Conference: Neural Mechanisms of Conscious Awareness in Humans

New York University Medical Center, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

NSF Conference Award: PI – Dr. Biyu He, New York University Title: Neural Mechanisms of Conscious Awareness in Humans The nature and basis of conscious awareness in humans is one of the oldest and deepest mysteries in philosophy and science. We go to sleep every night and enter an unconscious state and then wake up every morning and return to consciousness. How does consciousness arise? The origin of conscious awareness is a question that has puzzled philosophers for thousands of years. How does brain activity give rise to consciousness? Recent insights from neuroscientists into the nature and neural basis of consciousness have arisen thanks to the rapid development of new behavioral paradigms, neuroimaging techniques to measure brain activity, and both descriptive and quantitative theories. The field of consciousness science, exploring the neural basis and correlates of consciousness, has seen explosive growth over the past three decades and this relatively young scientific discipline promises to have an enormous potential impact on neuroscience, medicine, society, and technology. The Workshop on the Neurobiology of Consciousness is jointly funded with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and be held on the main NIH campus in June, 2023. Talks will be live-streamed as a Webinar for a broad audience of interested scientists and the public. The Workshop will facilitate in-depth discussion between scientific experts working in divergent fields whose integration is essential to understanding the neurobiology of consciousness. Key goals of the Workshop are to synthesize the current state of knowledge about consciousness, discuss and design experiments to critically test existing theories of consciousness, define the most exciting new approaches to advance the field, and develop a roadmap for future discoveries in the science of consciousness. A special issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience will be devoted to publication of conference presentations. In addition to established scientific investigators, the Workshop will also include postdoctoral trainees and early investigators to participate in this high-profile workshop. Trainee fellowships to cover travel expenses will be preferentially given to women and under-represented minorities in order to enhance diversity in the field of consciousness research. The Workshop will also include an educational program that will provide a pre-Workshop introduction to the field of consciousness research to undergraduates from minority serving institutions to further broaden inclusion and diversity and encourage the next generation of consciousness researchers. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.