Tucson Conference: Towards a science of consciousness

The program is set for the biennial Tucson conference ‘Toward a Science of Consciousness’, April 8-12, 2008. Held in even-numbered years since 1994, the Tucson conferences are the pre-eminent world gatherings on all approaches to the profound and fundamental question of how the brain produces conscious experience, a question which addresses who we are, the nature of reality and our place in the universe.

An estimated 800 attendees from 6 continents will participate in 400 presentations included in 21 Pre-Conference Workshops, 12 Plenary sessions, 21 Concurrent Talk sessions, 2 Poster Sessions and, for the first time, an interactive Art and Technology of Consciousness Exhibit.

Plenary Session Overview:

Is Attention Necessary for Consciousness?

Can we be conscious of objects to which we are not paying attention? Neuroscientists Stanislas Dehaene and Christof Koch and philosopher Michael Tye discuss ‘top-down’ (frontal to posterior cortex) brain attentional mechanisms and their relation to consciousness. If attention doesn’t cause consciousness, what does?

Libet, Intentionality and the Timing of Conscious Experience

Does consciousness play a role in action, or does it just tag along for the ride? A panel of experts discuss recent evidence pertaining to Benjamin Libet’s pioneering work on the backward time referral of conscious experience, intention and free will.

Keynote: Spreading the Joy? Why Consciousness is Still in the Head

IIs consciousness all in the head, or might the minimal physical substrate for some forms of conscious experience include goings on in the (rest of the) body and the world? Such a view might be dubbed (by analogy with Clark and Chalmers work on 'the extended mind') 'the extended conscious mind'. In this talk I review a variety of arguments for the extended conscious mind, and find them all flawed. Philosopher Andy Clark will show why arguments for extended cognition do not generalize to arguments for an extended conscious mind.

Consciousness and the Three Bears

What would a proper theory of consciousness look like? Philosopher Andy Clark suggests that qualitative perceptual experience (consciousness) occurs within the brain in a zombie-free zone of just the right amount of access to internal information processing.

Sex and Consciousness

How can we understand the special sort of consciousness present during sexual experience and orgasm? Neuroscientist Barry Komisaruk discusses functional brain imaging during female orgasm, and author Jennifer Wade describes transcendental sexual mental states. A panel surveys sexual experience, Tantric sex and altered sexual states.

Is Consciousness Local or Global?

Cognitive neuroscientists Bernard Baars, Rafael Malach and Naotsugu Tsuchiya debate whether consciousness requires global, distributed brain activity, or can occur locally, restricted to more specific brain regions. What specific type of neuronal activity corresponds with consciousness?

Keynote: Consciousness and Gamma Synchrony EEG

Pioneer neuroscientist Wolf Singer describes how synchronized electrical activity in the beta and gamma EEG ranges are distributed throughout wide regions of brain, and represent the best measurable correlate of consciousness. How is synchrony mediated globally? How does it relate to consciousness?

Introspection and the Richness of Consciousness

Is conscious experience rich in detail and meaning, or sketchy and minimalist? Can we answer this question from the inside? Philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel asks whether there is consciousness outside attention, philosopher Susanna Siegel discusses whether perceptual consciousnesss includes high-level meaning, and psychologist Chris Heavey addresses whether we have unsymbolized conscious thought.

Sub-Neural and Quantum Approaches to Consciousness

Is quantum coherence necessary for consciousness? Is it feasible in the warm brain? Biophysicist Gustav Bernroider and physician Stuart Hameroff discuss neuronal brain behaviors which seem to demand quantum coherence, the question of decoherence at brain temperature, and the neuronal functional organization required for consciousness.

Brain Imaging as Mind Reading Technology

Neuroscientists Frank Tong, Adrian Owen and Daniel Langleben discuss use of functional brain imaging to determine specific content of conscious perceptions, presence of consciousness in comatose patients, and whether or not a subject is lying or telling the truth. Can technological mind-reading be reliable? What are the ethical considerations?

Anomalies of Consciousness

Does extra-sensory perception actually occur? Rupert Sheldrake will present his controversial evidence for non-local perceptions (e.g. ‘the sense of being stared at’) as a product of evolution. A panel of critical discussants will evaluate his claims.

Consciousness and Psychedelic Drugs

What can we learn about consciousness from altered states? Biologist Tom Ray discusses discusses the chemical basis of the entire space of altered states. Psychologist Frank Echenhofer reports on experiences with the shamanic psychedelic brew ayahuasca in the Amazon, including artistic accounts of mental imagery and measurements of gamma synchrony EEG.

Development of Consciousness

Are babies more conscious than adults? Psychologist Alison Gopnik suggests babies are more conscious, but less focused, than adults. Do babies lack ‘top-down’ attentional mechanisms? Psychologist Phil Zelazo discusses how consciousness correlates with embryonic, childhood and adolescent development. Sarah Akhter will present beeper studies of the first-person perspective on development of consciousness during adolescence.

Pre-Conference Workshops

Globalist theories (Baars), Mathematical physics (Freeman etc), Social brain (Craik, Whitehead), East/West consciousness (Droege, Maitra), Quantum mechanisms (Bernroider, Sheehan, Hameroff), Philosophical theories (Kriegel), Vision (Martinez-Conde, Macknik), Libet, time and action (Sinnott-Armstrong, Nadel etc.), Lucid dreaming (LaBerge), Neurological disturbances (Feinberg), Julian Jaynes (McVeigh, Kuijsten), Panpsychism (Skrbina, Deiss), Ayahuasca (Echenhofer), Transformations (Schlitz, Vieten), Inner experience (Hurlburt, Schwitzgebel), Higher states and orgasm (Ormos), Attention and consciousness (Koch, Tsuchiya), How do you feel? (Craig), Unity of consciousness (Bayne)

Concurrent Sessions (5 speakers per session)

Materialism/Dualism, Phenomenology of Thought, Emotion/Theory of Mind, Vision, Psychopathology and Therapy, Time, Social Approaches, Panpsychism, Contents of Consciousness, CNCC, Neurobiological Models, Altered States, Consciousness and Julian Jaynes, Art and Literature, Theories of Consciousness, Concepts of Consciousness, Action/Embodiment,Unconscious States, Physics, Evolution of Consciousness, Technology