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CFP: Worlding the Brain II

CALL FOR PAPERS, PRESENTATIONS & PERFORMANCES WORLDING THE BRAIN II Affect, Care, Engagement Interdisciplinary conference at the University of Amsterdam November 2-4, 2017 Submission deadline July 1, 2017

Keynote speakers:  Prof. Vittorio Gallese (University of Parma) Prof. Felicity Callard (Durham University) Prof. Alva Noë (University of California, Berkeley)

Following the success of Worlding the Brain 2016, we continue this series of multi-disciplinary encounters of science, art and the humanities with an international conference on the themes of Affect, Care and Engagement in November 2017 in Amsterdam. This event is intended to explore the ‘worlding’ of the brain, i.e. the mutual influence of the extra-cerebral world on the brain and the brain on the world.  Such ‘worldings’ occur when we place the brain in worldly contexts, study its interaction with various environments and reflect upon its entanglements with cultural practices and processes. Based on a recognition of the ‘neuro-turn’ in various disciplines, we aim to extend and deepen the dialogue between the different fields of knowledge in art, humanities and science that investigate and perform such interactions. The themes of affect, care and engagement indicate that the bidirectional interaction between world and brain is never neutral but always mediated by concerns, interests and emotions in different ways. With ‘affect’ we think of both the current political and cultural climate (of anger, fear, resentment and hope) and the prevalence of medical and psychological conditions such as depression and anxiety disorders in society today. With ‘care’ we want to address the caring for the self and others in our daily lives and health care, taking into account the underlying socio-political imperatives of self-fashioning and well-being. With ‘engagement’ we aim to explore both the interconnections between brain, body and our sensory environment and the socio-political implications of these relations for personal and collective agency today. The socio-political, psychological, medical, cultural and discursive dimensions of these topics require an integration of artistic, humanist and cognitive neuroscientific perspectives. With these explorations, this conference intends to foster reflection on the challenges and opportunities for the ‘worlding the brain’ perspective in the current political, social, epistemic situation. Besides our keynote addresses we will host multi-disciplinary panels and invite artists, (cognitive) neuroscientists, health workers and humanities scholars of all kinds to engage in paper presentations, dialogues, performances and artistic work. Our aim is to meet and learn from our different perspectives on the complexity of our embodied, enworlded and affective brains, and start new collaborations. We will convene in the CREA building of the University of Amsterdam and, on the second evening of the conference, for a special evening program at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Presentations can address (but are not limited to) the following topics: Emotions (fear, joy, sadness) in neuroscience, film, literature, art and psychiatry Affective imaginations and simulations Intersubjectivity and synchronicity Empathy and attunement Neuroaesthetics and/of empathy Philosophy and neuroscience of emotions Art and care of the self/the other, affective labor Mirror neurons, theory of mind and intersubjective care The (a)political state of mind Environmental and cognitive interactions Impacts of cognitive and neuro-enhancement technologies We invite proposals for 15 minute presentations, allowing after each presentation a 15 minute discussion. We encourage interdisciplinary co-presentations or pre-constituted interdisciplinary panels. Next to more traditional papers, we encourage other formats for presenting and performing, such as workshops, posters, or open stage meetings; please describe the type of intervention you propose. When submitting a proposal, please include a title; an abstract of ca. 250 words; a short bio (150 words) and a short bibliography that includes three publications that are relevant for your topic. Please send your proposal to worldingthebrain2017@gmail.com. For the latest news on Worlding the Brain 2017 see: www.worldingthebrain2017.com Deadline for proposals: 1 July 2017 Notifications by: 15 July 2017 Conference fee: 150 Euros (fee waivers available to students and artists),  to be paid before 1 August 2017   Information on the keynote speakers: Vittorio Gallese is Professor of Physiology at the University of Parma with appointments in the departments of neuroscience, psychiatry and psychology. His research investigates the brain mechanisms underlying social cognition, in particular empathy and its role in aesthetic experience. Gallese is one of the discoverers of mirror neurons and remains a main contributor to research on this key finding in cognitive neuroscience and to the interpretation of its implications in a variety of domains and disciplines, for example in his recent book, The Birth of Intersubjectivity: Psychodynamics, Neurobiology, and the Self (with Massimo Ammaniti, W.W. Norton, 2014). Professor Gallese also holds an appointment as professor in Experimental Aesthetics at the University of London, where he is researching the neural basis of aesthetic experience. Felicity Callard is Professor in Social Science for Medical Humanities at Durham University, UK. Her research sits at the intersection of the social sciences and the humanities and specifically addresses twentieth- and twenty-first century psychiatry, psychology, psychoanalysis and cognitive neuroscience. She has a strong interest in practices, epistemologies and histories of interdisciplinarity, as manifested in her co-authored, Open Access book, Rethinking Interdisciplinarity across the Social Sciences and Neurosciences (Palgrave, 2015). From October 2014 to December 2016, Callard was Director of Hubbub – the first interdisciplinary residency of the Hub at Wellcome Collection – where she led a team of scientists, artists, humanists, clinicians, public health experts and public engagement professionals, who explored states of rest and its opposites in mental health, cognitive neuroscience, the arts and the everyday. Alva Noë is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is also a member of the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences and the Center for New Media. He works on the nature of mind and human experience, insisting on the embodied nature of cognition and the enactive nature of interactions between body, mind and world. He is the author of Action in Perception (MIT Press, 2004), Out of Our Heads (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2009), Varieties of Presence (Harvard University Press, 2012), and Strange Tools (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015). He has been philosopher-in-residence with The Forsythe Company and has also collaborated with a number of dance artists. Alva Noë is a 2012 recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and a former fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. He is a weekly contributor to National Public Radio’s science blog 13.7: Cosmos and Culture. This conference is organized by the ASCA research group Neuroaesthetics and Neurocultures at the University of Amsterdam. This conference is made possible by grants from and collaboration with: Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis (ASCA), the Amsterdam Centre for Globalization Studies (ACGS), Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC), the Netherlands School for Cultural Analysis (NICA) and the Cutting Edge Research fund by the University of Amsterdam Conference theme design: Anton Weflo and Johanna Ehde

