| Event Start Date: 21. October 2021 | Event End Date: 21. October 2021 | Event Venue: |
Archives
Animal Consciousness – Public lecture and panel discussion with Marian Stamp Dawkins and Jonathan Birch
| Event Start Date: 15. February 2023 | Event End Date: 15. February 2023 | Event Venue: Online |
Are animals conscious and how can we test it?
Many animals engage in complex behaviors like building nests, using tools to hunt for food, play, or socialize. Some animals can even learn complex tasks like pulling levers for rewards, navigating cities, or even rudimentary sign language in the case of great apes.
As more evidence accumulates, the case that animals are conscious seems to be strengthened. But how can we test whether they experience the world in rich detail like we do? Whether they have a sense of self or a notion of the future or past? Do they feel pain when hurt the same way we do?
We have invited Marian Stamp Dawkins, a famous British biologist and professor of ethology at the University of Oxford, to hold a lecture on
“Which animals are conscious? What we know and what still don’t know”
(see below for a short description)
In addition, Professor Jonathan Birch at the London School of Economics and Political Science will subsequently join Marian Stamp Dawkins in a panel and to discuss the topic, along with questions from the audience, and moderated by Professor Johan Storm at the University of Oslo.
The event will be online, with Marian Stamp Dawkins holding her lecture from 19.00 to 20.00, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A.
More information on how to participate will be published here. If you want updates on this event, and similar future events, please subscribe to our email list at the forum for consciousness research, here.
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Despite the increasing use of ‘sentience’ in animal welfare legislation around the world, there are still serious scientific obstacles to knowing which animals have conscious experiences. Consciousness remains one of the greatest in mysteries in biology and I shall argue that if we genuinely want to understand it, we have first to face up to what we do not know and why it is so difficult to study. Only then will we be able to make a scientific judgement about its existence in other species.
Marian Stamp Dawkins CBE FRS is Professor of Animal Behavior in the Department of Zoology and Emeritus Fellow in Biological Sciences at Somerville College, University of Oxford. She and is the author of numerous research papers and books on animal welfare, behavior and consciousness including Through Our Eyes Only? The Search for Animal Consciousness (1993), Why Animals Matter: Animal Consciousness, Animal Welfare and Human Well-being (2012) and most recently The Science of Animal Welfare: Understanding What Animals Want (2021).
Jonathan Birch is an Associate Professor in LSE’s Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, specializing in the philosophy of the biological sciences. He is working on evolution of social behavior, the evolution of norms, animal sentience, and the relation between sentience and welfare.
Organizer
Forum For Consciousness Research, The convergence environment ConsciousBrainConcepts and UiO:Life Science
Public Lecture: Georg Northoff – What do brain and mind share, the temporo-spatial theory of consciousness
| Event Start Date: 3. November 2022 | Event End Date: 3. November 2022 | Event Venue: Oslo |
PUBLIC LECTURE November 3rd, 2022:
Prof. Georg NORTHOFF
University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research
(IMHR), Ottawa, Canada
What do brain and mind share?
Temporo-spatial theory of consciousness (TTC)
Abstract. Consciousness and its relation to the brain is one of the major mysterious and unresolved
scientific puzzles of our time. Various neuroscientific (and philosophical) theories of consciousness have
been proposed. However, despite major progress, the missing link connecting brain and mind, neural and
mental states, remains yet unclear. They key claim of the Temporo-spatial Theory of
Consciousness (TTC) is that that missing link consists in the spatial and temporal pattern or
structure, i.e. their topography and dynamic, which are shared by both neural and mental activity
as their “common currency”. Consciousness and its relation to the brain can then be explain in
temporo-spatial terms. The lecture will present the theoretical framework and various lines of empirical
support for the TTC. I conclude with a philosophical outlook how the TTC can resolve (rather than solve)
the famous hard problem of consciousness, that is, the seemingly unbridgeable gap of brain and mind.
