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EventsCalendar | Colloquia | Lunch Series | Sponsored Seminars | Summer Workshops | Conferences & Symposia Upcoming EventsPlease check back in August for a complete list of CMBC fall programming.
Past EventsSPRING SEMESTER, 2012Thursday, February 2, 2012 SlowLooking: What Visual Art Tells Us about Selective Attention Barbara Maria Stafford, PhD What role might research into the long conscious look play in launching new kinds of art/science collaborations? In this talk, I want to reflect on an increasingly fragile capacity in the modern world: willed or conscious attention. How do we get self-organizing views of agency, for example, as largely a matter of nonconscious and intrinsic processes, together with selectional or focusing modes of attention? I believe this question to be as fundamental as the problem of the neural correlates of consciousness, and not unrelated to it. The answer requires not just drawing on evidence coming from language but, significantly, from the workings of images. Why do we even need to be aware that we are paying attention? In the anesthetized territory of daily life—littered with solipsistic cell phones, plug-in, sensory filtering and smoothing devices, why exploit the slashes, cracks, and gaps in our autopoietic neural systems? These are the same background systems being targeted by zombie electronic media as well as by the chemical pharmacopia wielded by a “tailored” personalized medicine.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 "We Speak with the Left Hemisphere": The Story of Paul Broca’s Discovery that Changed Our Understanding of the Human Brain. Lauren Harris, PhD In 1865, Paul Broca declared “We speak with the left hemisphere.” It would become one of the most important declarations in the history of the neurosciences because it signalled a fundamental change in our understanding of the human brain. The story, or at least small parts of it, is routinely told in books and articles in neuropsychology, neurology, history of psychology, and, increasingly, textbooks in general psychology and brain and behavior, and the terms “Broca’s area,” “Broca’s region,” and “Broca’s aphasia” are among the best known eponyms in medicine and the brain sciences. Many of these accounts, however, are, more or less, pro forma, skipping over some important parts of the story and, in my view, mischaracterizing certain other parts. In this talk, I want to go more deeply into the historical record because the actual story is more interesting (and less straightforward) than the one usually told. I’ll begin with a brief account of Broca’s early life and education and of what led him to study the brain. I’ll then describe the events leading to his discovery of left-hemisphere specialization for speech and discuss how he handled exceptions and how he proposed to explain cerebral lateralization. Finally, have Broca’s hypotheses about localization and lateralization of function proven to be correct? In the last part of my talk, I’ll briefly summarize recent theory and research.
Thursday, February 23, 2012 In Search of the Creative Brain: Frederic Chopin and George Sand Evelyne Ender, PhD This lecture focuses on the intersection between aesthetics and neuroscience, and draws on research for my book-in-progress, The Graphological Impulse. Relying on “documents” of creative work, textual and musical, that emerged in an unusually productive summer Chopin and Sand spent in the countryside, I present, in a first part, an analysis of the emergence of two artworks in a blend of phenomenological and formal perspectives. The archive I use is, crucially, that of handwritten materials, which enable us to trace a creative process. The simultaneous emergence of two masterpieces of composition in related genres (music and lyrical prose) begs the question of the role played by the environment in this creative process. Capitalizing on the “ecological” explanations current in creativity studies (explanations derived from neuroscience), I offer suggestions as to how recent scientific research on synaesthesia or on unconscious processes, as well as models of brain plasticity, might help us analyze these exceptional creative experiences. Meanwhile, if these can be recast in terms of mind-brain/body, then the question arises of how a material, embodied practice of creation driven by a hand that applies pen to paper participates and intervenes in the short-of-miraculous production of two masterpieces of modern art. Co-sponsored by the Pyschoanalytic Studies Program Colloquium Series.
Friday, February 24, 2012 Handwriting: The Brain, the Hand, the Eye, the Ear Evelyne Ender, PhD This lunch session will address the course of Dr. Ender’s engagement with the concept of graphology, bridging some of the topics of her Thursday lecture to focus specifically on implications of the emergent transition from hand-written, manuscript technologies to digital modes of writing and archival expression. This talk will survey several approaches to this transition in contemporary empirical research with the goal of opening up productive new possibilities for encounters between humanistic and scientific perspectives. Co-sponsored by the Hightower Fund, the Department of French and Italian, The Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry, the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the Department of Art History, the Department of Comparative Literature, the Department of English, the Program in Linguistics, the Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 The Continuing Enigma of Left-Handedness Clare Porac, PhD Left-handers are a minority in all human populations. For this reason, the existence of left hand preference has simultaneously fascinated and puzzled researchers. This talk will focus on the ongoing enigmas of left hand preference that remain elusive such as the relationship between left preference and pathology, family resemblances and differences in the side of hand preference, and studies of hand preference across cultures.
