[SydPhil] Fwd: Cog Science talk, Macquarie - John Dunca, Cambridge, Fri 21st March, 12 noon

[John Sutton]

Enquiries to Alex Woolgar alexandra.woolgar at mq.edu.au

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alexandra Woolgar <alexandra.woolgar at mq.edu.au>
Date: Thu, Mar 13, 2014 at 12:15 PM
Subject: [CCD MQ Staff] [CCD MQ] Prof. John Duncan - Talk Fri 21st March,
12 noon

The Perception in Action Research Centre (PARC) is delighted to be
hosting *Professor
John Duncan* (MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, and
University of Oxford) who is a world authority on brain mechanisms of
attention and cognition. Author of multiple Nature papers and major
theoretical advances, he's also a fantastic speaker! Next Friday, 21st
March, he will be giving the Department of Cognitive Science / CCD seminar
- all welcome.

*Title*: A core brain system in assembly of cognitive episodes

*Date*: Friday 21st March, 12 noon, followed by light refreshments.

*Location*: Level 1 Lecture Theatre, Australian Hearing Hub Building,
Macquarie University

http://www.ccd.edu.au/events/seminars/abstract.php?abstract=445

*Abstract*:
How does the brain create human intelligence?  One insight comes from brain
imaging studies, revealing a distributed neural system, within the frontal
and parietal lobes of the brain, that is active during all kinds of
cognitive challenges, as if providing a general resource for effective
cognition.  Support for this idea comes from strong activity in this
"multiple-demand" or MD system in standard tests of fluid intelligence,
important because success in these tests predicts success in all kinds of
other activities, either in the laboratory or everyday life.  All human
cognition, I argue, is controlled in a series of attentional episodes,
breaking complex problems into simpler, more solvable sub-problems. Based
on behavioural, neuropsychological, brain imaging and single neuron data, I
suggest that the core function of MD cortex is to produce this structure of
attentional episodes, allowing complex cognition to be assembled from
simple components and underpinning the flexiblity and power of human
intelligence.

See you there!
Alex

-- 
Dr. Alexandra Woolgar
ARC DECRA Research Fellow
Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders
Department of Cognitive Science
Macquarie University, NSW 2109
T: +61 (0) 2 9850 2948 (direct line)
E: alexandra.woolgar at mq.edu.au <alexandra.woolgar at mq.edu.au>

-- 
Professor John Sutton
Deputy Head, Department of Cognitive Science
Macquarie University, Sydney,
NSW 2109, Australia
Phone: +61 (0)2 9850 4132
Email: john.sutton at mq.edu.au
URL: http://www.johnsutton.net/
http://www.maccs.mq.edu.au/
http://mq.academia.edu/JohnSutton
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