Understanding consciousness – a scientific quest for the 21st century
Auditorium in CaixaForum, Barcelona, Spain
June 21, 2018 – June 22, 2018
International HBP Conference
How does our subjective experience emerge from the brain? How does consciousness relate to the physical world? These age-old, deep questions are now at last being addressed directly and broadly by neuroscience and will become crucial in the decades to come.
The spectrum of consciousness-related conundrums is rapidly expanding: we are saving islands of human brain from devastating injuries, growing cerebral organoids in a vat, and building intelligent machines that perform faster and better than any healthy subject, just to mention a few.
Where does consciousness arise? Where is the boundary between insentient matter and a spark of subjectivity? Society needs to be scientifically and culturally prepared to face these emerging questions.
To do so, an approach with the broadest scope is needed: diverse theoretical frameworks, brain anatomy, physiology, and chemistry across scales and species, detailed and large-scale computer simulations, deep learning, neuromorphic computing, robotics, clinical neurology, anaesthesiology, psychology, behavioural, computational, and philosophical analysis must interact and blend on a single infrastructure.
These ingredients are naturally present in the Human Brain Project, and this workshop, stirred by world-leading scholars in the field, is where they come together for the first time.
Dedicated conference website: http://hbp-ic.com/
Day 1 (Thursday, June 21)
AM
09.00: Welcome /Intro
Johan Storm (Chair): Intro/overview: consciousness & HBP
Fundamental aspects, including theories of consciousness
Moderators: Johan Storm & Kathinka Evers
09.20 Kathinka Evers
09.50: Ned Block
10.20: David Chalmers
10.50: Coffee break (20 min)
11.10: Larissa Albantakis
11.40: Jean-Pierre Changeux (HBP)
12.10-13.00: Discussion (50 min)
13.00: Lunch & posters (1 hour)
PM
14.00-14.40: Marcello Massimini: Integrated consciousness research in HBP.
Neurobiological mechanisms and correlates of consciousness
Moderators: Marcello Massimini & Mavi Sanchez-Vives
15.00: Cyriel Pennartz
15.30: Catherine Tallon-Baudry
16.00: Wolf Singer
16.30: Coffee break + exhibit/demo (30 min)
17:00: Nao Tsuchiya
17.30: Rodolfo Llinas
18.00-18.50: Discussion (50 min)
18.50 – 19.50: flash talks by young HBP researchers (5*10 minutes)
20.30: Buffet-dinner
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Day 2 (Friday, June 22)
AM
Models, simulations, and emulation of consciousness
Moderators: Cyriel Pennartz & Alain Destexhe
09.00: Alain Destexhe
09.25: Gustavo Deco
09.50: Karl Friston
10.20: Coffee break (20 min)
10.40: Sean Hill
11.10: Fabrice Wendling
11.40-12.30: Discussion (50 min)
12.30-13.00: Flash talks by young researchers (3*10 )
13.00-14.00: Lunch & posters
+ exhibit/demo + ROBOT presentations by Tony Prescott/Martin Pearson
PM
Clinical, ethical, and societal implications of consciousness research
Moderators: Steven Laureys & Olivia Gosseries
14.00: Olivia Gosseries
14.30: Niko Schiff
15.00: Emery Brown
15.30: Coffee break + exhibit/demo (20 min)
15.50: Melanie Wilke
16.20: Olaf Blanke
16.50-17.40: Discussion (50 min)
17.40 – 18.40: Roundtable discussion (1 hour)
18.40-19.10: Press conference (30 min)
19.30–20.15: Public lecture HBP member