Consciousness has many elements, from sensory experiences such as
vision, audition, and bodily sensation, to nonsensory aspects such as
volition, emotion, memory, and thought. The apparent unity of these
elements is striking: all are presented to us as experiences of a
single subject, and all seem to be contained within a unified field of
experience. But this apparent unity raises many questions. How do
diverse systems in the brain co-operate to produce a unified
experience? Are there conditions under which this unity breaks down?
And is conscious experience really unified at all?
In recent years, these questions have been addressed by researchers in
many fields. Neurophysiologists and computational modelers have
investigated the mechanisms by which binding and integration of
disparate information may take place in the brain, producing a unified
experience. Neuropsychological research has documented a large
variety of dissociation disorders in which damage to specific brain
regions leads to dissociated experiences, suggesting the apparent
disintegration of a unified subject. Cognitive psychologists have
investigated the role of attention and learning in the integration of
information, and have examined conditions under which perception and
action, or subjective experience and behavior, can become dissociated.
Some cognitive modelers have suggested that unity is a mere illusion,
while others have emphasized the role of a central unifying system in
integrating sensory and motor experience. And philosophers have analyzed
just what the unity of consciousness comes to, and whether we have
reason to believe that it exists.
The fourth ASSC conference will bring together researchers from
numerous disciplines to discuss these issues. Topics that will be
addressed include:
- the role of synchronous oscillations in binding and integration
- other neurophysiological mechanisms for integration of information
- computational models of binding, integration, and unity
- neuropsychological disorders with dissociation of experience
- the role of attention and learning in unification of experience
- dissociations between perception, thought, and action
- implicit vs. explicit aspects of knowledge and learning
- dissociations between perceptual systems
- the relationship between information integration and unified experience
- analysis of the concept of unity
- unification of consciousness and self across time
- the existence or nonexistence of unified consciousness
CALL FOR PAPERS
While the central theme of ASSC4 is "the unity of consciousness", and
plenary sessions will deal largely with this theme, speakers in concurrent
sessions are invited to talk on any topic relevant to the scientific study
of consciousness.
Submissions that include physiological, psychological, philosophical,
and computational perspectives are all welcome.
Submissions for both posters and talks will be accepted.
Any person may present only one submission, but may be co-author on several.
Oral presentations will be limited to 20 minutes, to be followed by
a 10-minute discussion period.
Plenary lectures, symposia, concurrent sessions, and poster sessions will
all be held on the Solbosch campus of the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
