Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science

Was a privilege and a pleasure to spend time with the truly inspirational writers, artists; and editors - from ages 12 to 18 - of kidspirit 2019. Theirs is a mission to believe in.

Reality Is Not What It Seems – and Neither Are You!

New paper on decomposing integrated information. Consciousness, and integrated information, are multi-dimensional! https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.02297

Beyond integrated information: A taxonomy of information dynamics phenomena Most information dynamics and statistical causal analysis frameworks rely on the common intuition that causal interactions are intrinsically pairwise -- every 'cause' variable has an associated 'effect' variable, so that a 'causal arrow' can be drawn between them. However, analyses that depict inter...

New commentary on Integrated Information Theory, by Adam Barrett and Pedro Antonio Martínez Mediano - "The Phi Measure of Integrated Information is not Well-Defined for General Physical Systems" https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/imp/jcs/2019/00000026/f0020001/art00002 #

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New paper: "Measuring Integrated Information: Comparison of Candidate Measures in
Theory and Simulation"https://arxiv.org/pdf/1806.09373.pdf

arxiv.org

Where I think we're at with scientific theories of consciousness. https://theconversation.com/why-we-need-to-figure-out-a-theory-of-consciousness-93146

Why we need to figure out a theory of consciousness Consciousness final frontier of science?

Our latest paper on consciousness and complexity, this one analysing depth electrode data from sleeping patients. https://academic.oup.com/nc/article/doi/10.1093/nc/niw022/2957408/Global-and-local-complexity-of-intracranial-EEG

Global and local complexity of intracranial EEG decreases during NREM sleep | Neuroscience of Consciousness | Oxford Academic

Spiked Online's interview with Prof Anil Seth, on what neuroscience can, and can't, tell us about consciousness
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-material-soul/17970 #.VrI_E2NxOO1

The material soul Anil Seth explores what neuroscience can – and can’t – tell us about consciousness.

Adam Barrett: My comment on Tononi & Koch's recent paper on the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness
http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/371/1687/20140198

A comment on Tononi & Koch (2015) ‘Consciousness: here, there and everywhere?’ It is a beautiful idea that consciousness could in some sense be identified with intrinsic integrated information, and it is fascinating to contemplate a theory of consciousness that has the potential to explain the relationship between physical structure and conscious phenomenology [1]. However, st…

Want to do a Ph.D. on the cognitive neuroscience of consciousness? Opportunities for Autumn 2016 entry are now up on our website!

Postgraduate Study : Research : Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science : University of Sussex Studying at the Sackler Centre involves registering for a degree at one of the participating schools (Informatics, Psychology, or BSMS). There is also now a dedicated Sackler Centre Ph.D. programme, jointly supported by the Centre with participating schools. Taking an M.Sc degree at Sussex is an exc…

Our new paper on consciousness and complexity! Congratulations to my student Michael Schartner for all the hard work

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0133532

Complexity of Multi-Dimensional Spontaneous EEG Decreases during Propofol Induced General... Emerging neural theories of consciousness suggest a correlation between a specific type of neural dynamical complexity and the level of consciousness: When awake and aware, causal interactions between brain regions are both integrated (all regions are to a certain extent connected) and differentiate…

Our substitutional reality kit featured on BBC Radio 4's Inside Science this week (skip to 21:15 for Sackler Centre and Anil Seth)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05nd4yv

Invasive Species, Coral Seaview Survey, Evolution of the Brain, A New Virtual Reality, BBC... Should people embrace the changes resulting from invasive alien species?

Explore interoception with Sackler neuroscientists at British Science Week: Dr Cass Gould & Dr Charlotte Rae will be speaking at 'Rhythms of the Heart', an interactive workshop on the interplay between heart, emotion and rhythms. Come along and hear about our recent discoveries on how heart rhythm influences our thoughts, feelings and behaviours - and try out our experiments first-hand! Friday 20th & Saturday 21st March, The Proud Archivist, London
http://www.theproudarchivist.co.uk/event/rhythms-of-the-heart/

Rhythms of The Heart - The Proud Archivist BOOK HERE. Rhythms of The Heart – Presented by ‘Jugular:Joining The Head and The Heart’ “SCIENCE” “ART” “PERFORMANCE” “PHILOSOPHY” “Inspired by everyday life and informed by specialist research, we invite you to celebrate both your emotions and intellect through performance spanning theatre, music,…

Colour fluctuations in grapheme-colour synaesthesia: The effect of clinical and non-clinical... Kay, C. L., Carmichael, D. A., Ruffell, H. E. and Simner, J. (2014), Colour fluctuations in grapheme-colour synaesthesia: The effect of clinical and non-clinical mood changes. British Journal of Psychology. doi: 10.1111/bjop.12102

Adam Barrett: New paper laying out my stance on the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness (and a possible new theoretical direction)
http://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00063/abstract

An integration of Integrated Information Theory with fundamental physics To truly eliminate Cartesian ghosts from the science of consciousness, we must describe consciousness as an aspect of the physical. Integrated Information Theory states that consciousness arises from intrinsic information generated by dynamical systems; however existing formulations of this theory a...

