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SUMMARY:Consciousness: What in the World is it? - Professor Anil Seth
DTSTART:20141203T210000Z
DTEND:20141203T220000Z
UID:TALK56418@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Patrick Szmucer
DESCRIPTION:Consciousness is\, for each of us\, the presence of a world. W
 ithout consciousness there is no world\, no self: there is nothing at all.
  But we do not know much about the material and biological basis of this m
 ost central feature of our lives. How do rich multisensory experiences\, t
 he senses of self and body\, and volition\, agency\, and ‘will’ emerge
  from the joint activity of billions of neurons locked inside a bony skull
 ? Once reserved within philosophy and theology\, the neuroscience of consc
 iousness has emerged as a one of the great scientific challenges for this 
 century. In this seminar I will sketch the state-of-the-art in the new sci
 ence of consciousness. I will distinguish between conscious level (how con
 scious we are)\, conscious content (what we are conscious of)\, and consci
 ous self (the ‘I’ behind the eyes)\, describing in each case how new e
 xperiments are shedding light on the underlying neural mechanisms\, in nor
 mal life and in neurological and psychiatric conditions. Throughout\, I wi
 ll emphasize phenomenology – the way things seem – as the target for a
 ny satisfying explanation of how the brain\, in conjunction with the body 
 and the environment\, gives rise to and shapes conscious experience.
LOCATION:Nihon Room\, Pembroke College
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