Consciousness: from philosophy to neuroscience
 
Seminar organized by Daniel Kiper & Guests

   Fall semester 2024

Location: Y35 F 32

    Schedule: Thursday, 5.15-7.00pm

This course is intended for all students interested in the topic of consciousness and the NCC, i.e. the Neural Correlate of Consciousness.

The course's main language is english, but discussions and questions in german are also possible.

Some, but maybe not all, lectures will be recorded and the podcasts will be posted here. Since the course is supposed to be highly interactive, we strongly encourage

physical attendance.

Requirements:

Most topics will be covered in articles and notes available on this web site, or that will be distributed during the course.

Here is a useful book "Philosophy of mind: a beginner's guide" by I. Ravenscroft that has been cleaned up and is searchable. In German, and in English

Successful completion of the course yields three credits, the final grade will be the average of the best 2 of 3 short quizzes given during the semester.
The first quiz takes place on Oct. 17.

19.9 Intro.
Here are the recordings (my laptop crashed, so it is in two parts, and some might be missing).
Part 1
Part 2

26.9 The search for the NCC, visual experiments
Here are the slides.
Here is the recording.

3.10 Visual exps. (same slides).
Here is the recording.
Here are some of the papers I talked about:
Binocular rivalry in monkeys
Binocular fusion in humans
Binocular rivalry in humans (using fMRI)
Motion induced blindness in humans (fMRI)

10.10 After finishing the visual exps, we will talk about free will...a related and fun topic.
Slides will be posted after the lecture (spoiler avoidance...)
There will be a quiz next week (Oct.17)!!!
Here is today's recording
Unfortunately, the free will discussion was not recorded (I don't understand why...).
Here are the free will slides.

 17.10 Cortical stimulation, patients, etc.
Here is the recording.

24.10 End of patients (same slides).
Here is the recording

31.10 Baar's global workspace
No quiz this week, but there will be one next week.
Here is the recording

7.11 Discussion on Larkum's thought experiment.
Here is the paper.
Here is the recording.
Remember that the next 4 lectures will be given by other people, and the material will be on OLAT, not here...
Have fun!
The last quiz will be on Dec. 12.

12.12 Class cancelled due to illness

19.12 Class cancelled again :-(

Unfortunately my health situation is still problematic. I just got out of hospital but must stay home for several more days.
I couldn't  organize a substitute under these circumstances. There will be thus no class this week, and no quiz.
I will give the final grade based on the 1 or 2 quizzes you did. If you didn't have any, or wish to do the second one, please
contact me after Jan. 6, and we will catch up then.

Very sorry about this, I didn't expect this issue to be that incapacitating...

I thank you for a great semester and wish you happy holidays.