NHS Book Recommendation

Non sappiamo perché e come l’Homo sapiens abbia sviluppato la capacità di costruire storie. Possiamo però ipotizzare come possono essere andate le cose. Cioè come un ominide possa avere sviluppato la facoltà di narrare storie e come queste possano averlo avvantaggiato tra tutte le specie, fino a farne l’indiscusso signore del pianeta. Si tratta dunque di studiare la narrazione, la fiction e la letteratura nel contesto della teoria dell’evoluzione e delle scienze cognitive, prendendo le mosse da recenti acquisizioni dell’archeologia cognitiva che mettono in relazione la produzione di utensili e lo sviluppo di capacità narrative. Si comprende così che la narrazione ha un ruolo decisivo nella costituzione del Sé e delle sue protesi esterne, come da tempo sostengono i teorici della mente estesa e della cognizione incarnata

Michele Cometa insegna Storia comparata delle culture e Cultura visuale nell’Università degli Studi di Palermo. Nelle nostre edizioni ha pubblicato La scrittura delle immagini (2012).

Fourth NeuroHumanities Dialogue 2017 – Space and Time in the Brain

NewHums Research Centre – Neurocognitive and Humanities Studies
International NeuroHumanities Studies Network
Lamberto Puggelli Foundation
University of Catania

Fourth NeuroHumanities Dialogue
Space and Time in the Brain

29 – 30 May 2017

CATANIA – Italy

Following the three NeuroHumanities Dialogues focused on “Neuroaesthetics and Cognitive Poetics” (2014), “Metaphors as source of creative thought” (2015) and “Ars et Ingenium: The Processes of Imagination” (2016), the NewHums Research Centre of the University of Catania is pleased to announce the Fourth Dialogue between neuroscientists and humanists.

The event will take place at the Benedictine Monastery in Catania. The topic of the 2017 Dialogue is: Space and Time in the Brain

Keynote speakers are (in alphabetic order):
Arthur M. Jacobs, Professor of Experimental and Neurocognitive Psychology at the Freie Universität Berlin
Patrick Colm Hogan, Professor of English at the University of Connecticut
Raoul Schrott, Austrian poet, writer and literary critic
Semir Zeki, Professor of Neuroaesthetics at the University College London
Agata Copani, Professor of Farmacology at the University of Catania
Daniela Giordano, Professor of Information-Processing Systems at the University of Catania
Vincenzo Branchina, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Catania

The peculiarity of the meeting relies on its format: a real dialogue between scientists and humanities scholars with plenty of time for discussion and a final roundtable with respondents.

