While philosophers have investigated the topic of consciousness for hundreds of years, empirical research has only been a focus for the last decades. But in this time, what have we really learned about our internal experience of the world? We invite to a series of lectures focusing on how we investigate consciousness empirically, what we have discovered, and where the road goes next.

To attend, please use this webinar link. The event will also be streamed on YouTube, however, if there are issues with the stream, please use the webinar link instead.

Organized by Conscious Brain Concepts and UiO:Life Science for the Oslo Life Science Conference 2021

Agenda:

19.00: Welcome

19.05: Talk: Progress in empirical consciousness research

Johan Frederik Storm, PhD MD., is a professor of neurophysiology at the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo. His work focuses on the neuroscience of consciousness.

19.35: Talk: Disorders of consciousness and related states

Olivia Gosseries, PhD, is a research associate at the Belgian National Funds for Scientific Research. Her work focuses on altered and modified states of consciousness.

20.05: Talk: Measuring depth of anesthesia

Katie Warnaby, PhD, is a senior research scientist at the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging at the University of Oxford. Her work focuses on anesthesia and the neurophysiology of consciousness.

20.35: Questions

21.00: End

Speakers:

Dr. Johan F. Storm. Johan is professor of neurophysiology at Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo where he heads the Brain Signaling Group and ConsciousBrainConcepts project. His interests concern signaling in the brain, specifically the connections between biophysical and molecular mechanisms within neurons (ion channels, receptors, neuromodulation), and the basis for conscious brain states and cognitive functions such as conscious processing and awareness. He founded and leads Forum for Consciousness Research, and EU- and NRC-funded projects on consciousness, and is an elected member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters. Website Publications

Dr. Katie Warnaby. Katie is a senior research scientist at Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging at the University of Oxford. There, she uses multimodal neuroimaging to understand the changes in the brain under anaesthesia and during altered states of consciousness. One of her current research goals is to identify and develop objective neurophysiological measures of conscious perception under anaesthesia, and translate these findings to the clinical environment. Website Publications

Dr. Olivia Gosseries. Olivia is a neuropsychologist, research associate at the Belgian National Funds for Scientific Research, and co-director of the Coma Science Group at the GIGA Consciousness at the university of Liege in Belgium. She has a long experience studying diagnosis and prognosis in patients with disorders of consciousness recovering from coma using non-invasive brain stimulation and electrophysiology. She now focuses more on therapeutic interventions in this challenging population. In addition, she has investigated states of consciousness including sleep, anesthesia, coma memory, lucid dreaming, meditation, hypnosis, and cognitive trance. Website Publications