On May 20th, 2021, Andrea Luppi (MSc, PhD Cand.) will discuss his own research on altered states of consciousness and the role of psychedelics in this context.
Abstract: A fundamental challenge of modern neuroscience is to understand how the neurobiology and function of the human brain support conscious experience. The brain is a paradigmatic example of a complex system, and different perturbations of its precise functioning can serve as a path towards loss of consciousness – from widespread neuroanatomical injury associated with disorders of consciousness, to the transient perturbations of neuromodulation that characterise general anaesthesia. Therefore, one approach to understand consciousness is to identify changes in brain function that are common across different changes in conscious state. I will show how mapping a wide spectrum of consciousness onto the spatiotemporal dynamics of brain integration and segregation reveals a generalisable signature of unconsciousness – from anaesthesia to disorders of consciousness. Its mirror-reversed image corresponds to the signature of the psychedelic state induced by ketamine or LSD, identifying meaningful relationships between neurobiology, brain function, and conscious experience. Bringing together brain structure and function, these results reveal that the emergence of consciousness from human brain dynamics follows the same fundamental principles shared by a multitude of physical and biological phenomena.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oHHFZY4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
https://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/directory/profile.php?al857
Location: Online (Zoom address communicated via members email newsletter)
Price: This is a free event for APRA members.
When: Thursday, 20 May 2021 at 18:00 (CET)