Tag Archives: Brain

Hello Brain!

The Francis Crick Institute, London has opened a new exhibition about the brain – the most complex and least understood part of the body – and the journey to map its intricate connections.

Hello Brain! explores the brain’s ‘connectome’: how trillions of connections between billions of cells – more than there are stars in the sky – shape our thoughts, behaviours and experiences. Crick scientists are aiming to understand how these connections impact how different species, including humans, interact with each other and the world.

A social evolutionary purpose for consciousness

Scientific accounts of consciousness are a growing subject of public interest, but also academic disagreement with several rival theories in contention. Reasons include the ambiguous use of the polysemous term, the contamination of scientific accounts by intuitive explanations, and the neglect of an evolutionary perspective. Taking a social evolutional account, we propose that much of the mind’s cognitive architecture developed to promote species survival and social well-being and that subjective awareness is not causally efficacious, but rather a brain generated accompaniment for neuro-cognitive outputs that facilitate collective social communication and social change through the cultural transmission of beliefs, feelings, ideas, and behaviours.

How our unconscious visual biases change the way we perceive objects

Beverley Pickard-Jones is a Lecturer in Psychology at Bangor University.
“My primary research revolves around the exploration of priors in visual perception across different age groups. By employing visual illusions as investigative tools, I seek to contribute to a deeper understanding the intricate workings of perception and cognition. I also research pedagogy in higher education and am particularly interested in how to harness the power of technology to augment learning.”

How we created the first map of an insect brain – and what it means for our understanding of the human brain

Michael Wilding is a Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute in London, UK.
“I generated and analysed the first synaptic wiring diagram, or connectome, of an entire insect brain. Using this brain map and linked experimental tools, my group aims to understand how brain-wide computations generate social behaviours and how these computations go awry after social isolation or in disease.”

Are near-death experiences hallucinations? Experts explain the science behind this puzzling phenomenon

Neil Dagnall is a Reader in Applied Cognitive Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University.
“I am a cognitive and parapsychological researcher (Anomalous Psychology, Cognitive Psychology & Experimental Methods). I work closely with Andrew Parker, Kenneth Drinkwater, and Andrew Denovan. We are undertaking several projects centering on memory (eye movements), belief in the paranormal, mental toughness and anomalous throught processes.”

Ken Drinkwater is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Cognitive and Parapsychology, Manchester Metropolitan University.
“I completed my undergraduate BSc (2001 – Main study: Memory and Part set cuing effects) and a postgraduate MSc (2007 – 2 Main studies: 1. I.Q. Assessment of adults with learning disabilities, and the usefulness of the Ravens Progressive Matrices as a predictor of ability and 2. Focus groups (with Adults who have Learning Disabilities) in developing an accessible leaflet for clinical psychology at Oldham NHS penning care and at Manchester Metropolitan University.”

Inner Selfies

The ‘Inner Selfies’ Project is a public-engagement initiative created by artists Hanif Janmohamed and Maria Lantin, in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Ontario. It is a hybrid work with a physical maker space at the AGO’s Community Gallery and a public online digital space, with the Inner-Selfie Drawing Tool. The exhibition opened in July 2022 as an emergent work that engages with concepts of self and no-self. They are interested in questioning selfie culture and in the co-creation of new, poetic representations of identity and self. The exhibition runs until August 31 2023.

The Edge of Me

‘The Edge of Me’ offers a personal perspective of what it is like to live inside a mind that is both brimming with creativity yet sometimes at the mercy of overstimulated and self-destructive thought patterns. The piece explores some of the possible neurological bases of these experiences, looking at the brain as a predicting machine and the role of the Default Mode Network in creative thinking, negative rumination and possible links to ADHD.

Futurists predict a point where humans and machines become one. But will we see it coming?

John Kendall Hawkins is a Philosopher at the University of New England.
“I am an American ex-pat poet and freelance journalist and lifelong student currently residing in Oceania. I’m a philosopher — panpsychism, so residing, when you think about it, everywhere.”
He is a former reporter for The New Bedford Standard-Times, and a former columnist for the Prague Post. His poetry has won multiple awards, including the Academy of Ameican Poets prize in 1984 and the Deakin Literary Award in 1998.

Sandy Boucher is a Lecturer in the Philosophy of Science at the University of New England, NSW Australia.
“My research interests are mainly in the philosophy of biology (especially functions and teleology, the units of selection, species, natural kinds, macroevolution and paleobiology) and general philosophy of science (especially the scientific realism debate), but I also work on issues in metaphilosophy and epistemology. Current research projects include work on pragmatism in the scientific realism debate; arguments for realism about the units of selection; the role of values in science; and naturalised metaphysics.”

How uploading our minds to a computer might become possible

Angela Thornton is a PhD Candidate, University of Nottingham
“For my PhD thesis I have been exploring public awareness and attitudes to mind uploading. Up until 2018 I was an industry market researcher specialising in healthcare although I also have business to business and consumer experience. I have over 30 years’ experience and have held senior roles at several agencies including Ipsos MORI and Research International (South Africa) where I was the Qualitative Director on the Unilever account. In 2014 I set up my own consultancy ACT Research Ltd and this gave me the opportunity to fulfil a long-held ambition to gain a post graduate qualification as a mature student. I achieved a Distinction in my MSc from the University of Nottingham and was subsequently accepted onto the Horizon Centre’s Doctoral Training Programme which focuses on the digital economy and digital innovation.

How we identified brain patterns of consciousness

Davinia Fernández-Espejo is a Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology and Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham. Her main goal is to understand how the brain supports consciousness and what goes wrong for patients to become entirely unaware after severe brain injury. She uses techniques such as MRI (structural and functional), tDCS, and behavioural approaches in both healthy volunteers and patients with a disorder of consciousness to test hypotheses about the role of different brain structures in the clinical deficits they present. This research is directly translated into the development of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers to be used in clinical settings, as well as the development of novel treatment approaches.