MBB 2010 Distinguished Lecture Series
Harvard University - April 20, 21, 22; 4 to 6 pm
Yenching Auditorium, 2 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA
- Tuesday, April 20, 4 to 6 pm
Building the Parallel Distributed Brain, How Do We Know?
From Hebb, Lashley, and Sperry, and through modern research, the basics of brain organization are reviewed at both the cellular and neurological level, including a personal history of split-brain research that all lead up to the view of a parallel and distributed brain.
Post-talk commentary by Professor Albert Galaburda (Neurology / HMS) - Wednesday, April 21, 4 to 6 pm
Automatic Brains, Interpretive Minds
With a massively parallel and distributed and automatic brain, how is it we believe we experience a unified conscious life? How does the sense of psychological unity become established and how does it work in the brain?
Post-talk commentary by Professor Güven Güzeldere (Philosophy / FAS) - Thursday, April 22, 4 to 6 pm
Feeling Free in a Mechanistic World: Where the Brain Meets the Law
The idea of determinism and mechanism rings out from every quarter of science and society. What does this mean for the concept of personal responsibility and how might ideas on the issue impact our ideas of justice and the law?
Post-talk commentary by Professor Joshua Greene (Psychology / FAS)
Please join us on the above dates for a series of conversations with Michael Gazzaniga, Professor of Psychology and Director of the SAGE Center for the Study of Mind at the University of California Santa Barbara. Dr. Gazzaniga oversees an extensive and broad research program investigating how the brain enables the mind. Over the course of several decades, a major focus of his research has been an extensive study of patients who have undergone split-brain surgery, which has revealed lateralization of functions across the cerebral hemispheres. In addition to his position in Santa Barbara, Professor Gazzaniga is also Director of the Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience, President of the Cognitive Neuroscience Institute, and Director of the MacArthur Law and Neuroscience Project. There is an overarching theme to this series, but the talks are intended to be somewhat independent, so if you do happen to miss one, you will still be able to attend and enjoy the others. Of course, we hope you will be able to join us for all three!
All talks are hosted by MBB Co-Directors Alfonso Caramazza and Marc Hauser.
They are free and open to the public.