Dr hab. Michał Wierzchoń, Prof. UJ was elected the Action Vice-Chair of the network project “The Neural Architecture of Consciousness”, an international research consortium funded within the framework of COST - European Cooperation in Science and Technology.
COST grants are funded within the framework of the European Union programme Horizon 2020. They have been awarded since 1971 and are aimed at supporting the creation of large international research teams and assisting the consortia in obtaining additional research grants. COST is committed to promoting research excellence as well as supporting innovation and young researchers. with emphasis put on interdisciplinary studies. The grants can be used to cover the costs of working group meetings, research internships, summer schools, publications, and conferences.
“The Neural Architecture of Consciousness” initiative integrates studies on consciousness conducted in 26 European countries and Japan. The project will take four years to complete. The board of the network will also include Dr Michał Bola from the Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Dr hab. Marek Binder from the JU Institute of Psychology. The working groups of the Consortium will include a research team from the JU Institute of Psychology working within the framework of the Consciousness Lab, headed by Prof. Wierzchoń. The team is currently running 13 research projects devoted to consciousness-related issues, regularly publishing the results in prestigious international journals.
‘Consciousness is an essential feature of human functioning. Yet, we still do not know how it is constructed by our brain. Many different theories of neural basis of consciousness have already been proposed, but the studies have so far only been conducted on small groups, which limits the possible conclusions. In the COST network consortium we would like to develop a complex model of the neural architecture of consciousness (that is, the brain areas involved and connections between them), using both neuroimaging and data acquired during a series of behavioural tasks. The research will be carried out on several hundred people, including persons in good health as well as clinical patients ... The results of our research can be applied, for instance, in the diagnosis of consciousness disorders’, explains Prof. Wierzchoń.
For more information about the COST network, visit: https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA18106/#tabs|Name:management-committee.
Consciousness lab website: http://c-lab.pl
