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APPROACH TO CONSCIOUSNESS ASPECTS
Exploring consciousness is a complex and intricate task. We want to design innovative and creative paradigms to investigate this issue by combining behavioral, physiological and theoretical approaches.
Keywords: consciousness, neuroengineering, integrated information theory, virtual reality, philosophy
Consciousness is one of the most trivial arguments on which scientist and philosophers have always argued.
A famous theory regarding this issue is the integrated information theory (IIT), which claims that consciousness is integrated information, and that its quality arises from the informational relationships generated by a complex of elements. The axioms of IIT state that every experience is structured, specific, unitary and definite.
Being conscious means that an individual is having an experience: we know we are conscious because we know “what it is like” to see an image, feel an emotion, hear a sound and think a thought inside our own body1, and this experience is strictly subjective. The self is experienced as distinct from other human individuals and the environment. Cognitive neuroscience has started clarifying some of the cognitive and neural mechanisms of specific aspects of consciousness and self-processing such as agency2, ownership3, perspective-taking4, self-other distinction and spatial unity between self and body. Today, consciousness is considered as a complex phenomenon arising from the combination of different mental states in different contexts.
Studying the underlying mechanisms of some of these aspects and their relationship can take us one step closer to better understanding how consciousness works.
In an out-of body experience (OBE), the experient has the impression that consciousness and the awareness center is located outside the physical body, and feels a temporary separation from his own body.
Disrupting one of the characteristics of a conscious experience (i.e., knowing that we are experiencing in our own body), opens the possibility to see how this aspect influences behavioral outcomes and whether this detachment has influences on subjects’ performances.
Together with a theoretical approach based on IIT, we want to design paradigms able to give us information regarding behavioral aspects of subjects who are in altered state of consciousness: how do people with induced OBE integrate informations from different sensory modalities? How do people with induced OBE react to subliminal stimuli?
Consciousness is one of the most trivial arguments on which scientist and philosophers have always argued. A famous theory regarding this issue is the integrated information theory (IIT), which claims that consciousness is integrated information, and that its quality arises from the informational relationships generated by a complex of elements. The axioms of IIT state that every experience is structured, specific, unitary and definite.
Being conscious means that an individual is having an experience: we know we are conscious because we know “what it is like” to see an image, feel an emotion, hear a sound and think a thought inside our own body1, and this experience is strictly subjective. The self is experienced as distinct from other human individuals and the environment. Cognitive neuroscience has started clarifying some of the cognitive and neural mechanisms of specific aspects of consciousness and self-processing such as agency2, ownership3, perspective-taking4, self-other distinction and spatial unity between self and body. Today, consciousness is considered as a complex phenomenon arising from the combination of different mental states in different contexts.
Studying the underlying mechanisms of some of these aspects and their relationship can take us one step closer to better understanding how consciousness works. In an out-of body experience (OBE), the experient has the impression that consciousness and the awareness center is located outside the physical body, and feels a temporary separation from his own body.
Disrupting one of the characteristics of a conscious experience (i.e., knowing that we are experiencing in our own body), opens the possibility to see how this aspect influences behavioral outcomes and whether this detachment has influences on subjects’ performances.
Together with a theoretical approach based on IIT, we want to design paradigms able to give us information regarding behavioral aspects of subjects who are in altered state of consciousness: how do people with induced OBE integrate informations from different sensory modalities? How do people with induced OBE react to subliminal stimuli?
The goal of this project is to design experimental paradigms and analyze the obtained results.
The major targets for the students will be:
1- Experimental design
2- Implementation of VR environments
3- Data analysis
**Reccomandable skills
**
- Coding either C, Matlab, Python
- Familiar to VR
**Time effort required
**
Master project full time; in case of a high specific expertise also a smaller time effort is accepted
**Timeline**
Month 1 Literature and state of the art
Month 2-3-4 Experimental design and programming
Month 5 Testing and analyses
Month 6 Thesis writing
**References:**
1. Koch, C., Massimini, M., Boly, M. & Tononi, G. Neural correlates of consciousness: Progress and problems. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 17, 307–321 (2016).
2. Farrer, C. & Frith, C. D. Experiencing oneself vs another person as being the cause of an action: The neural correlates of the experience of agency. Neuroimage 15, 596–603 (2002).
3. Gallagher, S. Philosophical conceptions of the self: Implications for cognitive science. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4, 14–21 (2000).
4. Vogeley, K. & Fink, G. R. Neural correlates of the first-person-perspective. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7, 38–42 (2003).
The goal of this project is to design experimental paradigms and analyze the obtained results. The major targets for the students will be:
1- Experimental design
2- Implementation of VR environments
3- Data analysis
**Reccomandable skills ** - Coding either C, Matlab, Python
- Familiar to VR
**Time effort required ** Master project full time; in case of a high specific expertise also a smaller time effort is accepted
**Timeline**
Month 1 Literature and state of the art
Month 2-3-4 Experimental design and programming
Month 5 Testing and analyses
Month 6 Thesis writing
**References:** 1. Koch, C., Massimini, M., Boly, M. & Tononi, G. Neural correlates of consciousness: Progress and problems. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 17, 307–321 (2016).
2. Farrer, C. & Frith, C. D. Experiencing oneself vs another person as being the cause of an action: The neural correlates of the experience of agency. Neuroimage 15, 596–603 (2002).
3. Gallagher, S. Philosophical conceptions of the self: Implications for cognitive science. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4, 14–21 (2000).
4. Vogeley, K. & Fink, G. R. Neural correlates of the first-person-perspective. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7, 38–42 (2003).
Dr. Stanisa Raspopovic, Assistant Professor Neuroengineering laboratory, Head ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Email: nesta.fale@gmail.com
Greta Preatoni, PhD Student at Neuroengineering laboratory, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Email: greta.preatoni@hest.ethz.ch
Michele Marazzi, PhD Student at Neuroengineering laboratory, Email: michele.marazzi@hest.ethz.ch
Dr. Stanisa Raspopovic, Assistant Professor Neuroengineering laboratory, Head ETH Zurich, Switzerland Email: nesta.fale@gmail.com
Greta Preatoni, PhD Student at Neuroengineering laboratory, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Email: greta.preatoni@hest.ethz.ch
Michele Marazzi, PhD Student at Neuroengineering laboratory, Email: michele.marazzi@hest.ethz.ch