Sackler Centre features as the single case study for research excellence in the Sussex University strategic plan for 2013-2018!

Research and knowledge exchange : Our strategy : About us : University of Sussex Bringing together arts and sciences, Professor of Art History, Liz James, and an international group of archaeologists, art historians and glass scientists, are re-evaluating the technology behind the construction of Byzantine mosaics.

Sussex press release about our new Physical Review Letters paper: "Scientists identify a mathematical 'crystal ball' that may predict calamities". http://www.sussex.ac.uk/newsandevents/?id=21757

Original paper title: "Information flow in a kinetic Ising model peaks in the disorded phase". (see http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v111/i17/e177203).

Such is the art of the press release. But indeed we are exploring applications to financial time series as well as to epileptic seiziure prediction - watch this space! And well done Lionel Barnett for another major achievement.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 177203 (2013): Information Flow in a Kinetic Ising Model Peaks in the... Lionel Barnett1,*, Joseph T. Lizier2,†, Michael Harré3,‡, Anil K. Seth1,§, and Terry Bossomaier4,**1Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, School of Informatics, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QJ, United Kingdom2CSIRO Computational Informatics, P.O. Box 76, Epping, New South Wales 1710, Aust...

Potentially transformative breakthrough in medication for depression, reported today.

Ketamine-like drug lifts depression without the trip - health - 15 October 2013 - New Scientist The first randomised placebo-controlled trial of a ketamine-like drug finds it may work in treating depression, without ketamine's tough side effects

from Anil: new 'opinion' article in Trends in Cognitive Sciences on 'interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self'.

http://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613%2813%2900211-8

from Anil: my tuppence on the whole rat-brain-heart-attach near-death-experience kerfuffle. In today's Guardian.

Near-death experiences: the brain's last hurrah Anil Seth: A new study suggests such phenomena are caused by a surge of brain activity – and shows death is a process, not an event

PhD position available with Hugo Critchley and Anil Seth, at the Sackler Centre. All about integrating virtual/augmented reality with psychophysiology. Project title is "Integration of cardiovascular rhythms within virtual environments". Its part of a large ERC grant to Hugo. Would suit comp-sci / engineer with interest/experience in consciousness and cognitive neuroscience. Closing date is July 12 with expected start this Oct, but there is flexibility. Speaking of VR, we now have the Oculus Rift at the Sackler Centre, which is (apparently) damn fine.

Find A PhD Project: Integration of cardiovascular rhythms within virtual environments at... Apply for a PhD: Integration of cardiovascular rhythms within virtual environments at Post-graduate Research; Brighton & Sussex Medical School

Sacklre Centre research a feature article in Sussex Uni's 2013 research review, released last week at the Royal Society

Deciphering consciousness : Research review 2013 : ... : University of Sussex In the new and rapidly expanding field of the science of consciousness, the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science is fulfilling its remit to bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers from basic and clinical science and to develop an integrated approach to collaborative and cutting-...

Sarah Garfinkel and Hugo Critchley's work - on cardiac timing influences on fear perception - highlighted at the British Neuroscience Association!

Studies find heart can affect how we feel fear Fear may be felt in the heart as well as the head, according to a study that has found a link between the cycles of a beating heart and the likelihood of someone taking fright.

One step closer to a dream machine? (from Anil)

Neural Decoding of Visual Imagery During Sleep Visual imagery during sleep has long been a topic of persistent speculation, but its private nature has hampered objective analysis. Here, we present a neural decoding approach in which machine learning models predict the contents of visual imagery during the sleep onset period given measured brain…

New J Neuro M**h paper by Rothen, Seth, Witzel, and Ward on an improved method for diagnosing grapheme-colour synaesthesia - software toolbox on the way! http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23458658

Diagnosing Synaesthesia with Online Colou... [J Neurosci M**hods. 2013] - PubMed - NCBI PubMed comprises more than 22 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.

ZombieLab in New Scientist! Featuring the zombie protest that invaded Sackler Centre talks.

CultureLab: Zombies take over the museum If a friend was secretly a zombie, would you know? Believe it or not, the living dead feature in several thought experiments that explore the neuroscience of consciousness. Imagine an intelligent being that could react to its environment and plan for the future, yet lacked conscious self-awareness.…

ZombieLab on the beeb!

The science behind zombies The Science Museum in London is holding a number of events which explore the science of consciousness through the example of a zombie outbreak.

Video trailer for the Science Museum Zombie-Consciousness-Fest this Weds (Lates, from 7pm) and at the weekend. Lots of Sackler stuff going on!

ZombieLab at the Science Museum London ZombieLab explores the science of consciousness after a zombie outbreak. How can we know if zombies are conscious of their actions? What do you need to under...

Sackler Centre researchers will be at the Science Museum on Jan 30 & Feb 2-3 as part of their exploration of all things consciousness science. The theme is zombie.

Zombie Lab - Visit us - Science Museum In the unlikely event a zombie outbreak, would your response be ‘kill’ or ‘cure’? What can science and technology tell us about the inner workings of a zombie’s consciousness to help us answer this question?