Thursday, March 1, 2012 Narrative: Films and Texts Salman Rushdie How does one transform a literary narrative into film? What is the difference between writing for a narrative text and writing for a film? How might the author invoke scene, place, character and other elements differently depending on the medium? This discussion session will highlight Dr. Rushdie's expertise in narrative and how it functions in a variety of forms.
Thursday, March 8, 2012 Metaphors and the Mind Laura Otis, PhD Krish Sathian, MD, PhD Emory's Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture and the Laney Graduate School’s New Thinkers, New Leaders program will present a one-day symposium: "Metaphors and the Mind." Held in conjunction with Laura Otis’s and Krish Sathian’s graduate course, “Images, Metaphors, and the Brain,” this symposium will bring together three innovative writers (Jim Grimsley --Creative Writing, Emory University; Salman Rushdie -- University Distinguished Professor, Emory University; and Joseph Skibell -- Creative Writing, Emory University) with three leading neuroscientists who do cutting-edge research on language (Anjan Chatterjee -- Neurology, University of Pennsylvania; Seana Coulson -- Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego; and David Kemmerer -- Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and Psychological Sciences, Purdue University). The authors will read from their works and offer insights into the creative processes underlying literary writing, exchanging ideas with the scientists, who will present recent findings on the relevant brain mechanisms. Emory faculty, students, staff, and community members are invited to attend and participate in the discussion. The symposium will take place from 9-5 in the Cox Hall Ballroom and is free of charge. Co-sponsored by the Program in Linguistics. Supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
Monday, March 19, 2012 Blending the Disciplines: Rhetoric and the Social Sciences James J. Murphy, Department of Rhetoric, University of California, Davis Moderated by Elizabeth Goodstein, The Graduate Institute for the Liberal Arts, Emory University. Find Answers to your Rhetorical Questions: One-on-One with James Murphy and Peter Mack What Is the Use of Rhetoric? Ask the Experts Co-sponsored by the Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry; the Hightower Fund of Emory College; the Departments of Art History, Classics, Comparative Literature, English, and Sociology; and the Graduate Institute for the Liberal Arts.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 Are Humans the Only Linguistic Species? Harold Gouzoules, PhD Humans have language, which is a form of communication. Other animals have communication, but not language. This is usually how the debate about the uniqueness of our "language instinct" is summarized. But then there are apes that have learned symbolic communication, honey bees with dance language, and other possible exceptions. So, how unique is human language? Two experts of primate behavior debate the issue.
Thursday, March 29, 2012 Post-Doc Mixer Please join the Directors of the CMBC and your fellow PostDocs for a social event. Meet and foster connections with your fellow PostDocs, build community, and learn how being a part of the CMBC can help you do all of the above! Beer, wine, and snacks will be served.
Thursday, March 29, 2012 Tourette Syndrome: Then and Now Linda M. Isbell, PhD Once thought to be a rare and bizarre disorder, Tourette
syndrome is now frequently diagnosed. Over the past Co-sponsored by the Nat C. Robertson Distinguished Lecture Fund and the Program in Science and Society.
