Consciousness at the edge of chaos
Over the last 20 years, neuroimaging and electrophysiology techniques have become central to understanding the mechanisms that accompany loss and recovery of consciousness. Much of this research is performed in the context of healthy individuals with neurotypical brain dynamics. Yet, a true understanding of how consciousness emerges from the joint action of neurons has to account for how severely pathological brains, often showing phenotypes typical of unconsciousness, can nonetheless generate a subjective viewpoint. In this presentation, I will start from the context of Disorders of Consciousness and will discuss recent work aimed at finding generalizable signatures of consciousness that are reliable across a spectrum of brain electrophysiological phenotypes focusing in particular on the notion of edge-of-chaos criticality.
Peripersonal space (PPS) as a primary interface for self-environment interactions
Peripersonal space (PPS) defines the portion of space where interactions between our body and the external environment more likely occur. There is no physical boundary defining the PPS with respect to the extrapersonal space, but PPS is continuously constructed by a dedicated neural system integrating external stimuli and tactile stimuli on the body, as a function of their potential interaction. This mechanism represents a primary interface between the individual and the environment. In this talk, I will present most recent evidence and highlight the current debate about the neural and computational mechanisms of PPS, its main functions and properties. I will discuss novel data showing how PPS dynamically shapes to optimize body-environment interactions. I will describe a novel electrophysiological paradigm to study and measure PPS, and show how this has been used to search for a basic marker of potentials of self-environment interaction in newborns and patients with disorders of consciousness. Finally, I will discuss how PPS is also involved in, and in turn shaped by, social interactions. Under these acceptances, I will discuss how PPS plays a key role in self-consciousness.