The overall goal of the Research Group Neural Circuits, Consciousness, and Cognition (NCC) is to accelerate our understanding of how we see (perception), why some experience feels the way it does (consciousness) and how those experiences get imprinted on our brain (learning and memory) – as well as the interplay between these processes.

A deep mystery in science is understanding why living things, such as humans and perhaps other animals are conscious, while machines, despite all their superb abilities and apparent intelligence are not. Why do we experience suffering? Why do we marvel in front of a piece of art, or feel time stopping and have the ‘chills’ when listening to a musical masterpiece? Our group seeks to tackle those challenging questions.

We use multiple methods to get at those questions, ranging from invasive and non-invasive electrophysiology, neuroimaging, and patient studies over behavioral techniques to online surveys and computational modelling. 

We are an interdisciplinary group committed to advancing the scientific ecosystem. We are pursuing a new format of team science which combines open science with adversarial collaboration, and aims at accelerating discoveries by capitalizing on intellectual diversity. We pursue large-scale collaborations, aimed at building a brain observatory, to accelerate discoveries by pooling resources and the best minds, thus making science sustainable by preserving knowledge and minimizing unnecessary efforts. For more information, visit our website at arc-cogitate.com.