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Thursday, November 3rd, 16.05-17.40**
Venue: Auditorium 1, Georg Sverdrups Hus / Universitesbiblioteket, Blindern,
Moltke Moes vei 39 by Blindernveien, Oslo 0317
16.05: Welcome by J.F. Storm, University of Oslo
16.10: Georg NORTHOFF’s lecture: What do brain and mind share?
17.10-17.45: Discussion and questions from the audience
** Earlier during the day, professor Northoff will hold a more technical seminar on his theory (12.45 – 14.45) at Room L200, Domus Medica (Sognsvannsveien 9, Oslo). If you are interested in participating, please send an email to j.f.storm@medisin.uio.no.
Bio: Georg NORTHOFF is a German-born philosopher, neuroscientist and psychiatrist,
holding degrees in all three disciplines. He is now working in Ottawa/Canada investigating the
relationship between the brain and mind in its various facets, focusing on the question: why
and how can our brain construct subjective phenomena like self, consciousness, emotions?
He has developed the Temporo-spatial theory of consciousness (TTC) and published many
articles and books.
PUBLIC LECTURE by Dr. Yaïr Pinto: Does a split brain imply a split mind?
| Event Start Date: 13. April 2026 | Event End Date: 13. April 2026 | Event Venue: |
The Forum for Consciousness Research is proud to announce our next event:
Prof Yaïr Pinto will present his research on split-brain patients and the challenges it presents to the modern computational theory of mind at Runde auditorium (Domus Medica, University of Oslo) on Thursday, May 19th, between 15:30 and 16:45.
The event is free an open to the public. Hope to see you all there!
Continue reading PUBLIC LECTURE by Dr. Yaïr Pinto: Does a split brain imply a split mind?
Open Lecture – Victor Lamme: WHAT CAN BRAIN SCIENCE TEACH US ABOUT CONSCIOUSNESS THAT WE DON’T KNOW ALREADY?
| Event Start Date: 6. April 2022 | Event End Date: 6. April 2022 | Event Venue: |
The recording of the lecture is now available on Youtube:
About the event:
Forum for Consciousness Research and The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters invite you to a public lecture:
Victor Lamme: WHAT CAN BRAIN SCIENCE TEACH US ABOUT CONSCIOUSNESS THAT WE DON’T KNOW ALREADY?
Victor A.F. Lamme, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC), The Netherlands, victorlamme@gmail.com
Time
Wednesday, April 6th , 19.30-21.00
Venue
Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi/ The Norwegain Academy of Science and Letters, Drammensveien 78, 0271 Oslo.
See also: https://dnva.no/detskjer/2022/03/what-can-brain-science-teach-us-about-consciousness-we-dont-know-already
Programme
19.30: Welcome and introduction by Johan F. Storm, Neurophysiology, University of Oslo
19.35: Victor Lamme: The Recurrent Processing Theory of Consciousness
20.35: Coffee break
20.45: Discussion and questions from the audience z
ABSTRACT
Once a topic largely confined to philosophy, consciousness has evolved to a mainstream research topic in psychology, neuroscience, AI, and other fields. This has generated a huge number of data, as well as many ideas and theories on consciousness. Where has this taken us? It is getting increasingly clear that consciousness is not what we always thought it was. Inspired by empirical data we are now moving away from the idea that the gold standard of consciousness is what people know, think or report about it. Instead, consciousness seems a much more fundamental property of brain function, more closely tied to binding and integration than to higher order cognitive functioning. I will present an overview of all the arguments that support such a conclusion, touching on topics such as the (mildly) hard problem, where the ‘magic’ of consciousness happens (and why this is not all that magical after all), why missing gorillas does not imply not seeing them (and why that gorilla is conscious of you), and first and foremost why neuroscience is a better judge of what you’re conscious of than you are yourself.
Victor Lamme is a full professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Amsterdam. He has worked on visual perception, attention, and memory, only to converge on the topic he is truly obsessed with: consciousness. He studies consciousness using a variety of techniques, ranging from single unit electrophysiology in monkeys to EEG, fMRI, TMS, and pharmacological interventions in humans. His aim is to provide a new definition of consciousness, moving away from our introspective intuition of it.
