged due to Neurodegenerative disease or trauma. Gage’s lab has shown that, contrary to accepted dogma, human beings are capable of growing new nerve cells throughout life. Kempermann, G., Wiskott, L., Gage, F. (2004). Functional significance of adult neurogenesis. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 14,186-191. Horner, P., Gage, F. (2000). Regenerating the damaged central nervous system. Nature, 407, 963 - 970. |
| GAZZANGIA, MICHAEL
Professor of Psychology University of California at Santa Barbara http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/gazzaniga/ Dr. Gazzaniga conducts research on how the brain enables mind. Special patient populations are used in a variety of methodologies including visual psychophysics, brain imaging and anatomy.
Colvin, M.K. & Gazzaniga, M.S. (2007). Insights from split-brain patients into the organization of human consciousness. To appear in M. Velmans (Ed.) The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness.
Baird, A.A., Colvin, M.K., VanHorn, J., Inati, S., & Gazzaniga, M.S. (2005) Functional Connectivity: Integrating Behavioral, DTI and fMRI data sets. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17(4): 1-8. |
GOODALE, MELVYN In a series of theoretical articles, my colleague, David Milner, and I proposed that separate, but interacting visual systems have evolved for the perception of objects on the one hand and the control of actions directed at those objects on the other. This duplex account of high-level vision suggests that reconstructive approaches and purposive-animate-behaviorist approaches need not be seen as mutually exclusive, but as complementary in their emphases on different aspects of visual function. Two broad streams of projections from primary visual cortex have been identified: a ventral perception stream projecting to the inferotemporal cortex and a dorsal action stream projecting to the posterior parietal cortex. Both streams process information about the structure of objects and about their spatial locations – and both are subject to the modulatory influences of attention.. The two streams work together in the production of adaptive behavior. Goodale, M.. & Milner, D. (2004). Sight Unseen: An Exploration of Conscious and Unconscious Vision. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ganel, T., & Goodale, M. (2003). Visual control of action but not perception requires analytical processing of object shape. Nature, 426, 664-667. |
GRAY, JEFFREY Dr. Jeffrey Gray was one of the leading, and most highly cited, experimental psychologists in the UK. He had an extraordinarily wide range of professional interests, from the study of simple learning in the leech, to theories of human consciousness, and stem-cell transplantation for the treatment of brain damage. After completing his PhD, Gray was appointed to a university lectureship in experimental psychology at Oxford. He remained at Oxford until he replaced Eysenck at the Institute of Psychiatry in 1983. He retired from the chair of psychology in 1999, but continued his experimental research as an emeritus professor, and spent a very happy and productive year at the Centre for Advanced Studies at Stanford University, California. Gray, J. (2004). Consciousness: Creeping up on the Hard Problem. Oxford University Press. Gray, J. (2000). The Neuropsychology of Anxiety: An Enquiry into the Functions of the Septo-Hippocampal System (2nd edition) Oxford University of Press. |
GREENFIELD, SUSAN As a consequence of working in both biochemical and electrophysiological environments Greenfield has developed a multidisciplinary approach to exploring novel neuronal mechanisms in the brain that are common to regions affected in both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The basic theme of her research is to develop strategies to arrest neuronal death in these disorders. She is also co-founder of a university spin-out company specializing in novel approaches to neurodegeneration, - Synaptica Ltd . In addition, Professor Greenfield has an interest in the neuroscientific basis of consciousness. Greenfield, S. & Laureys, S. (2005). A Neuroscientific Approach to Consciousness. Progress in Brain Research, 150, 11-23. Greenfield. S. (1995). Journey to the Centres of the Mind, WH Freeman. |
GREENWALD, ANTHONY G. Dr. Greenwald’s research interests include: unconscious cognition, implicit social cognition, sense of self, prejudices and stereotypes, research methodology, and attitude change. Greenwald, A. G., Draine, S. C., & Abrams, R. L. (1996). Three cognitive markers of unconscious semantic activation. Science, 273, 1699-1702. Greenwald, A. G. (1992). New Look 3: Reclaiming unconscious cognition. American Psychologist, 47, 766-779. |
HAMEROFF, STUART Stuart Hameroff, MD, is the current Director of the Center for Consciousness Studies. His research has suggested that consciousness computational operations may take place in microtubules.. Microtubules organize dynamic activities in animal cells, and are known to process information. Hameroff concluded that classical computation per se is insufficient for consciousness, leading him to adopt a role for a type of quantum computation as suggested by mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose. Together, Penrose and Hameroff developed a specific model of quantum computation in neuronal microtubules punctuated by objective reduction (OR) transitions from unconscious quantum information to classical states which influence neuronal functions. Moments of consciousness are proposed to occur in concert with gamma synchrony (i.e. 40 Hz) and be orchestrated by synaptic feedback, hence Orchestrated Objective Reduction. Harshly criticized by functionalists and others, Orch OR remains the most specific (and controversial) theory of consciousness. Hameroff, S. (in press). The entwined mysteries of anesthesia and consciousness: Is there a common underlying mechanism? Anesthesiology. Hameroff, S & Penrose, R (1996). Conscious events as orchestrated space-time selections. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 3, 36-53. |
