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Georgina Torbet Cognitive Neuroscience Approaches to Freudian Repression This presentation will discuss the methods through which the empirical sciences may investigate psychoanalytic constructs, focusing particularly on repression. While repression is a well-known clinical phenomenon, it lacks a robust evidence base and is difficult to reconcile with current knowledge of experimental psychology. We have attempted to frame repression in terms of mechanisms which are well understood in cognitive neuroscience, in order to investigate this subject experimentally and to gather empirical data on it. We have built upon experiments in directed forgetting, in which people intentionally forget material which they had previously learned when instructed to do so. We have replicated this well-known effect, and expanded the paradigm to include cues given in a non-conscious way. Through innovative use of subliminal stimuli, we have attempted to demonstrate that unconscious cues can effect memory and induce forgetting. Some preliminary results will be presented, and implications for the empirical study of psychoanalytic phenomena will be discussed. Joachim Lipski The Role of Neuroscientific Findings in Ascribing Intentional States The role of intentional terminology in neuroscientific contexts, one of the most crucial links between philosophy and the neurosciences, is still lacking a proper theoretical foundation. Available proposals range from a simple identification of intentional statements with corresponding neurological statements, to a more-or-less strictly causally moderated relationship, to denying the neurosciences the use of such terminology at all. Subscribing to any of these views will have a significant bearing on the role that neuroscientific findings play in the potential ascription of intentional properties, and the fact that these views are competing has led to many a controversial debate. Personally, I suggest that many of these proposals, while being mutually exclusive in their elaborated forms, have put forward valuable points which can be constructively integrated into a theory of translation between neuroscientific terms, insofar as they pertain to intentional phenomena, and intentional terms, such as they are being used in analytic philosophy. 14
Judy Ng Neuroscience and Morality Where does morality originate? Is it only a social construct or is it hardwired into the functionings of the human brain? Through observation of many patients with different brain damage over the decades and their resulting abnormal moral judgments, neuroscientists have deduced possible links between neuroanatomy and moral judgment. In addition, fMRI studies have shown an association between brain areas that are involved in emotional processing and aspects of moral cognition, while other patient studies have suggested that deficits in moral behavior and cognition are associated with emotional dysfunction. Many of these studies utilize test stimuli that range from morally relevant statements and pictures to complex moral scenarios and dilemmas. Taken together, recent studies suggest that morally relevant stimuli may provoke an emotional response that may influence moral judgment, but the driving force of the judgment itself remains to be investigated. Roland Nigbur Building Blocks in Human Decision Making and Cognitive Control Human decision making is based on manifold neuro-cognitive processes that allow goaldirected predictions of the environmental context but also enable flexible adjustments to monitor perceptual selection or behavioral adaptation. In so-called conflict paradigms participants have to react to ambiguous information that sometimes induces competing activations in the brain. Here, cognitive control is needed to amplify the brain activity to perform the task at hand correctly. In my studies I investigated how these control functions can be tracked via electrophysiological brain activity (EEG). Several approaches have tried to identify the neural building blocks of executive control functions. The medial frontal cortex (MFC) is thought to detect conflicts and recruit additional resources from other brain areas including the lateral prefrontal cortices (LPFC). Together with additional task relevant areas in the brain such as motor or perceptual systems a network for implementing control functions is assumed. I will present data from experiments using different conflict paradigms that will demonstrate how event-related potentials (ERPs) can help to shed light on the cognitive architecture of our brain. Furthermore I will show how spectral decomposition of the EEG signal delivers information about the interaction of different brain areas. In a last step I will refer to current research investigating the role of emotion and motivation in decision making and cognitive control functions. 15
Page 1: ISSUES IN PHILOSOPHY AND NEUROSCIEN
Page 4 and 5: PANEL 1: CONSCIOUSNESS I Program Mo
Page 6 and 7: Wedesday, April 19 th PANEL 6: WILL
Page 8 and 9: Armin Bahl Smarter than One Might T
Page 10 and 11: Bianca van Kemenade Multisensory In
Page 12 and 13: David Kaufmann Neuroscientific Rese
Page 16 and 17: Ryszard Auksztulewicz Recurrent Neu
Page 18 and 19: Smadar Ovadia-Caro Reduction of Int
Page 20 and 21: Berlin Faculty List of participants

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