The Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience was recently established at the University of Waterloo. The Centre is a growing research initiative of the University. The Centre consists of several labs focused on various areas of theoretical neuroscience (aka computational neuroscience). At present, the Centre consists of faculty members from Applied Mathematics, Biology, Psychology, Engineering, Philosophy, Statistics, Computer Science, and their students. The Centre has established a unique Graduate Program in theoretical neuroscience and hosts a regular academic colloquium series. The Centre also hosts the annual public Waterloo Brain Day lectures.
News
Dreams, Jokes, and Songs. New Book on Consciousness by Paul Thagard
Founding CTN member Philosopher Paul Thagard has a new book out: Dreams, Jokes and Songs: How Brains Build Consciousness.
The book provides:
- Clear and empirically supported explanation of consciousness as resulting from four brain mechanisms.
- Application to a broad range of conscious experiences including smell, hunger, loneliness, self-awareness, religious experience, sports performance, and romantic chemistry.
- Use of these mechanisms to generate novel theories of dreaming, humor, and musical experience.
- Proposal of a new theory of time consciousness drawing on recent advances in neuroscience.
- Assessment of consciousness in non-human animals and machines, including the new generative AI models such as ChatGPT.
- Development of a new solution to the mind-body problem, called coherent materialism.
And in a preview of coming attractions, stay tuned for his next book AI Boom or Doom? Philosophy and Psychology of the New Artificial Intelligence, to be published soon by MIT Press
For more information you can follow this link to Paul´s blog.
Brain Day 2025 Profiled in Imprint
Sarah An, Editoral Assistant at the Imprint recently reported on the CTN Brain Day 2025:
https://uwimprint.ca/brain-day-exploring-all-things-brain-through-an-interdisciplinary-lens/
Thought Process Podcast Interviews several CTN members.
Thought Process a podcast by UWloo alumnus Jack MacKinnon features conversations with CTN members:
Brain Day 2023 Videos On-line
The videos from Brain Day 2023 are now available on line at our youtube channel. Hope you enjoy.
CTN Masters Student Graduate Sugandha Sharma Appears on Generally Intelligent Podcast
Sugandha Sharma, masters student graduate of the University of Waterloo's CTN, discusses her research and time in the laboratory of CTN Founding Director Chris Eliasmith as well as her current PhD research at MIT on the Generally Intelligent Podcast. Give it a listen.
Sue Ann Campbell Presents at International Conference on Mathematical Neurosci 2022
Sue Ann Campbell (Applied Math/CTN core member) recently presented "Modulation of Synchronization by a Slowly Varying Current" in July 2022 at the International Conference on Mathematical Neuroscience; Watch it on YouTube
CTN Research Day 2023 Oct 17 16:30 - 19:00 QNC 0101
The Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience will be hosting its second Research Day. This will be a chance to start the new academic year by getting re-acquainted with each other and the diversity of research conducted by CTN core and affiliate faculty. The format will be to have a number of CTN faculty share short overviews of their lab's and projects (16:30-17:30) and then, following a short coffee break (17:30-18:00), hear from a dozen current graduate students and post-docs giving short three minute talks on an aspect of their current research (18:00-19:00).
Bots and Beasts. New book by CTN Founding Member Paul Thagard
Paul Thagard, philosopher, cognitive scientist, Killam prize winner, and founding CTN member has a new book out: Bots and Beasts.