HAYNES, JOHN-DYLAN Professor at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin For the past eight years, Dr. Haynes has been exploring the neural correlates of visual consciousness. His previous research experience has included EEG, MEG and fMRI experiments on contrast perception, brightness perception, visual masking, visual awareness, multivariate pattern recognition, and attention using combinations of fMRI, retinotopic mapping, connectivity analyses. One of his current projects investigates ways to decode and predict a person’s thoughts based on fMRI data. Such research has many potential applications, as for example in detection of deception, in the control of computers and artificial prostheses by brain activity, or even in market research. His other current project investigates the relationship between consciousness, attention and dynamic changes in brain connectivity. His findings suggest that changes in spatial attention lead to highly specific changes in connectivity within early visual areas, and that awareness is reflected in large-scale changes in brain connectivity. Haynes, J.D., & Rees, G. (2006). Decoding mental states from brain activity in humans. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7, 523-534. Haynes, J.D., & Rees G. (2005). Predicting the orientation of invisible stimuli from activity in human primary visual cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 8, 686-691. |
HIRSCH, JOY Director, fMRI Research Center Columbia University http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/neurobeh/Hirsch.html Dr. Joy Hirsch currently has several related directions of investigation in her lab. The first is conscious and subconscious neural processes that mediate emotion and cognition in healthy individuals and in patients with psychiatric disorders. She is also studying the neurocircuitry of other complex cognitive processes: decisions; inductive and deductive reasoning; language; truthfulness; and “top-down” influences of expectation, reward, and regulation on early visual and mid-level perceptual and emotional systems. Her lab also operates a pioneering clinical service for mapping individuals for neurosurgical planning and providing assessments of the neurocircuitry that underlie acquired or inherited disabilities. Current projects include integration of EEG and fMRI techniques to localize areas of the cortex involved in seizures, integration of TMS and fMRI to discriminate essential and associative language-sensitive cortical areas, and integration of VEP, EEG and fMRI to inform assessments of visual disease secondary to stroke/ neural degeneration. Projects intended to refine and enhance diagnosis of psychiatric disorders (anxiety, depression, eating disorders, etc.) include the development of specialized paradigms to target both dysfunctional neurocircuitry emotional systems (amygdala and basal ganglia) and control and regulatory systems (cingulate and pre-frontal cortex).
Etkin, A., Klemenhagen, K., Dudman, J., Rogan, M., Hen, R., Kandel, E., Hirsch, J. (2004). Individual Differences in Trait Anxiety Predict the Response of the Basolateral Amygdala to Unconsciously Processed Threat, Neuron, 44, 1043-1055. |
HOBSON, ALLAN Professor of Psychiatry Harvard Medical School http://medapps.med.harvard.edu/psych/redbook/redbook-basicresearch-sleep-05.htm J. Allan Hobson, M.D., is the founding director of the Laboratory of Neurophysiology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He has devoted his career to the study of sleep and has made original contributions at the levels of basic neurobiology, human sleep measurement and dream psychology. He is best known for his work (with Robert McCarley) leading to the reciprocal-interaction model of sleep-cycle control and the activation-synthesis hypothesis of dreaming. Hobson, J.A. (2002). The Dream Drugstore: Chemically Altered States of Consciousness. The MIT Press. Hobson, J.A. (1996). The Chemistry of Conscious States: How the Brain Changes Its Mind, Little Brown & Co. |
HOHWY, JAKOB Dr. Jakob Howhy's research interests include: philosophy of mind and language, philosophy of science, philosophy of neuroscience and neuropsychiatry. Hohwy, J., & Frith, C. (2004). Can neuroscience explain consciousness? Journal of Consciousness Studies, 11, 180-198. Hohwy, J., & Frith, C. (2004). Studies of the neural correlates of consciousness can do better, but are on the right track. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 11, 45–51. |
HURLEY, SUSAN Dr. Hurley’s recent and current research is primarily involved in the philosophy of psychology and neuroscience. Her work falls under three main headings, and also develops the relationships among these three topics: consciousness, social cognition (imitation, mind-reading), and action (rationality, control, and responsibility). Hurley, S. (2006). Active Perception and Perceiving Action, in T. Gendler and J. Hawthorne, eds, Perceptual Experience, OUP, 205-259.
Hurley, S. & Noe, A. (2003). Neural Plasticity and Consciousness, Philosophy and Biology 2003, 18:131-168. To be reprinted in A. Pautz and M. Tye, eds, Perception, MIT Press. |
JAMES, WILLIAM William James was a defender of consciousness as an efficacious force in the biological evolution of the species. As a young medical student in the 1860s, he sided with the Darwinians and began his literary career by writing favorably about the effects of natural selection on mental life. Consciousness, he observed, obeys the laws of variation and selection. Intuitive types, prone to emotional intensity, who produce art and literature, geniuses whose mind is in constant ferment so they can see analogies that others miss, original thinkers whose associations are unfettered, all represent consciousness as a field of awareness that contains the largest number of ideas to choose from. Rationality and the empirical dictates of the sensory world then select out what is adaptive and what is not. In this manner experience as a whole counts as a potent force in the preservation of the race. Later as a young professor of psychology at Harvard, James then anchored the study of consciousness to experimental physiology. James, W. (1904) Does 'Consciousness' Exist? Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods, 1, 477-491. James, W. (1892) The Stream of Consciousness. Psychology, Chapter XI. (Cleveland & New York, World). |
JOHN, ERWIN R. Roy E. John’s main research interest is the Quantitative Analysis of Human Brain Electrical Activity. In his lab, he uses analysis of spontaneous (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs), to develop brain images of working memory (WM) and biological classification of psychiatric patients. He measures WM via the presentation of information items, e.g., faces, letters, and numbers, in a priming set followed by a matching set of items that must be compared with the previous sample. Preliminary results indicate that patients with different neurometric profiles respond to different pharmacotherapeutic treatments. Large-scale international collaborative studies are being organized to collect a patient cohort of sufficient size for prospective confirmation of using predrug neurometric evaluations to predict selective treatment outcomes. John ER; Prichep LS. (2005). The anesthetic cascade: a theory of how anesthesia suppresses consciousness. Anesthesiology, 102, 447. John, ER. (2003). A theory of consciousness. Current directions in psychological science, 12, 24. |