Monday, April 9, 2012 Aging and Post-reproductive Life in a Traditional World: Behavior, Physiology and Theory Hillard Kaplan, PhD This talk begins by reviewing the demography of extant hunter-gatherers and forager-horticulturalists, showing the relative uniformity in the length of post-reproductive life in such small-scale societies. It then delves into the details of the aging process among Tsimane forager-horticulturalists, with respect to both behavior and physiology. The talk will present data on time allocation, productivity and resource transfers, as a function of age, sex and family composition. Those data show that Tsimane men and women remain net producers until about age 70, the modal age at death for traditional populations, with significant downward transfers to descendants. They also show that men and women adjust their time use as they age, adapting to physical decline. We will also consider changes in functional abilities, cardiovascular health, and immune function with age. Vascular disease is rare. Immunosenescence, along with functional declines, appears to be the major driver in the increasing risk of mortality with age. The lecture concludes with a discussion of the theory of human lifespan evolution, and important new directions for research. Co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 Lifelong Bilingualism: Linguistic Costs, Cognitive Benefits, and Long-term Consequences Ellen Bialystock, PhD A growing body of research using both behavioral and neuroimaging data points to a significant effect of bilingualism on cognitive outcomes across the lifespan. The main finding is evidence for the enhancement of executive control at all stages in the lifespan, with the most dramatic results being maintained cognitive performance in elderly adults, and protection against the onset of dementia. A more complex picture emerges when the cognitive advantages of bilingualism are considered together with the costs to linguistic processing. I will review evidence for both these outcomes and propose a framework for understanding the mechanism that could lead to these positive and negative consequences of bilingualism. Co-sponsored by the Emory College Language Center.
Thursday, April 12, 2012 Bondo: A Journey into Kono Womanhood Disputing Myths of Sexual Dysfunction in Circumcised Women Campus-wide screening of Sunju Ahmadu’s film, "Bondo: A Journey into Kono Womanhood," followed by a lecture by Fuambai Ahmadu about female genital cutting. Sponsored by the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts, Department of Women’s Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Institute of African Studies, Department of Psychology, Department of English, Department of Film Studies, Department of Sociology, the Graduate Division of Religion, Center for Faculty Development & Excellence, the Center for Ethics, and the Nat C. Robertson Fund for Science and Society.
April 23, 2012 The Zany Science Sianne Ngai, PhD Dr. Ngai is known for her innovative work in affect theory, which she makes speak to critical issues in African-American studies, feminism, queer theory, media studies, and aesthetics. Ugly Feelings—her first book—broke new ground by drawing attention to the "minor emotions," like irritation or boredom, in modernist texts ranging from Nella Larsen to Martin Heidegger. Ngai asks how attention to these critically ignored feelings might shake up our understanding of aesthetic values and their relation to social resistance. Ngai is also the author of more than twelve scholarly articles and a forthcoming book, Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, and Interesting, which further her thinking on the intersections of affect, aesthetics, and modernity, while extending her study over a wide range of canonical and marginal texts of the twentieth century. Co-sponsored by the Kemp Malone Committee of the Department of English.
FALL SEMESTER, 2011Thursday, September 22, 2011 What Is Language? Susan Tamasi (Linguistics, Emory University)
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 Building Cognition: Conceptual Innovation on the Frontiers of Science Nancy J. Nersessian, PhD Scientific thinking is one of the most sophisticated achievements of human creativity. I have been arguing that scientists extend their natural cognitive capabilities through creating In this talk I will focus on one, highly significant dimension of creative scientific thinking:
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 Cultural and Neuroscientific Perspectives on Emotion Jocelyne Bachevalier (Psychology, Emory University)
Thursday, October 20, 2011 Is There A Selective Advantage for Left-Handedness? Howard I. Kushner, PhD This presentation examines explanations for the existence of human handedness. Homo sapiens have been 90% right-handed since the Upper Paleolithic. In fact, recent investigations have found “no difference” between the frequency of left-handers 10,000 years ago and contemporary French students. Indeed, other recent studies have concluded that Neanderthalshad been normally right or rarely left-handed since theUpper Pleistocene. Non-human mammals are handed and/or pawed, but none are lateralized in the same way as humans. Typically, like mice, most are right or left pawed 50/50. Among primates only humans demonstrate asymmetrical or lateralized language. While non-human primates show a preference for one hand or the other, in none is one hand dominant in the majority of the species. Yet, for most of human history, including in much of the planet today, the use of the left hand for writing, tool use, eating, and hygiene, has been the focus of distain and discrimination. Moreover, since the 19th century researchers have connected left-handedness with an array of disorders including autoimmune diseases, psychiatric disorders, mental retardation, and learning disabilities. In addition, recent studies have reported that left-handers on average died nine to ten years younger than right-handers. Although these findings are controversial, the connection between left-handedness and developmental disorders and mental illness remains very much alive in current investigations. Despite disagreement about what might constitute the most persuasive genetic model, the vast majority of current researchers assume that human handedness is an inherited trait. Given its seeming lack of fitness, the obvious question arises why does left-handers exist at all? In the presentation I will examine, in historical perspective, explanations for the persistence of left-handedness.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 How Statistics Teaches You to Ask the Right Questions (and Sound Smart While You're at It) Susan A. Nolan, PhD Are you taking statistics because it’s required for your degree? Have you wondered if you’ll ever use your statistical skills after you graduate? Does statistics sometimes seem impractical? Are you mystified as to your professors’ enthusiasm about statistics?