All are welcome!
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FUTURE EVENTS:
Thursday, May 19, 2022, at University of Oslo:
Lecture by Yair Pinto, Amsterdam: Consciousness in split brain patients
(More details later…)
Panel discussion: What Are Dreams And Why Do We Have Them?
| Event Start Date: 17. February 2022 | Event End Date: 17. February 2022 | Event Venue: |
Every night, most of us enter into an unreal world of vivid, hallucinatory experiences. Importantly, this demonstrates that the brain, all by itself, can generate a convincing world of inner experiences, although most of them are rapidly forgotten. Dreaming is a highly interesting and mysterious phenomenon that still remains to be satisfactorily explained by science. Because it is so common, we tend to forget how remarkable dreaming really is.
But what are dreams? How are they made? Why do we have them? Are they useful?
Recording of the panel discussion:
About the event:
The Forum For Consciousness Research, along with the Conscious Brain Concepts consortium and the Oslo Life Science conference 2022, invite you to an evening of discussion where we will attempt to shine light on the mysteries of the night.
Panelists:
Brigitte Holzinger, PhD, lecturer at Vienna University, Austria, and co-founder of Austrian Sleep Research Association
Caroline Horton, PhD, Reader in Psychology and Director of DrEAMSLab, Bishop Grosseteste University, U.K.
Johan Frederik Storm, MD, PhD, professor in neurophysiology, University of Oslo, Norway
Erik Hoel, PhD, Research assistant professor at Tufts University, Massachussets, USA
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The event will be online, and to receive a link to the webinar, please register using this link.
In addition, prior to this event, one of the panellists, Erik Hoel, will hold a public lecture on his new and exciting theory of why we dream:
“The Overfitted Brain Hypothesis: Dreaming As Data Augmentation“.
This event will start at 19.00, and last until 20.00. For more information and to register, please follow this link.
Links to these webinars will be sent out prior to the events to everyone who has registered, and will be posted here and on Facebook.
ERIK HOEL, public lecture – “The Overfitted Brain Hypothesis: Dreaming As Data Augmentation”
| Event Start Date: 17. February 2022 | Event End Date: 17. February 2022 | Event Venue: |
The nature of dreams is a topic that has been discussed for as long as humans could talk. But we are not the only species that dream. Research suggest that most mammals and birds dream. But why? A recent hypothesis is that the brain uses dreams as a way to generalize our models of the world.
Erik Hoel, Phd, is a Research Assistant Professor at Tufts University, Massachussets, USA. He is a neuroscientist and neurophilosopher who studies consciousness, cognition, the biological function of dreams, as well mathematical theories of emergence. He is noted for using information theory and causality analysis to develop mathematical models in a way to better explore and understand the basis of consciousness and dreaming.
Video of the lecture:
About the event:
We welcome you to a public lecture by Erik Hoel:
“The Overfitted Brain Hypothesis: Dreaming As Data Augmentation“.
The event will be online, and to receive a link to the webinar, please register using this link.
In addition, immediately following this public lecture, Erik Hoel will join as a panellist in an event hosted by the Forum For Consciousness Research, and the Conscious Brain Concepts consortium:
“What are dreams and why do we have them?”.
The panel discussion will start at 20.10, and last until 22.00. For more information, and to register, please follow this link.
Hvordan oppstår bevisste opplevelser i hjernen? – Åpent foredrag ved Johan Frederik Storm
| Event Start Date: 21. October 2021 | Event End Date: 21. October 2021 | Event Venue: |
Hvordan oppstår bevisste opplevelser i hjernen?
Innblikk i nyere naturvitenskapelig bevissthetsforskning.
Foredrag ved professor ved Institutt for medisinske basalfag, Seksjon for fysiologi, Johan Frederik Storm.
Arrangert av det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, se lenke her (med opptak av foredraget). Arrangementet er åpent for alle og gratis. Ingen påmelding nødvendig.