KASZNIAK, ALFRED As a clinical neuropsychologist, he is involved in research, graduate education and training of clinical neuropsychology students, and clinical practice. Kaszniak's research program is aimed at increasing our understanding of human brain systems involved in both cognition and emotion. Specifically, his laboratory and clinic research currently involves four different, although related, domains of interest: (1) Neuropsychological aspects of aging; (2) Neuropsychological aspects of age-related disorders of the central nervous system; (3) The neuropsychology of consciousness and self-awareness; and (4) Brain systems in emotion. Schnyer, D.M., Verfaellie, M., Alexander, M.P., LaFleche, G., Nicholls, L., & Kaszniak, A.W. (2004). A role for right medial prefrontal cortex in accurate feeling of knowing judgments: Evidence from patients with lesions to frontal cortex. Neuropsychologia, 42, 957-966. Kaszniak, A.W. (2001). Emotion and consciousness: Current research and controversies. In A.W. Kaszniak (Ed.), Emotion, qualia, and consciousness. (pp. 3-21). London: World Scientific. |
KIHLSTROM, JOHN Dr. Kihlstrom’s research focuses on cognition in Personal and Social Contexts. Within social cognition, he is interested in the self and personal memory, as well as implicit and collective memory. He has also extensively studied the effects of hypnosis and anesthesia on consciousness, as well as psychosomatic and placebo effects. Kihlstrom, J.F., Barnhardt, T.M., & Tataryn, D.J. (1992). The psychological unconscious: Found, lost, and regained. American Psychologist, 47, 788-791. Kihlstrom, J.F. (1993). The continuum of consciousness. Consciousness & Cognition, 2, 334-354. |
KINSBOURNE, MARCEL Dr. Kinsbourne is most interested in brain-behavior relations, consciousness, imitation, psychology of attention, attention deficit disorder, autism. His current research focuses more on consciousness and neural networks. Kinsbourne, M. (1982). Hemispheric specialization and the growth of human understanding. American Psychologist, 37, p 411-420. Kinsbourne, M. (1995). Septohippocampal comparator: Consciousness generator or attention feedback loop? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 18, p 687-688. |
KOSSLYN, STEPHEN Work in Dr. Kosslyn's laboratory focuses on the neural substrate underlying visual mental imagery and the relation between imagery and perception. Recently he has begun to consider the uses of imagery in cognition more generally, and have examined individual and group differences in imagery ability. They typically use convergent evidence, ranging from behavioral results to neuroimaging data to computational models. Kosslyn, S.M., Thompson, W. L., and Ganis, G. (2006). The case for mental imagery. New York: Oxford University Press. Kosslyn, S. M. (2001). Visual consciousness. In P. Grossenbacher (Ed.) Finding consciousness in the brain. Amsterdam: John Benjamines. pp 79-103. |
KOCH, CHRISTOF Koch’s research focus is finding out how consciousness arises out of the brain. His long-term goal is to discover and characterize the neuronal correlates of consciousness. He collaborated for 16 years in this exciting endeavor with the late Dr. Francis Crick at the Salk Institute. His lab is also looking into understanding how individual nerve cells can process information and understand the mechanisms underlying computation at the level of synapses, channels and membranes. Crick, F., and Koch, C. (2003). A framework for consciousness. Nature, 6, 119-126. Crick, F., and Koch, C. (1990). Towards a neurobiological theory of consciousness. Seminar in the Neuroscience, 2, 263-275. |
KREIMAN, GABRIEL Dr. Kreiman's research interests include: transcriptional regulation, Algorithms for predicting clusters of regulatory motifs in higher eukaryotes, Alternative splicing, Gene expression in the nervous system, Object Recognition, Computational Neuroscience, and consciousness. Crick F, Koch C, Kreiman G, Fried I. (2004). Consciousness and neurosurgery. Neurosurgery, 55, 273-282. Kreiman G., Koch C. and Fried I. (2000). Imagery neurons in the human brain. Nature, 408, 357-361. |
LAUREYS, STEVEN Dr. Laureys research technique uses the Brain imaging of cognitive processes using Positron Emission Tomography (PET). He uses PET to study consciousness impairment in severely brain damaged patients (coma, vegetative state, minimally conscious state, locked-in syndrome), during sleep and in the hypnotic state. Faymonville, M., Boly, M., & Laureys, S. (2006). Functional neuroanatomy of the hypnotic state. Journal of Physiology, Paris, 99, 463-469. Perrin, F., Schnakers, C., Schabus, M., Degueldre, C., Goldman, S., Bredart, S., Faymonville, M., Lamy, M., Moonen, G., Luxen, A., Maquet, P., & Laureys S. (2006). Brain response to one's own name in vegetative state, minimally conscious state, and locked-in syndrome. Archives of Neurology, 63, 562-569. |
LEDOUX, JOSEPH What is an emotion? How do we form memories of emotions? Why are emotions so hard to control? Why do emotional functions become dysfunctional? What aspects of emotions are conscious and unconscious? How is all of this accomplished by the brain at the level of neural systems, cells, synapses, molecules and genes? These are the kinds of questions pursued by Joseph LeDoux and his colleagues. Repa, J., Muller, J., Apergis, J., Desrochers, T., Zhou, Y., LeDoux, J. (2001). Two different lateral amygdala cell populations contribute to the initiation and storage of memory. Nature Neuroscience, 4, 724-731. LeDoux, J. (1994). In Search of an Emotional System in the Brain: Leaping from Fear to Emotion and Consciousness. In: The Cognitive Neurosciences (Gazzaniga, ed). Cambridge: MIT Press. |
LLINAS, RODOLFO Rodolfo Llinas’s research pertains mostly to neuroscience from the molecular to the cognitive level. He focuses on the intrinsic electrophysiological properties of neurons in vitro. In particular, he studies the ionic channels that generate some of the sodium and calcium currents responsible for the electrophysiological properties of neurons and their distribution in different cell types. He also investigates the role of calcium conductance in synaptic transmission in the squid giant synapse, where he has demonstrated for the first time the concept of calcium microdomains. At the neuronal-circuit level, we examine cerebellar control of movement and thalamocortical connectivity, as observed in brain slices and isolated whole brain preparation, using single and multiple-recording microprobes and ionic-concentration-dependent imaging techniques. At the cognitive level, he focuses on thalamocortical interaction and functional mapping in the human brain, using noninvasive magnetoencephalograph. Llinas, R. (2002). I of the vortex: From neurons to Self. MIT Press. Llinas, R., Ribary, U., Contreras, D. & Pedroarena, C. (1998). The neuronal basis for consciousness. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 353, 1841-1849. |
