Consciousness & Reality (C&R) 2025-26 Series NEUROBIOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF VISUAL AWARENESS

Wednesday, Apr 29th, 10 a.m. Pacific Time
Online-only event. Zoom link:
https://zoom.us/j/99505485799?pwd=fYOUh2gCTEuDgP8JlEq3ey2dvTr9Ip.1

BIYU HE
Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience & Radiology
New York University Medical Center

Despite a long tradition of vision science and consciousness science, there is no consensus on how subjective visual perception is generated by the brain. In this talk, I will discuss recent findings from my lab elucidating neurobiological mechanisms underlying visual awareness in humans. Our experiments reveal important, hitherto under-recognized roles of constantly ongoing spontaneous activity and prior knowledge learnt from one-shot or lifelong experiences, and shed new light on top-down feedback's functional role in generating conscious perception. Finally, I will touch on an intriguing functional specialization of brain activity with different frequency-domain signatures and the broader implication of these findings on understanding other aspects of conscious awareness.

ABOUT THE EVENT
This lecture will be accessible to an interdisciplinary audience. Members from all divisions of the participating institutes and universities (Caltech, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford, UA, UCB and IMICS) are welcome to join. Select questions from the Q&A window will be answered after the lecture.

ABOUT THE SERIES
The Consciousness & Reality colloquium series promotes interdisciplinary investigations on mind, cognition, consciousness, and the nature of reality. Recordings of previous C&R colloquia can be found on the Caltech and IMICS YouTube channels and on www.imics.org/seminars.