KINGSTON, R.I.- November 27, 2017- Anil Seth, professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, will present \u201cThe Nature of Human Consciousness\u201d as the 10th and final lecture of the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s 54th Honors Colloquium. The talk will take place Tuesday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. in Edwards Hall, 64 Upper College Road.<\/p>\n
Seth is the founding co-director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science and the editor-in-chief of Neuroscience of Consciousness<\/em>, an open access Oxford University Press journal that publishes papers on the biological basis of consciousness with an emphasis on empirical neuroscience studies in healthy populations and clinical settings. Seth has given many prestigious public lectures on consciousness, including a Royal Institution Friday Discourse (2016) and a main-stage TED talk (2017).<\/p>\n One of the most perplexing problems in neuroscience and philosophy is how we understand consciousness. While the subject is challenging, the desire to answer these questions has become urgent given their impact on mental health. Seth believes that a better grasp of the mechanisms of consciousness will help us understand distorted experiences in psychiatry. \u201cI aim to discover how our experience of the world around us, and ourselves within, can arise from specific kinds of neural interactions in the brain,\u201d said Seth. \u201cSome people think solving consciousness remains beyond the reach of science, but we already know quite a lot and are learning more and more each day.\u201d<\/p>\n Seth\u2019s research is focused on three separate areas, the first being understanding the difference between different conscious \u2018levels\u2019 such as normal wakefulness and dreamless sleep. \u201cWe study what happens in the brain that underlies these large changes in conscious states, and we try to come up with quantitative measures of the level of consciousness,\u201d said Seth. \u201cWe are able to do this thanks to many collaborations with neurologists and anesthesiologists who can provide exciting data.\u201d<\/p>\n The second aspect of Seth\u2019s research involves conscious \u201ccontent,\u201d including visual and auditory consciousness. \u201cConscious contents describe what we are aware of, when we are aware,\u201d Seth explained. \u201cHere, we want to understand the mechanisms that give rise to conscious, rather than unconscious perception, and our research is telling us that it has everything to do with how the brain makes predictions about sensory signals.\u201d<\/p>\n The third aspect is the one Seth perceives as the most important, and involves how we experience ourselves as unified persons. \u201cOur experience of being a self is a kind of neural prediction or construction which, while we normally experience it as being unified and stable, can come apart in all sorts of ways in the lab and in the clinic,\u201d Seth said. \u201cThere are surprising commonalities between how we perceive and experience the world, and how we perceive and experience being a \u2018self\u2019 within it.\u201d<\/p>\n The goals of Seth\u2019s research include an increased understanding of the brain basis of consciousness, and to use this understanding to drive new approaches to diagnosis and treatment of people with mental illnesses and psychiatric disorders.<\/p>\n \u201cThese goals interact closely because we can study people with psychiatric conditions to better understand consciousness and then use our understanding of the biology of consciousness to better understand what happens in these psychiatric conditions,\u201d explained Seth. \u201cIt is important that people understand that science is not something that takes away the magic and mystery of what being a person is; rather it enriches it. The more we see ourselves as continuous with nature, as part of it, the more wonderful things become.\u201d<\/p>\n Titled, \u201cOrigins: Life, the Universe and Everything,\u201d this fall\u2019s colloquium addresses such questions as \u201cWhere did we come from? How did the universe begin? How did intelligent, rational beings arise? And from such humble beginnings, how did we develop a mind that can ask these big questions? Now in its 54th year, the colloquium is the University\u2019s premier public lecture series, offering lectures on most Tuesday evenings through Dec. 5. Seth\u2019s lecture will be shown on the web at stream.uri.edu<\/p>\n Sponsors: Honors Program \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 Office of the President \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 Office of the Provost \u2022 125th Anniversary Steering Committee \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 Foundation \u2022 The Mark and Donna Ross Honors Colloquium Humanities Endowment \u2022 The Thomas Silvia and Shannon Chandley Honors Colloquium Endowment \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 College of Arts & Sciences \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 College of Pharmacy \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 John Hazen White Sr. Center for Ethics and Public Service \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 Gender and Women\u2019s Studies Program \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 Office of Community, Equity and Diversity \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 College of Engineering \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 College of the Environment and Life Sciences \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 College of Health Sciences \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 College of Business Administration \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 College of Nursing \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 Division of Student Affairs \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Communications and Marketing \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Publications and Creative Services \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 ITS Instructional Technology and Media Services \u2022 溏心vlog免费B站 Feinstein College of Education and Professional Studies \u2022 George and Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience.<\/p>\n Olivia Ross, an intern in the Marketing and Communications Department at 溏心vlog免费B站 and public relations major, wrote this press release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I.- November 27, 2017- Anil Seth, professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, will present \u201cThe Nature of Human Consciousness\u201d as the 10th and final lecture of the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s 54th Honors Colloquium. 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