LOGOTHETIS, NIKOS Dr. Logothetis concentrates on the neural mechanisms of perception and object recognition. He believes that such scientific questions require a multimodal methodological approach which integrates information obtained from single units that derived from mass action potentials as well as from a number of activity-related, surrogate signals such as those monitored during noninvasive neuroimaging experiments. Parallel to ongoing neuroscientific research, he is also working to develop methodologies that will permit the study of neural networks in the context of behavioral paradigms. Smart contrast agents, promise to revolutionize invasive neuroimaging and would represent a quantum leap forward in signal-to-noise ratio, spatial detail and specificity, while affording unprecedented temporal resolution. Logothetis, N. (1999).Vision: A Window on Consciousness. Scientific American, pp. 69-75. Logothetis, N.K. & Schall, J.D. (1989). Neuronal Correlates of Subjective Visual Perception. Science, 245, 761-763. |
MARTINEZ-CONDE, SUSANA Dr. Martinez-Conde’s lab focuses on understanding the neural bases of our visual experience. How can the electrical activity of a neuron (or a neuronal population) convey the color or brightness of an object? What type of language (neural code) do neurons use to communicate visual information to each other through electrical impulses? In order to address these questions our laboratory focuses on two main topics: the study of the neural code for visual perception, and determining the neural bases of shape and brightness perception. The techniques she uses include functional fMRI, electrophysiological recordings from single neurons, psychophysical measurements, and computational models of visual function. Cudeiro J, Grieve KL, Rivadulla C, Martinez-Conde S, Acuña C (1994). The role of nitric oxide in the transformation of visual information within the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of the cat. Neuropharmacology; Vol. 33, pp. 1413-1418. Macknik SL, Martinez-Conde S (2004). The spatial and temporal effects of lateral inhibitory networks and their relevance to the visibility of spatiotemporal edges. Neurocomputing; Vol. 58-60, pp.775-782. Martinez-Conde S, Macknik SL & Hubel DH (2004). The role of fixational eye movements in visual perception. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Vol. 5, pp. 229-240. |
McGINN, COLIN http://www.as.miami.edu/phi/faculty.htm Dr. McGinn is interested in philosophy of mind (particularly consciousness, intentionality and imagination), ethics, and philosophical logic. McGinn, C. (1999). The Mysterious Flame: Conscious Minds in a Material World, Basic Books. McGinn, C. (1991). The Problem of Consciousness, Basil Blackwell. |
MERIKLE, PHIL Dr. Merikle’s research focuses on the relation between conscious and unconscious cognitive processes, with particular emphasis on the issue of how unconscious cognitive processes influence conscious experience. He is also interested in individual differences in conscious and unconscious cognitive processes and the relation between working memory and consciousness. Phil Merikle also studies synaesthesia, a condition in which ordinary stimuli lead to extraordinary conscious experiences. Merikle, P. M., Smilek, D., & Eastwood, J. D. (2001). Perception without awareness: Perspectives from Cognitive Psychology. Cognition, 79, 115-134. Merikle, P. M., & Joordens, S. (1997). Measuring unconscious influences. In J. D. Cohen & J. W. Schooler (Eds.), Scientific Approaches to Consciousness (pp.109-123). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. |
METZINGER, THOMAS Metzinger’s research interests include the analytical philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophical aspects of the neuro and cognitive sciences; philosophy of science and philosophical aspects of artificial intelligence and related fields; connections between ethics, philosophy of mind and anthropology; applied ethics of the neuroscience and cognitive sciences, artificial intelligence and computer science. He is the Director of the Theoretical Philosophy Group at the Department of Philosophy and long time contributor in the field of philosophy of mind. Metzinger, T. (2006). Conscious volition and mental representation: Towards a more fine-grained analysis. In N. Sebanz und W. Prinz (Hrsg.), Disorders of Volition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. S. 19-48. Metzinger, T. (2003). Being No One. The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. |
MILNER, DAVID Dr. David Milner’s research is primarily concerned with human visual perception, visuomotor control and spatial attention. He is interested in how these processes operate and how they interact. His approach is heavily based on empirical neuropsychological studies, in which systematic investigations of patients with brain damage are set specifically within the context of the wider background of cognitive neuroscience. Neuropsychological research can offer not only insights into the brain processes themselves, but can also enable us to use knowledge of those processes to help us understand the disorders suffered by brain-damaged individuals. Milner, AD & McIntosh, R. (2004). Reaching between obstacles in spatial neglect and visual extinction. Prog Brain Res 144, 213-226. Goodale, M. & Milner, A.D. (2004). Sight Unseen: An Exploration of Conscious and Unconscious Vision. Oxford: Oxford University Press. |
MINSKY, MARVIN Marvin Minsky has made many contributions to AI, cognitive psychology, mathematics, computational linguistics, robotics, and optics. In recent years he has worked chiefly on imparting to machines the human capacity for commonsense reasoning. In 1951 he built the SNARC, the first neural network simulator. His other inventions include mechanical hands and other robotic devices,the confocal scanning microscope, the "Muse" synthesizer for musical variations, and the first LOGO "turtle". Minsky, M. (1980). "K-lines, a theory of memory," Cognitive Science, 4, pp117-133. Minsky, M. (1982). “Why People Think Computers Can't” AI Magazine, vol. 3 no. 4. |
