Consciousness at the edge – A Cambridge Neuroscience Panel Discussion

When are we conscious? Every night we fall asleep. In deep sleep we are unaware of our surroundings, we experience nothing. We do not exist for ourselves. But what about when we dream? A world comes alive – a strange magical world – sometimes more vivid than when we are awake. Are we conscious?

The newborn infant spends most of its time asleep. In fetal and early neonatal life the infant is in an ‘active sleep’, moving its limbs, making facial grimaces. The brain is literally wiring up at this time. Is the baby dreaming? Is the baby conscious? At what point in development does consciousness arise?

Following severe brain injury a patient is described as ‘unconscious’. Yet measurements of brain activity can tell a different story. What is this internal world like for someone unable to communicate?

This panel discussion brings together neuroscientists, clinicians and philosophers to explore the edge of consciousness – at the start of life, during sleep and following acute brain injury. What can we learn about the human condition through exploring these conditions?

Join our expert interdisciplinary panel, facilitated by Cambridge Neuroscience Strategic Manager, Dervila Glynn.

Topun Austin is a Consultant Neonatologist in Cambridge whose main research interests are in brain development and injury in the newborn, using novel monitoring and imaging technologies and their translation into routine clinical care as well as ways of assessing early infant behaviour and functional brain connectivity.

Virginia Newcombe is an Intensive Care Medicine and Emergency Physician and a Clinician Scientist in the Department of Medicine. She is interested in the use of imaging as a biomarker in traumatic brain injury and how acute management influences the long-term outcomes of patients.

Tristan Bekinschtein is the Professor of Consciousness and Cognition at the Department of Psychology, and is interested in non-classic approaches to study the physiology and cognition of consciousness

Stephanie Brown is a Senior Research Associate based in the Department of Psychiatry who is interested in studying the degenerative brain changes in people with Down’s syndrome using sophisticated brain scanning techniques.

Tom McClelland is a teaching associate in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, whose research covers a range of overlapping topics in philosophy of cognitive science, metaphysics, aesthetics and applied ethics.