SISSA Colloquium: Consciousness and our place in nature

[Infopoint]

Double appointment at SISSA with Giulio Tononi, well-renown 
neuroscientist and psychiatrist of the University of Wisconsin, on the 
origin of consciousness and the use of Integrated information theory 
(IIT) as an attempt to explain it in a principled manner. On Wednesday 
15 May at 4 pm in the School’s Main Lecture Hall, Tononi will give the 
first of this year’s SISSA /Colloquia/, entitled “/Consciousness and our 
place in nature/”. It will be followed on Thursday 16 May by the 
workshop “/Integrated Information Theory: A principled approach to 
understanding what consciousness is and what it takes to have it/“.

What is consciousness, and what is its neural substrate in the brain? 
Why are certain parts of the brain important for consciousness, but not 
others that have even more brain cells and are just as complicated? Why 
does consciousness fade with dreamless sleep even though the brain 
remains active? Does consciousness always fade when patients become 
unresponsive after brain damage, during generalized seizures, during 
general anesthesia, or even in deep sleep? And are newborns, animals, 
and intelligent computers conscious? Integrated information theory (IIT) 
is an attempt to answer these and other questions in a principled 
manner. IIT starts not from the brain, but from consciousness itself - 
the world of experience – and derives from it what it takes for a system 
to be conscious. The results of this exploration account for many 
empirical findings, generate counterintuitive predictions, and have 
already led to the development of promising new tests for the practical 
assessment of consciousness in non-communicative subjects. They also 
spur a reassessment of our own place in nature.

Tononi will go into more details during the workshop that will take 
place on Thursday 16 May from 10 am to 1 pm  in room 004 (TBC). More 
specifically Tononi will: i) introduce the basic notions of the 
integrated information theory (IIT) and discuss the theory’s axioms and 
postulates with the audience; ii) evaluate how IIT can be employed to 
account for the quality of experience, beginning with the phenomenology 
of space; iii) introduce measures of integrated information that can be 
applied to empirical data and discuss how they can be applied to 
evaluate the level of consciousness in wake, sleep, anesthesia, and 
disorders of consciousness; iv) discuss the problem of assessing the 
presence of consciousness in animals and machines, and how IIT can 
provide a principled approach; v) demonstrate how integrated information 
grows in animals adapting to a complex environment, thereby shedding 
light on the evolution of consciousness; vi) consider the explanatory, 
predictive, and inferential power of IIT; and vii) consider potential 
problems and future developments.


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Chiara Saviane
Media Relations and Communications Unit
SISSA - Trieste
T: +39 0403787230
M: +39 3337675962
SISSA.IT <http://SISSA.IT>

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