| MYIN, ERIK Professor of Philosophy Universiteit Antwerpen http://www.ua.ac.be/erik.myin Dr. Erik Myin is a philosopher of cognitive science oriented philosophy of mind and science. He recently served as the main organizer and chair of the Association for the Scientific Study 8th Annual Meeting. O'Regan, K., Myin, E. & Noë, A. (2005). "Skill, corporality and alerting capacity in an account of sensory consciousness", Progress in Brain Research, 150, 55-68. Myin, E. & O'Regan, K. (2002). Perceptual consciousness, access to modality and skill theories, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 9, 27-45. |
NAGEL, THOMAS Thomas Nagel is Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University. He is known within the field of philosophy of mind as an advocate of the idea that consciousness and subjective experience cannot be reduced to brain activity. Nagel first argued that the subjective experience of consciousness can never be attained through the objective methods of reductionistic science. Conscious experience has a subjective character to it, and science, which seeks an objective, general description of nature, cannot capture the subjective character of consciousness. Second, Nagel proposes that because of the subjective character of experience, "we cannot even pose the mind-body problem" in a sensible way and "it seems unlikely that a physical theory of mind can be contemplated." Nagel, T. (1971) Brain Bisection and the Unity of Consciousness, Synthese, pp. 396-413. Nagel, T. (1994) "Consciousness and Objective Reality", in R. Warner and T. Szubka (eds.), The Mind-Body Problem, Blackwell Press. |
NOË, ALVA Alva Noë is a philosopher of mind working on consciousness at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is Professor of Philosophy and a member of the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences. Professor Noë is a member of the Executive Board of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness. He is the author of Action In Perception (2004, The MIT Press) and is now at work on a new book on consciousness. Professor Noë argues that consciousness can only be understood in relation to the active life of the person or animal. |
PANKSEPP, JAAK Dr. Pankseep's present research is devoted to the analysis of the neuroanatomical and neurochemical mechanisms of emotional behaviors (affective neuroscience), with a focus on understanding how separation responses, social bonding, social play, fear, anticipatory processes, and drug craving are organized in the brain, especially with reference to psychiatric disorders. Past work was in hypothalamic mechanisms of energy balance control supported by a NIMH Award. His general research orientation argues that a detailed understanding of basic emotional systems at the neural level will highlight the basic sources of human values and the nature and genesis of emotional disorders in humans. Panksepp, J. (2005). Affective consciousness: Core emotional feelings in animals and humans. Consciousness & Cognition, 14, 19-69. Panksepp, J. (1998). The periconscious substrates of consciousness: Affective states and the evolutionary origins of the SELF. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 5, 566-582. |
PAPINEAU, DAVID Dr. Papineau works on issues in epistemology, philosophy of science, consciousness, and the philosophy of mind and psychology. He was President of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science from 1993 to 1995, Editor of the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science from 1993 to 1998, and Head of the Philosophy Department at King's from 1995 until 1998. In 1999-2000 he was a Leverhulme Research Fellow. Papineau, D. (2002). Thinking about Consciousness, Oxford University Press. Papineau, D. (2000). Introducing Consciousness. Icon Books. |
POSNER, MICHAEL Dr. Michael Posner is interested in the development of neural mechanisms and structures underlying selective attention, as well as brain changes during acquisition of high level skills, specifically the development of executive control in children from age 2 to 5. Imaging data suggest that areas along the frontal midline are critical for regulation of both emotional and cognitive performance. He is undertaking studies of children at these ages to understand this form of self regulation at both an anatomical and a functional level. Training studies will seek to improve this form of self regulation. He also hopes to understand how this form of attention influences the acquisition of high level skills involved in numbers and reading. Posner, M.I. (2005). Genes and experience shape brain networks of conscious control. In S. Laureys ed. Progress in Brain Research, 150, 173-183. Posner, M.I. (1994). Attention: the mechanism of consciousness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 91, 7398-7402. |
PRIBRAM, KARL Pribram's holonomic model, developed in collaboration with quantum physicist David Bohm, theorizes that memory is stored not in cells within the brain, but rather in wave interference patterns. Pribram was drawn to this conclusion by two facts: (1) there are visual cortex response functions that correspond to Gabor functions, which in turn are related to hologram image functions, and (2) drastic lesions can be made in animal brains which reduce, but do not extinguish memories (training), as demonstrated by Karl Lashley in the 1920s. Pribram utilizes Fourier analysis, based on the Fourier Theorem, a form of calculus that transforms complex patterns into component sine waves. Some believe that Pribram's theory also explains how the human brain can store so many memories in such limited space. Pribram believes the brain operates according to the same quantum mathematical principles as a hologram. Bohm has suggested these wave forms may compose hologram-like organizations. Pribram, K. (2003). Consciousness Reassessed. Mind and Matter, 2, 7–35. Pribram, K. (1999). Brain and the composition of conscious experience: Of deep and surface structure, frames of reference, episode and executive, models and monitors. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 6, 19-42. |
RAMACHANDRAN, VILAYANUR
Ramachandran, V.S. (2004). A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness : From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers, Pi Press. Ramachandran, V. S. & Hubbard, E. (2001). Synaesthesia: a window into perception, thought and language. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 8, 3-34. |
