Keeping the Brain in Mind

We are pleased to announce that the plenary sessions during the Congress 2008 are conceived in collaboration with Kevan Martin who is the Director of the Institute of Neuroinformatics, University of Zürich, Switzerland:

The plenary session for 2008, ‘Keeping the Brain in Mind’ will focus on the most precious gift that our ancestors have bequeathed to us – our brains. Despite enormous advances, how our brains work is one of the major unsolved problems in biology. When we have a scientific understanding of perception, cognition, emotions, and actions, it is certain that this knowledge will completely transform our view of ourselves and our place in the universe. A scientific understanding of how our brains work will rank amongst the greatest of mankind’s achievements – perhaps more significant even than the discoveries of Newton, Darwin, Einstein, and Crick and Watson. The path to this ultimate goal will require a new kind of science – one that incorporates the subjective.

How can we look inside our own brains? The plenary lecturers are going to open the grey box and let us look inside. We know that the nervous system is built of a specialized cell – the neuron –  which connects through synapses to form webs of dazzling complexity and which show an awesome capacity for learning and adaptation, and are the libraries of all we know.

What the plenary lecturers will show us is based on the latest science that explores how we see, feel, move, learn, and how the brain reorganizes itself as it we find ourselves in new circumstances. The lecturers will offer from their own unique viewpoints, a widely interdisciplinary view of the brain. Such breadth is perhaps only properly appreciated with an audience such as that of the Alexander Technique community.

In just 4 sessions the lecturers will take us from the microscopic world of the synapse to the macroscopic world of the brain and body, and beyond to issues of brain plasticity, consciousness, and the society of minds. In these lectures you will catch a glimpse of the most contemporary thinking about the extraordinary ‘organ of thought’ that exists inside your skull. If you want to keep your own brain in mind, queue early for a front row seat, and, if you’re sitting comfortably, we can set off on what will certainly be a brain expanding ride. 

Kevan Martin
Director
Institute of Neuroinformatics
University of Zurich
Switzerland