And many more. You, too, can become enthusiastic about statistics and look smart (without having to carry around outdated accessories)!
Co-sponsored by the Social and Beharioral Sciences Research Center.
Thursday, October 27, 2011 Eye of the Beholder: Gender and Perceptions of Mentoring in Science Education Globally Susan A. Nolan, Ph.D. Much research attests to the importance of mentoring to career achievement in general (e.g., Bozionelos, 2004; Singh et al., 2009), with further research documenting a pronounced gender disparity in mentoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields (e.g., Nolan, Buckner, Marzabadi, & Kuck, 2008; Preston, 2004). Social cognitive career theory (SCCT; e.g., Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) offers a model for understanding how environmental and personal factors interact to limit opportunities for women in STEM fields, and provides suggestions for intervention. According to our research (e.g., Nolan, Buckner, Marzabadi, & Kuck, 2008) based on SCCT, simply the perception of obstacles, including a lack of mentoring, can constrain career-related decisions and the pursuit of career goals. Our research also suggests that best practices in reducing the gender disparity in STEM must include a focus on increasing access to informal and formal mentoring – whether in person or through e-mentoring (e.g., Headlam-Wells, Gosland, & Craig, 20006) – and a concurrent focus on increasing awareness of the availability of such mentoring. Moreover, it is incumbent on female and male scientists in the western world to reach out to their colleagues in the developing world, where mentors and role models for women are even scarcer and the need for STEM expertise more pronounced. Both at home and abroad, technology offers important tools for creating opportunities, and increasing the availability of mentors, for women pursuing training and careers in STEM (e.g., Huyer & Hafkin, 2007). Co-sponsored by the Departments of Chemistry and Women’s Studies Thursday, November 3, 2011 Humans and Other Animals: A Modern Darwinian Understanding of "Man's Place in Nature” Todd Preuss The history of life reflects the interaction between the mechanisms of heredity, conservative forces that promote the unity of life, and the mechanisms of evolutionary change, which promote the diversity of life. Since the beginning of scientific biology, scientists have had to deal with the tension between these forces, and how they have done so is reflected in their views of the place of humans in the natural world. Darwin and his contemporaries emphasized unity, continuity, and progress, with the result that humans were viewed as merely the most refined or improved version of a basic plan shared by hundreds of primate species. From this point of view, claims of uniqueness for humans—and in particular, of the human brain and mind—sound like special pleading. Recent years have witnessed important changes in scientists' interpretations of the history of life: more emphasis is now being placed on diversity and discontinuity, and each species is understood to be the product of a (partly) unique evolutionary history. Also, the idea that evolution is fundamentally about progress has largely been abandoned. From this point of view, humans are no better (biologically speaking) than any other species. However, acknowledging the unique evolutionary history of all species opens the door to the possibility that different species—including the human species— have evolved unique characteristics. Modern claims about human neural and cognitive specializations will be considered in this light.
