Objective
The study of consciousness is considered one of the final frontiers in science. After centuries of introspection, philosophy, and psychology it is thought that neuroscience will now answer the age-old questions like who is conscious, when, and what of. This will take more, however, than the current approach of finding the neural correlate of consciousness (NCC). We need a new science of consciousness. What is the problem? Behaviour is considered the gold standard of consciousness: when someone says he is conscious, he is, and when he says not, he isn t. But it is impossible to reliably gauge the presence or absence of conscious sensations from behaviour. We will always conflate consciousness with cognitive functions enabling the report, such as attention, working memory or language. Finding the NCC is doomed to fail. Instead, arguments from neuroscience should be allowed to reshape the definition of consciousness. Behavioural or introspective ideas may be a starting point, but ultimately, neural arguments should be allowed to overrule behavioural evidence. I will show how a new neuro-behavioural definition of consciousness can dissociate consciousness from cognition, explains key features of conscious experience, and allows us to understand consciousness at a much more fundamental level. Experiments in man and monkey will test essential predictions of the new definition of consciousness, using techniques such as intracortical recording, EEG, fMRI and pharmacological intervention, combined with psychophysics, learning paradigms or manipulations of consciousness. If these confirm the idea, the new definition of consciousness should be adopted. This means we are in for a change. The new definition of consciousness will move our notion of mind towards that of brain. The sacred first person perspective on consciousness has to be given up. What we may gain, however, is a much better science of consciousness.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciences biological sciences neurobiology cognitive neuroscience
- social sciences psychology
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion philosophy
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
ERC-2008-AdG
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Host institution
1012WX Amsterdam
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.