What does it mean to be conscious? How do we determine if a person has lost consciousness or not? How does your experience presumably differ from mine? This course offers an in-depth exploration of consciousness, the jewelry in the crown of mind sciences. The course will introduce both neuroscientific and philosophical perspectives, bridging empirical research with theoretical inquiry. Students will examine the mind-body problem, different types of conscious experiences, and the neural correlates of consciousness. Key discussions will include the hard problem of consciousness, state vs. content consciousness, and the inferential challenges of studying consciousness in infants, animals, and artificial intelligence.
We will explore altered states of consciousness, disorders such as blindsight and hemineglect, and the role of brain structures and neurophysiology in both typical and atypical conscious experiences. Through interactive lectures, students will engage with experimental paradigms like attentional blink, no-report paradigms, and neuroimaging techniques, while critically addressing the confounds of attention, memory, and decision-making in consciousness research.
The course also integrates prominent theories such as Global Workspace Theory, Integrated Information Theory, and Predictive Coding, culminating in discussions on how adversarial collaborations can help adjudicate between competing models of consciousness. With a blend of hands-on activities, group debates, and practical case studies, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the neuroscience underlying conscious states and contents.
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand the philosophical and neuroscientific foundations of consciousness studies.
- Differentiate between state and content consciousness, including their neural correlates.
- Evaluate the empirical approaches and paradigms used to study consciousness, from neuroimaging to behavioral assays.
- Critically analyze disorders of consciousness and their impact on our understanding of brain function.
- Explore the inferential gap in consciousness research, particularly concerning non-human animals and artificial intelligence.
- Develop the ability to design and critique experiments aimed at studying different aspects of consciousness.
- Gain insight into the ethical problems related to the study of consciousness e.g., how do we infer that someone or something is conscious and what kind of moral status do we assign to those entities?
The seminar will be graded.
- Kursleiter/in: Lucía Andrea Melloni Buljevic