REES, GERAINT Dr. Geraint Rees does work in the laboratory which focuses on the neural mechanisms underlying human consciousness in health and disease. At present his focus is primarily on the neural correlates of particular types of conscious content, aiming to distinguish between conscious and unconscious representations in the human brain. He mainly uses fMRI, in combination with behavioral studies, transcranial magnetic stimulation and EEG/MEG. His previous work has suggested that subjective awareness of objects in the visual environment is associated not just with enhanced activation in visual areas of the occipital lobe, but also areas of parietal and prefrontal cortex often associated with attention. A major focus of his work is therefore in studying interactions between visual cortex and these areas, both in the context of attention, but also with respect to eye movements. Rees, G, Frith C, & Lavie N. (2004). Neural correlates of attentional capture. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16, 751-759. |
REINGOLD, EYAL Dr. Reingold is very interested in unconscious perception, memory, and learning, the use of eye movements and visual attention, with special emphasis on visual search tasks, the saccadic system with special interest in the saccadic inhibition phenomenon. His use of applied eye movement research entails -- gaze control -- the use of eye movements as a human/computer interface modality, gaze contingent, variable resolution displays, and eye movement measurement techniques and instruments. Reingold, E. M. (1992). Conscious versus unconscious processes: Are they qualitatively different? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 15, 218-219. Merikle, P. M., & Reingold, E. M. (1998). On demonstrating unconscious perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 127, 304-310. |
REISS, ALLAN Menon, V., Boyett-Anderson, J., & Reiss A. (2005). Maturation of medial temporal lobe response and connectivity during memory encoding. Brain Research. Cognitive Brain Research. 25, 379-85. Shiffman, S., Ng, Y., Brosnan, T., Eliez, S., Links, J., Kelkar, U., & Reiss A. (2003). Interactive specification of regions of interest on brain surfaces. Neuroimage, 20, 1811-1816. |
REVONSUO, ANTTI Dr. Revonsuo is the principal investigator for the Consciousness Research Group. The CRG approaches the problem of consciousness from a multidisciplinary perspective, combining psychology, philosophy, and cognitive neuroscience. The group’s starting point is to take consciousness as a natural biological phenomenon in the brain, and to carry out both empirical and theoretical explorations into the nature of consciousness. The main lines of research focus on perceptual awareness, altered states of consciousness (dreaming, hypnosis), and the theory and philosophy of consciousness. Revonsuo A (2000) The Reinterpretation of Dreams: An evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23 (6): 877-901. Revonsuo A (2001) Can functional brain imaging discover consciousness in the brain? Journal of Consciousness Studies 8 (3): 3-23. |
ROSENTHAL, DAVID Dr. Rosenthal is currently Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York as well as Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Concentration in Cognitive Science. His research interests include philosophy of mind, especially consciousness, intentionality, and sensation. Rosenthal, D. (2005). Consciousness and Mind, Oxford: Clarendon Press. Rosenthal, D. (2004). Varieties of Higher-Order Theory, in Higher-Order Theories of Consciousness, ed. Rocco J. Gennaro, Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishers, 17-44. |
SCHACTER, DANIEL L. Dr. Schacter's research has focused on psychological and biological aspects of human memory and amnesia, with a particular emphasis on the distinction between conscious and nonconscious forms of memory and, more recently, on brain mechanisms of memory distortion. He has also studied the effects of aging on memory. His research uses both cognitive testing and brain imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Schacter, D.L. & Slotnick, S.D. (2004). The cognitive neuroscience of memory distortion. Neuron, 44, 149-160. Maril, A., Simons, J.S., Mitchell, J.P., Schwartz, B.L., & Schacter, D.L. (2003). Feeling-of-knowing in episodic memory: An event-related fMRI study. NeuroImage, 18, 827-836. |
SEARLE, JOHN Dr. Searle is a Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and is noted for contributions to the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, artificial intelligence, consciousness, characteristics of socially constructed versus physical realities, and on practical reason. Professor Searle was also the first tenured professor to join the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley. Searle, J. (1989) "Consciousness, Unconsciousness and Intentionality" Philosophical Topics, Vol. 17, No. 1. Searle, J. (1990) "Is the Brain's Mind a Computer Program?", The Scientific American. |
SETH, ANIL K. Dr. Seth is engaged in the development of quantitative methods for measuring the neural dynamics underlying consciousness, and in locating these measures in a wider theoretical context that accounts for the basic features of phenomenal consciousness in dynamical terms. He is particularly interested in the implications of this research for consciousness in non-human animals and, possibly, in machines. Seth, A.K., Izhikevich, E.M., Reeke, G.N., & Edelman, G.M. (in press). Theories and measures of consciousness: An extended framework. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. |
SHANAHAN, MURRAY Dr. Shanahan’s research background is in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. He also has interests in the philosophy of mind, and in computational neuroscience. His current work centers on global workspace theory, and he is especially interested in building computational models of the global workspace architecture. In addition, he is exploring the "simulation hypothesis", according to which thought is internally simulated interaction with the environment, and he has focused on the idea that the brain realizes this through a form of internally closed sensorimotor loop that emulates the outer sensorimotor loop closed through the environment. His recent work has shown that these two ideas - global workspace theory and the simulation hypothesis can be combined in a computational model and used to control a robot. Shanahan, M. (2006). A Cognitive Architecture that Combines Internal Simulation with a Global Workspace. Consciousness and Cognition, 15, 433-449. Shanahan,M. (2005). Global Access, Embodiment, and the Conscious Subject. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 12, 46-66. |
