Mind-Brain Lecture: Marcel Brass (Ghent)
Marcel Brass is KOSMOS Scholar 2013-2014
Abstract:
The question of how we can voluntarily control our behaviour and thoughts has always fascinated philosophers and psychologists. At the heart of this question lies the concept of human will. However, human will as a scientific concept has lost its credibility with the onset of behaviourism and only slowly starts to be rediscovered in scientific psychology. Only recently, cognitive neuroscience research on intentional action has begun to discover the brain circuits that are involved in the voluntary control of behaviour. This research revealed a central role of the medial prefrontal cortex in intentional action. I will outline evidence for a heuristic framework that distinguishes different components of intentional action and tries to relate these components to different parts of the medial frontal cortex. Furthermore, I will discuss the reciprocal relationship of bottom-up and top-down factors on intentional control of action.
Professor Marcel Brass, Department of Experimental Psychology and Ghent Institute for Functional and Metabolic Imaging, Ghent University, Belgium
All are welcome! Afterwards relocation to Strandbars Humboldthafen or Mitte to watch the match USA vs. Germany!
