Mind/Brain/Behavior Sophomore Colloquium

Wednesday, December 13th, 4-6 p.m.
Fong Auditorium (Boylston Hall)

Please RSVP to shawn_harriman@harvard.edu

Have you ever wondered what kinds of problems and issues you could pursue with a concentration or secondary field in the interdisciplinary study of Mind, Brain and Behavior? This year, the Mind/Brain/Behavior (MBB) Interfaculty Initiative inaugurates a program introducing some of these issues and problems to sophomores. One approach to studying how the mind works is to examine what happens when its normal functioning breaks down. In this year's sophomore symposium we will discuss two ways to study mind, brain, and behavior that follow this approach. Professor Don Goff from the Medical School will discuss schizophrenia, and will be accompanied by a schizophrenic patient who will describe what it feels like to have some of the symptoms of schizophrenia. Professor Sean Kelly from Philosophy will discuss how descriptions of experience such as the ones offered by the patient figure in the search for neural correlates of consciousness. This event is a wonderful opportunity to hear about pathologies from a first-person perspective. We hope it will give you a feel for just a few of the many questions you can pursue by concentrating in MBB.

This event is designed for all Sophomores interested in mind/brain/behavior: those currently in tracks, those considering tracks, those considering a secondary field in MBB. Currently, sophomores may study MBB by specializing in honors tracks in several concentrations: anthropology (biological anthropology wing), biology, computer science, history and science, human evolutionary biology, linguistics, neurobiology, philosophy, and psychology. MBB also plans to offer a secondary field for students in any concentration.

We look forward to your joining us!

4p        Introduction
    Professor Susanna Siegel, Philosophy
4:10p        Topics & Speakers
    Schizophrenia
    Professor Don Goff, Harvard Medical School
    Professor Goff will be accompanied by a schizophrenia patient to talk about the condition.
    It's harder than you think to describe what it's like
    Professor Sean Kelly, Philosophy
    Professor Kelly will discuss how, if we want to find the neural correlates of consciousness, we'll have to know what they're the neural correlate of. In other words, we'll have to give a descriptive characterization of our conscious experiences. Descartes thought this kind of thing should be easy to do. That's because on his view we have a special relationship to our own experiences: we are guaranteed that our description of them can't go wrong. But this looks like a bad account of our relationship to our own experiences. Professor Kelly will give some examples to show that certain kinds of fundamental experiences are such that not only are they hard to describe, we are nearly guaranteed to get them wrong.

5:15p        Panel Discussion
    Professor Susanna Siegel, Philosophy
    Professor Edward Kravitz, Harvard Medical School
5:45p        Mind/Brain/Behavior Program Updates
    Professor John Dowling, Neurobiology
    Professor Joshua Sanes, Neurobiology