(For en lengere versjon av foredraget, tatt opp noen dager senere, gå til https://youtu.be/sWeA_qCURYE
Abstract: I århundrer har tenkere og forskere spurt seg om hvordan våre subjektive opplevelser av verden og oss selv – som å oppleve farger, former, lyder, smerte, glede, ønsker og drømmer – kan oppstå fra materielle prosesser i hjernen? Kan bevissthet forklares innenfor vårt nåværende, naturvitenskaplige verdensbilde, eller behøves radikalt nye elementer, som under kvantemekanikkens gjennombrudd? Er dette primært filosofiske problemer, eller kan de utforskes eller løses med naturvitenskapelige metoder? I mye av forrige århundre, var det utbredt tvil om dette blant forskere og filosofer. Men de siste 30 år har det vokst frem en sterk, tverrfaglig bevissthetsforskning, særlig etter at filosofen David Chalmers definerte «the hard problem of consciousness» (1995) og Nobelprisvinnneren Francis Crick erklærte at «Consciousness is the major unsolved problem in biology» (2004). Denne forskningen engasjerer nå noen av verdens ledende hjerneforskere, og har nylig gitt lovende resultater basert på nye empiriske metoder og teoretiske tilnærminger.
I dette foredraget vil Johan Storm gi noen innblikk i moderne bevissthetsforskning, med hovedvekt på nevrovitenskapelig forskning, og presentere noen ledende teorier, og diskutere hvordan de kan testes empirisk.
Johan Frederik Storm: f. 1951, professor i medisin (nevrofysiologi) ved UiO. Faglig hovedinteresser: Bevissthetsforskning, og hjernens elektriske signaler (elektrofysiologi). Har utgitt en rekke artikler om biofysiske og molekylære mekanismer for hjernecellers signaler, inkludert elektrisk og kjemisk regulering (nevromodulering) av aksjons- og synapsepotensialer, nevronal integrasjon og resonans, særlig i hjernebarken, og (etter 2015) om eksperimentell bevissthetsforskning på mennesker og dyr, samt teorier om drømmer og anestesi. Leder for tiden gruppen «Hjernesignaler» ved UiO, som driver bevissthetsforskning støttet av EUs The Human Brain Project, NFR, og UiO:Life Science.
Møtet åpner med at Ludvig M. Sollid holder minnetale over Erik Thorsby, Frode Vartdal holder minnetale over Morten Harboe og Stig S. Frøland holder minnetale over Jacob B. Natvig.
PUBLIC LECTURE – Andrew Lee: Does Consciousness Come In Degrees?
| Event Start Date: 17. September 2021 | Event End Date: 17. September 2021 | Event Venue: |
We are pleased to announce the following talk, jointly organised by the Forum for Consciousness Studies, the CBC project, and the Oslo Mind Group (OMG). Everyone is welcome!
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Friday the 17th of September, 14.00-15.30pm (GMT+2), we will host Andrew Lee, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Oslo, affiliated with the ConsciousBrainConcepts
The event will take place online, via zoom (details below).
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Does consciousness come in degrees?
If the answer is ‘yes’, then some creatures (or mental states) are more conscious than others. If the answer is ‘no’, then such claims are either false or incoherent. In this talk, I’ll (1) argue that the most prominent philosophical objection to degrees of consciousness doesn’t work, (2) develop an analysis of what it is for consciousness to come in degrees, and (3) apply the analysis to various theories of consciousness. I’ll argue that most theories yield the result that consciousness comes in degrees, though what exactly degrees of consciousness are varies across different theories. This means that claims about degrees of consciousness should be treated as substantive hypotheses open to confirmation and falsification, rather than as obvious truths or conceptual confusions.
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Time plan:
14.00 – Introduction
14.10 – Does Consciousness Come In Degrees?
14.50 – Q&A
15.30 – Tentative end
How to attend:
Link: https://uio.zoom.us/s/
Meeting ID: 668 8680 5387
Passcode: 878347
Lecture series: “What is consciousness and how can we study it empirically? Progress and challenges”
| Event Start Date: 15. February 2021 | Event End Date: 15. February 2021 | Event Venue: |
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