ASSOCIATION FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF CONSCIOUSNESS
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4TH ANNUAL MEETING: CALL FOR PAPERS
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THE UNITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS:
BINDING, INTEGRATION, AND DISSOCIATION
Universite Libre de Bruxelles
JUNE 29th - JULY 2nd, 2000: BRUSSELS,BELGIUM
Brussels, November 8, 1999
The fourth meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study
of Consciousness will be held from June 29th to July 2nd,
2000, at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Brussels, Belgium)
on the theme of "The Unity of Consciousness".
Consciousness has many elements, from sensory experiences
such as vision, audition, and bodily sensation, to nonsensory
aspects such as volition, emotion, memory, and thought. The
apparent unity of these elements is striking: all are presented
to us as experiences of a single subject, and all seem to be
contained within a unified field of experience. But this
apparent unity raises many questions. How do diverse systems in
the brain co-operate to produce a unified experience?Are there
conditions under which this unity breaks down? And is conscious
experience really unified at all?
In recent years, these questions have been addressed
by researchers in many fields. Neurophysiologists and
computational modelers have investigated the mechanisms by
which binding and integration of disparate information may take
place in the brain, producing a unified experience.
Neuropsychological research has documented a large variety
of dissociation disorders in which damage to specific
brain regions leads to dissociated experiences, suggesting the
apparent disintegration of a unified subject. Cognitive
psychologists have investigated the role of attention and
learning in the integration of information, and have
examined conditions under which perception and action, or
subjective experience and behavior, can become dissociated.
Some cognitive modelers have suggested that unity is a mere
illusion, while others have emphasized the role of a central
unifying system in integrating sensory and motor experience.
And philosophers have analyzed just what the unity of
consciousness comes to, and whether we have reason to believe
that it exists.
The fourth ASSC conference will bring together
researchers from numerous disciplines to discuss these issues.
Topics that will be addressed include:
- the role of synchronous oscillations in binding and
integration
- other neurophysiological mechanisms for integration
of information
- computational models of binding, integration, and
unity
- neuropsychological disorders with dissociation of
experience
- the role of attention and learning in unification of
experience
- dissociations between perceptual systems
- implicit vs. explicit aspects of knowledge and
learning
- dissociations between perception, thought, and
action
- the relationship between information integration and
unified experience
- analysis of the concept of unity
- unification of consciousness and self across time
- the existence or nonexistence of unified
consciousness
Confirmed plenary speakers include: Rodney Cotterill,
Zoltan Dienes,Andreas Engel, Glyn Humphreys, Susan Hurley,
Pierre Perruchet, Randy O'Reilly, Sydney Shoemaker, Catherine
Tallon-Baudry, Giulio Tononi,Ann Treisman, Andrew Young, and
Semir Zeki.
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CALL FOR PAPERS & POSTERS
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While the central theme of ASSC4 is "The unity of
consciousness", and plenary sessions will deal largely with
this theme, speakers in concurrent sessions are invited to talk
on any topic relevant to the scientific study of consciousness.
Submissions that include physiological, psychological,
philosophical, and computational perspectives are all welcome.
Submissions for both posters and talks will be accepted. Any
person may present only one submission, but may be co-author on
several. Oral presentations will be limited to 20 minutes, to
be followed by a 10-minute discussion period.
Plenary lectures, symposia, concurrent sessions, and
poster sessions will all be held on the Solbosch campus of the
Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
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CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS
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This notice is also intended as a call for workshop
presenters. One of the aims of this meeting is to allow
researchers to gain a background in areas that they may know
little about. Towards that end a number of workshops are
planned. Is there a topic you or perhaps someone in your
laboratory might want to present? Some participants in the
conference would be very interested in learning about technical
matters such as fMRI or other important brain imaging
techniques. Others might enjoy aseminar on a philosophical
topic. If you have recently published a book or major article
on some topic you might want to lead a discussion on
it. As with papers the focus of all workshops should
naturally fit within the overall theme of the conference. A
non-exclusive list of possible topics might include:
-- The latest methods and implications of various
brain scanning techniques (e.g. fMRI, EEG, SQUID, ERP)
-- Blindsight, neglect, or other neuropsychological syndromes
-- Neural network or other theoretical models of
processing in areas related to conscious activity
-- Differences and similarities between conscious and
unconscious processing
-- Current models of the visual system
-- Consciousness and metacognition
-- Criteria for the ascription of consciousness
-- Philosophical issues concerning unity
-- Phenomenological methods for investigating consciousness
-- Please suggest other sample topics, or modify
the above!!
Workshops will be held in parallel sessions on the morning and
afternoon of June 29th. Each workshop is intended to last
approximately three hours. The sizes of workshops will
vary between a minimum of 10 to a maximum of around 25 people.
Workshops that do not achieve the minimum enrollment of 10
people will not be offered.
Workshop presenters will receive a honorarium of 20000
BEF. The cost of attending workshops will be 2000 BEF.
To submit workshop proposals or to suggest further
topics, please write to Patrick Wilken at
<[log in to unmask]>.
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SUBMISSION OF PAPERS, POSTERS & WORKSHOP PROPOSALS
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WORKSHOP PROPOSALS MUST BE RECEIVED BY JANUARY 15th, 2000.
PAPER AND POSTER SUBMISSIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY FEBRUARY 15th,
2000
All submissions must include the following information
in the order listed below:
1. Title.
2. Name, affiliation, and ASSC membership status of
each co-author.
3. An abstract of up to 200 words for paper and poster
submissions and of up to 500 words for workshop proposals.
4. Complete contact information for the author with
whom the scientific programme committee will interact with
about the submission:
- Name
- Institutional affiliation
- Postal address
- Email address
- Telephone and fax numbers
In addition paper and poster proposals should include
the following information:
5. One or two keywords describing the domain of your
contribution
6. An indication of which co-author will present the
paper/poster/workshop at the meeting.
7. An indication of whether the proposal is submitted
as a:
a. Spoken presentation
b. Poster presentation
8. An indication of your willingness to switch
presentation format if your proposal cannot be included in the
programme as per your stated preference.
WORKSHOP PROPOSALS:
1. Please send your proposal to Patrick Wilken
<[log in to unmask]>.
PAPER & POSTER PROPOSALS:
To submit your proposal(s) for inclusion in the
programme, please do one of the following (listed in order of
preference):
1. Send electronic mail to <[log in to unmask]>, with
the words "ASSC4 ABSTRACT SUBMISSION" followed by the last
name of the presenting co-author in the Subject: field of your
message
2. Fill out the electronic submission form available
on this page:
http://www.ulb.ac.be/event/ASSC4/sub/onlinesub.html
3. Fax your proposal to this number: +322 650 33 39.
Make sure the cover page includes the address indicated below.
4. Send a hardcopy of your proposal to:
ASSC4
c/o Axel Cleeremans
Cognitive Science Research Unit
Université Libre de Bruxelles
50 ave. F.-D. Roosevelt CP 122
B-1050 Brussels
BELGIUM
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