Main focus of this year Dialogue is the investigation of the perception system and cognitive system analysis of Space and Time in the Brain. The way in which we approach to literary texts, work of arts and everything which is shaped and created by our mind involves different mental activities. These also include the elaboration of two great mysteries of human perception: the space, which surrounds us but also includes us, and the time which accompanies us during the act of fruition. Since ancient times philosophers and scientists have been tried to grasp and define space and time, because they are among the basic vital relations of the human being. They build up the framework of our perception, experience and cognition. Their representation can be traced back in the old myths about the origin of mankind, like the Greek personification of time, the God Cronus, and the concept of Kairos intended as the supreme moment.
Epistemology and ontology of space and time and their representation in human cognition have been the focus of attention in both scientific research as well as in philosophy, aesthetics and literature. The ongoing research regards the underlying neural correlates of temporal and spatial processing, the interrelation between processes and representations of time and space, the disturbs in time and space perception, the combination of space and time into an interwoven continuum by applying mathematical models, the developments of Einstein’s theory of relativity, and many further issues related with the spatio-temporal cognition. As in case of the most complex and fascinating features of the human mind-brain, many questions are still unanswered and require a trans-disciplinary approach in order to gain new insights.
During the new NHS Dialogue we intend to approach to the mysteries of Space and Time from the perspectives of disciplines like neuroaesthetics, neurocritics of art, neurophenomenology, neuropsychology, cognitive linguistics, and literary studies.

Further information can be found at the conference website:

http://www.neurohumanitiestudies.eu/NHS2017/

E-READ: Third Call for Short Term Scientific Mission (STMS) Proposal

Deadline: November 1st 2016

Please find three files with the relevant documents for the Call for STSM applications and keep in mind that we have introduced new assessment criteria for our STSMs:

1. Call for STSM Applications
2. Email template for disseminating call for STSM Applications
3. New assessment criteria for the evaluation committee, which has been approved by the MC

Don’t hesitate to contact STSM Manager Massimo Salgaro for further explanations.

New article on the theoretical framework of E-READ

The NHS is partner of the E-READ Evolution of reading in the age of digitalization (COST Action IS1404) project. The goal of this Action is to improve scientific understanding of the implications of texts digitization, hence helping individuals, disciplines, societies and sectors across Europe to cope optimally with the effects. Based on a multidimensional, integrative model of reading, and combining paradigms from experimental sciences with perspectives (e.g., diachronic) from the humanities, the Action will develop new research paradigms, and metrics for assessing the impact of digitization on reading. These metrics enable the development of evidence-based knowledge of paper and screen reading, and provide guidance for practitioners, policy makers, publishers and designers.

Recently an article presenting the theoretical framework of E-READ has been published with Open Access in the journal Literacy. You can download and read the article “The evolution of reading in the age of digitisation: an integrative framework for reading research” by Anne Mangen & Adriaan van der Weel from here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lit.12086/pdf.

Book: CORPS/TEXTE. POUR UNE THÉORIE DE LA LECTURE EMPATHIQUE

CORPS/TEXTE. POUR UNE THÉORIE DE LA LECTURE EMPATHIQUE

Cooper, Danielewski, Frey, Palahniuk

Pierre-Louis Patoine

ENS Éditions

Un livre peut-il faire mal? Plongé dans un texte littéraire, le lecteur fait parfois l’expérience de sensations tactiles, douloureuses, musculaires, viscérales. C’est la «lecture empathique». Mais comment expliquer ce passage du sens au sensori-moteur ? Neuropsychologie, phénoménologie, études culturelles, théories de la fiction et de la littérature sont ici convoquées pour répondre à cette question intrigante, au fil d’un parcours révélant les œuvres de quatre auteurs qui ont marqué la littérature américaine des années 1990 et 2000 (Dennis Cooper, James Frey, Chuck Palahniuk et Mark Z. Danielewski). En mettant l’accent sur l’expérience de la littérature plutôt que sur son interprétation, le modèle développé dans cet ouvrage permet de repenser la question de la valeur artistique en termes de puissance sensorielle et d’immersion, dessinant le projet d’une lecture plus corporelle, d’une lecture empathique.

Can we feel the pain of a character in a novel? Immersed in a fiction, a reader may experience various somatosensory feelings. Such an experience of “empathic reading” is hardly conceivable through theories of interpretation that ignore the role of the biological body. On the contrary, an approach embracing embodied cognition, that weaves together neurology and literature, phenomenology and theories of fiction to discuss the era-defining, turn-of-the-millenium works of American writers Dennis Cooper, James Frey, Chuck Palahniuk and Mark Z. Danielewski, reveals the role of empathy in literary reading. This approach not only elucidates an intriguing phenomenon, it also redefines artistic value in terms of sensory impact and fictional immersion, thus promoting a richly embodied mode of reading, an empathic reading.