SINGER, WOLF Dr. Singer's laboratory is focused on studying the functional organization of the cerebral cortex and use-dependent synaptic plasticity during development in the adult brain. Since the discovery of synchronous firing in the visual cortex in the mid-eighties he has pursued with great intensity the hypothesis that synchronization of distributed responses serves as a signature of relatedness in distributed parallel processing in the cerebral cortex. Singer examines the possibility that response synchronization serves the dynamic binding of neuronal responses into coherent population codes, thereby creating representations that are complementary to single cell codes. Singer, W. (2002). Response synchronization, gamma oscillations, and perceptual binding in cat primary visual cortex. In: The Cat Primary Visual Cortex. B. Payne, A. Peters. Academic press, San Diego, 521-559. |
SMITH, J. DAVID Dr. Smith’s lab researches two aspects of cognitive psychology. In particular relation to consciousness studies, Dr. Smith is exploring whether nonhuman animals have adaptive uncertainty-monitoring capacities, similar to those humans possess. The problem for this research is that uncertainty paradigms designed for humans do not suit animals, because they rely on verbal self-reports about doubt and confidence. To ameliorate this dilemma, Dr. Smith uses nonverbal experimental paradigms which give animals difficult perceptual and memory problems while also providing them with an additional response that lets them report on or cope with their uncertainty on difficult trials. Dr. Smith has found strong similarities in the way that humans, dolphins, and monkeys use this uncertainty response. In addition to exploring animal consciousness, Dr. J. David Smith is also interested in the human categorization system and in the comparative study of categorization. Smith, J. D., & Washburn, D. A. (2005). Uncertainty monitoring and metacognition by animals. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 19-24. |
SMYTHIES, JOHN John Smythies is Director of the Division of Neurochemistry at the Center for Brain and Cognition at University of California, San Diego; Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London; and Visiting Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. Smythies, J. (2003). Space, time, and consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 10, 47-56. Smythies, J. (1997). The functional neuroanatomy of awareness: With a focus on the role of various anatomical systems in the control of intermodal attention. Consciousness and Cognition: An International Journal, 6, 455-481. |
SNODGRASS, MICHAEL Dr. John M. Snodgrass is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan. He is responsible for coordinating a research program on unconscious processes at the university. In addition to being actively involved in research, Dr. Snodgrass also runs a private practice in the community. Snodgrass, M., & Shevrin, H. (2006). Unconscious inhibition and facilitation at the objective detection threshold: Replicable and qualitatively different unconscious perceptual effects. Cognition, 101, 43-79. Snodgrass, M., Bernat, E., & Shevrin, H. (2004). Unconscious perception: A model-based approach to method and evidence. Perception & Psychophysics, 66, 846-867. |
SPERRY, ROGER (August 20, 1913 - April 17, 1994) Roger Sperry helped to uncover that human beings are of two minds. He found that the human brain has specialized functions on the right and left, and that the two sides can operate practically independently. In the early 1960s, Sperry and colleagues conducted extensive experiments on an epileptic patient who had had his corpus collosum, the "bridge" between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, split so that the connection was severed. At first the patient seemed quite normal, but experimentation showed certain activities such as naming objects or putting blocks together in a prescribed way could only be done when using one side of the brain or the other. (Since the right eye connects to the left brain, the left hand to the right brain, and so on throughout the body, the stimulus would be given to the side of the body opposite the brain hemisphere being tested.) These abilities were not absolute, but it seemed that the left hemisphere specialized in language processes and the right is dominant in visual-construction tasks. Sperry's work helped chart a map of the brain and opened whole fields of psychological and philosophical questions. Sperry received the Nobel Prize in 1981. Sperry, R. W. (1973). Hemisphere deconnection and unity in conscious awareness. American Psychologist, 23, 723-733. Sperry, R. W. (1969). A modified concept of consciousness. Psychological Review, 76, 532-536. |
STAMENOV, MAXIM Dr. Stamenov’s research interests include: language and cognition; language and consciousness; ways of representation of emotive-affective meaning in language structure; autobiographic memory and narrative. He is the editor in charge of the academic book Series "Advances in Consciousness Research" published by "John Benjamins" (Amsterdam & Philadelphia). Stamenov, M. (ed.) 1997. Language Structure, Discourse and the Access to Consciousness. (Advances in Consciousness Research, Vol. 12). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Stamenov, M. & V. Gallese (eds.). 2002. Mirror Neurons and the Evolution of Brain and Language (Advances in Consciousness Research, Vol. 42). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2002. |
STOERIG, PETRA Dr. Petra Stoerig has worked extensively on blindsight as a method to uncovering her questions regarding human consciousness. Throughout her career in vision research she has continually asked the following three questions: What is the neuronal basis of consciousness? Who has consciousness? What is consciousness good for? Using new technology, such as PET scans and fMRI on the visual system, along with neuroanatomical, neuropsychological, and behavioral methods, Stoerig has tried to elucidate the neuronal basis of conscious as opposed to simply understanding unconscious vision. Stoerig, P, & Cowey, A .(1995). Visual perception and phenomenal consciousness. Behavioural Brain Research, 71, 147-156. |
TAYLOR, JOHN G. Dr. Taylor’s research interests include neural modeling of higher order cognitive processes including consciousness and mulitmodular nets for action, emotion and early processing. He also studies mathematical analyses of single and coupled modules, including recurrence and learning dynamics (including NO). And he is also interested in artificial neural networks in classification and time series analysis with applications in speech recognition, ATR and the financial markets. Taylor, J.G. (2005). Mind and Consciousness: Towards a Final Answer? Physics of Life Reviews, 2, 1-45. |
THOMPSON, EVAN University of Toronto