Friday, November 4, 2011 Toward Second-Person Neuroscience Leonhard Schilbach My research areas of interest are social neuroscience and psychiatry. More specifically, I am interested in how human beings understand and make sense of each other. Here, my research is based on the assumption that social cognition is fundamentally different when we are engaged with others, in interaction with them (‘online‘ social cognition), rather than merely observing them (‘offline‘ social cognition). In particular, I am interested in exploring the ways in which social interaction and interpersonal coordination can be motivating and rewarding and how this interacts with other aspects of cognition and processes of self-regulation. Adopting this second-person approach to other minds and exploring it empirically by using functional neuroimaging and interactive eyetracking holds promise to allow new insights into the neurobiological correlates of real-time social interaction, which may also be relevant for our understanding of psychiatric (and other) disorders. Co-sponsored by the Department of Psychology. Friday, November 11, 2011 The Allure of Forbidden Food and Insights from Mindfulness Esther K. Papies The pursuit of long-term health goals, such as dieting for weight loss, is difficult in an environment full of attractive temptations, such as tasty, high-calorie food. In this talk, I will show how attractive food cues can trigger a hedonic motivation to eat, especially in dieters, but also how their impact can be reduced to facilitate successful self-regulation. First, a series of studies analyzes the cognitive effects of attractive food cues, which may underlie the self-regulatory failures of dieters. Then, field experiments demonstrate how self-regulation can be enhanced by priming the dieting goal in tempting situations, so that the hedonic motivation triggered by attractive food is not translated into behavior. Finally, recent work suggests that self-regulation can effectively be enhanced by preventing the initial activation of the hedonic impulses towards food. Building on insights from contemplative science, we introduce a brief mindfulness procedure which helps participants to observe their reactions to attractive food cues as transient mental events, rather than experiencing them as subjectively real events in the moment. A series of studies shows that this procedure prevents spontaneous impulses towards food temptations, reduces preferences for attractive food, and decreases experienced food cravings. Together, these studies are informative as to the nonconscious processes that can lead to self-regulatory failures in “tempting” environments. Integrating insights from different traditions suggests novel ways to counter these effects. Co-sponsored by the Department of Psychology and the Emory Collaborative for Contemplative Studies (ECCS). Spring Semester, 2011Friday, February 11 "The Weirdest People in the World," Join us in a conversation about the findings, arguments, implications, and relevance for behavioral research here at Emory. Please email CMBC to receive an electronic copy of the material to be discussed. WEIRD stands for "Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic" --five key characteristics of the pool of research participants that comprise the majority of empirical evidence regarding human behavior. In this broadly read and discussed article (WEIRD was one of the New York Times' 2010 words of the year), Henrich et al. make the argument that not only is there considerably more variability in the range of human behaviors than studies of any single population could capture, but that the typical American undergraduates to whom the WEIRD acronym refers are actually quite atypical and constitute outliers across a whole host of behavioral domains ranging from perception to reasoning to self-concepts. We believe some consideration of the arguments and evidence, the published commentaries in reaction, and the implications for research here at Emory is timely and important. We hope you will join us. The article, commentaries, and author response are attached. Wednesday, February 16 Tuesday, February 22 Zombies in Hollywood are the animated dead but philosophers have been talking for centuries about zombies in a different sense – the idea that we are all simply soulless machines. Is it inevitable that we’re all just zombies?? Come hear Dr. Neill and Dr. Goldenbaum debate this issue and draw your own conclusions! Wednesday, March 23 Abstract:The human capacity for cultural learning is highly advantageous but susceptible to misinformation, requiring that epistemic trust be balanced with epistemic vigilance (Sperber et al. 2010). Reasoning is vital for maintaining epistemic vigilance towards content of information and requires that truth be an explicit norm (Mercier & Sperber in press). Attention to credibility enhancing displays (CREDs), on the other hand, is a mechanism for epistemic vigilance towards the source of information (Henrich 2009). Because they focus on different aspects of a message, reasoning and attention to CREDs can lead to conflicting conclusions. Wednesday, March 30 Friday, April 1 Abstract: Tuesday, April 19 May 25-27, 2011 Workshop Description: This workshop is co-sponsored by the Laney Graduate School New Thinkers/New Leaders Fund. Maps to Campus, Parking, Transportation and Local Accomodations:Campus Map and Parking:Please go to http://map.emory.edu/ Visitor parking is available in both the Fishburne Parking Deck and Peavine visitor's lot. Transportation: Atlanta is a hub for both Delta Airlines and Airtran Airways. Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is located approximately 30 minutes by taxi from the Emory University campus. Public transportation can also be utilized through MARTA by taking a train from the airport to Lindbergh Station and then transferring to either the #6 or the #245 (Blue Flyer) bus to reach the Emory Campus or Conference Center. Hotel accommodations: The Emory Conference Center (404-712-6000). The Emory Inn (404-712-6000). The University Inn (1-800-654-8591).
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