Version papier disponible sur: http://www.ens-lyon.fr/editions/catalogue

Version électronique disponible sur OpenEdition books: http://books.openedition.org/enseditions/

CFP: Emotions and Cognition: Philosophy, Psychology, and Neuroscience in Dialogue

RiFP – Rivista internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia

Deadline: September 30, 2016

What is an emotion? What is the relationship between emotion and cognition? How can one best articulate the distinction, if there is one, between cognition and emotion? What is the function of emotion with respect to cognition? And what contribution can neuroscience make to our understanding of emotions and the relationship between cognition and emotion? These are just a few of the key questions addressed by those philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists who investigate emotional experience.

RiFP – Rivista internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia, with the support of SINe – Società italiana di Neuroetica e Filosofia delle Neuroscienze, seeks to promote a broad interdisciplinary discussion on these themes for the first issue in 2017. RIFP and SINe invite all scholars who wish to contribute to this discussion to send original manuscripts on the relationship between emotion and cognition, from a theoretical and/or empirical and/or historical approach. The sub-themes of the present call for papers include, but are not limited to:

(a) work that focuses, including from a historical perspective, on the relationship between emotions and knowledge, by defining the possible differences between, or identity of, emotional experiences and cognitive processes. The relationship

Free online course on Medical Neuroscience – Coursera

https://www.coursera.org/learn/medical-neuroscience

Medical Neuroscience – Duke University | Coursera www.coursera.org

Medical Neuroscience explores the functional organization and neurophysiology of the human central nervous system, while providing a neurobiological framework for understanding human behavior. In this course, you will discover the organization of the neural systems in the brain and spinal cord that mediate sensation, motivate bodily action, and integrate sensorimotor signals with memory, emotion and related faculties of cognition. The overall goal of this course is to provide the foundation for understanding the impairments of sensation, action and cognition that accompany injury, disease or dysfunction in the central nervous system. The course will build upon knowledge acquired through prior studies of cell and molecular biology, general physiology and human anatomy, as we focus primarily on the central nervous system.

This online course is designed to include all of the core concepts in neurophysiology and clinical neuroanatomy that would be presented in most first-year neuroscience courses in schools of medicine. However, there are some topics (e.g., biological psychiatry) and several learning experiences (e.g., hands-on brain dissection) that we provide in the corresponding course offered in the Duke University School of Medicine on campus that we are not attempting to reproduce in Medical Neuroscience online. Nevertheless, our aim is to faithfully present in scope and rigor a medical school caliber course experience.

This course comprises six units of content organized into 12 weeks, with an additional week for a comprehensive final exam:

- Unit 1 Neuroanatomy (weeks 1-2). This unit covers the surface anatomy of the human brain, its internal structure, and the overall organization of sensory and motor systems in the brainstem and spinal cord.

- Unit 2 Neural signaling (weeks 3-4). This unit addresses the fundamental mechanisms of neuronal excitability, signal generation and propagation, synaptic transmission, post synaptic mechanisms of signal integration, and neural plasticity.

- Unit 3 Sensory systems (weeks 5-7). Here, you will learn the overall organization and function of the sensory systems that contribute to our sense of self relative to the world around us: somatic sensory systems, proprioception, vision, audition, and balance senses.

- Unit 4 Motor systems (weeks 8-9). In this unit, we will examine the organization and function of the brain and spinal mechanisms that govern bodily movement.

- Unit 5 Brain Development (week 10). Next, we turn our attention to the neurobiological mechanisms for building the nervous system in embryonic development and in early postnatal life; we will also consider how the brain changes across the lifespan.

- Unit 6 Cognition (weeks 11-12). The course concludes with a survey of the association systems of the cerebral hemispheres, with an emphasis on cortical networks that integrate perception, memory and emotion in organizing behavior and planning for the future; we will also consider brain systems for maintaining homeostasis and regulating brain state.

2nd International Conference Food and Culture in Translation

19 – 21 May 2016
University of Catania

http://www.fact2016.unict.it/ 

Click on the image below to download the programme

Topics

• Blending
• Cognition
• Consciousness
• Critical Thinking
• Embodied Mind
• Emotion
• Empathy
• Enaction
• Metaphor

Disciplines

• Aesthetics
• Anthropology
• Fine Arts
• History and Society
• Linguistics
• Literature
• Phenomenology