Dr. Thompson's research interests are philosophical theories of consciousness, phenomenology, neurodynamical approaches to consciousness, and embodied cognitive science. Thompson, E., Zelazo, P., & Moscovich, M. (in press). The Cambridge Handook of Consciousness. Cambridge University Press. Varela, F., Thompson, E., & Rosch, E. (1991). The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience. MIT Press. |
TONONI, GIULIO University of Wisconsin - Madison
Dr. Tononi approaches consciousness research in three ways. He utilizes magnetoencephalography to investigate the NCC; by using binocular rivalry he has been able to determine aspects of neural activity change when a visual stimulus becomes conscious or unconscious. Second, he and colleagues have built some of the most advanced, large-scale computer models of the mammalian thalamocortical system. Finally, Tononi has worked on a theoretical framework aimed at characterizing consciousness at the fundamental level, with the aim of developing a testable scientific theory of the necessary and sufficient conditions for conscious experience. The framework considers the kinds of neural processes that could account for the most fundamental properties of conscious experience: differentiation and integration. According to this information integration theory, consciousness does not arise as a property of brain cells, but originates from the unique capability of certain structures within the thalamocortical system to integrate a large amount of information in a short period of time. His theory claims that the amount of consciousness associated with a neural system is given by its capacity to integrate information. Objective measures of information integration in the brain are being applied to psychiatric disorders, primarily schizophrenia and dissociative disorders, which are conceptualized as disorders of the functional connectivity between multiple brain areas and thus as disorders of conscious integration. Tononi, G. (2005). Consciousness, information integration, and the brain. Progress in Brain Research, 50, 109-26. Tononi, G. (2004). An Information Integration Theory of Consciousness. BMC Neuroscience, 5, 42. |
TULVING, ENDEL Dr. Tulving’s research is concerned with fundamental theoretical issues of human memory. Specifically he has been interested in the clarification of episodic memory and sharpening its distinction from all other forms of human memory that is still not sufficiently appreciated by other thinkers and writers. Previous discussions of the distinction emphasized the autonoetic form of awareness that characterizes episodic memory. More recently, the emphasis has been shifted to the role that time plays in memory. Episodic memory is the only form of human memory that is oriented to the past. All other forms, including semantic memory (which deals with the acquired knowledge of and about the world) are oriented to the present and the future. This unique property of the episodic memory system, namely its palinscopic (rearward-looking) orientation, has important implications for the study of normal memory as well as memory breakdown in brain damage and old age. Tulving, E. (1984). Precise of Elements of Episodic Memory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 7, 223-238. Tulving, E. (1985). Memory and Consciousness. Canadian Psychology, 26, 1-12. |
TYE, MICHAEL Dr. Tye's work focuses on the philosophy of mind and the foundations of cognitive science, and he also has interests in metaphysics. He has authored several books which defend the representationalist approach to phenomenal consciousness. Tye, M. (2000). Consciousness, Color, and Content (Representation and Mind), Mass: MIT Press. |
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(September 7, 1946 - May 28, 2001) Varela was a proponent of the embodied philosophy which claims that human cognition and consciousness can only be understood in terms of the enactive structures in which they arise, namely the body, and the environment in which the body interacts. He made an impact on the neuroscience profession by introducing concepts such as neurophenomenology, in which observers apply scientifically verifiable methods for examining the nature of their own conscious experience. Varela had previously achieved international recognition in the 1970's as Maturana's colleague and co-creator of the concept of autopoiesis. In autopoietic theory, cognition is a consequence of circularity and complexity in the form of any system whose behavior includes maintenance of that selfsame form. This shifts the focus from discernment of active agencies and replicable actions through which a given process (cognition) is conducted (the viewpoint of cognitive science) to the discernment of those features of an organism's form which determine its engagement with its milieu. Varela, F. (1999). Present-time consciousness, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 6, 111-140. Varela, F. (1995). Resonant Cell Assemblies: A new approach to cognitive functions and neuronal synchrony, Biological Research, 28, 81-95. |
VELMANS, MAX Dr. Max Velmans’ publications in the area of consciousness studies are mainly theoretical, with a particular focus on integrating work in philosophy, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, and mind/body relationships in clinical practice. Major works include “Understanding Consciousness” (Routledge/Psychology Press, 2000), “How could conscious experiences affect brains?” (Imprint, 2003), and the edited books The Science of Consciousness: Psychological, Neuropsychological and Clinical Reviews (Routledge, 1996), Investigating Phenomenal Consciousness: New Methodologies and Maps, John Benjamins (2000) and the forthcoming “Blackwell Companion to Consciousness” (Blackwell, 2006). Current lab research includes EEG investigations of the preconscious precursors of free will. Velmans, M. (2002). How could conscious experiences affect brains? (Target Article for Special Issue). Journal of Consciousness Studies, 9, 3-29. Velmans, M (1991). Is Human Information Processing Conscious? Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 14, 651-726. |
WEISKRANTZ, LAWRENCE Dr. Lawrence Weiskrantz's experimental work with primates and humans coupled with his creative theoretical thinking, carried out over nearly four decades, has profoundly influenced the field of cognitive neuroscience. His studies of brain-injured patients have yielded dramatic results that have materially altered contemporary views of different memory systems. He is one of the few scientists who have conducted landmark research on the neurobiology of both visual perception and memory. His seminal research on the blindsight phenomenon has elucidated the extent of visual abilities that remain after loss of the primary visual projection area of the cortex. Weiskrantz, L., |