Study Group in Neuroscience is created at IEA's Ribeirão Preto Center

The creation of the Reflections on Contemporary Neuroscience Study Group, the first of IEA’s Ribeirão Preto Center, was approved by the Board at its meeting on August 9. The coordinator of the initiative is the neurophysiologist Norberto Garcia Cairasco, professor of the Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto (FMRP), USP.

The group will discuss the functions and dysfunctions of the brain from an integrated and transdisciplinary point of view. Brain-related aspects which underlay the analysis of various fields of knowledge will be taken into account, as well as philosophical concepts and characteristics of human behavior, including: art history, history of science, consciousness, free will, morality, violence and decision making. Edward O. Wilson, Francis Click, Thomas S. Kuhn, Denis Noble, Semir Zeki and Anne Fadiman are some of the authors whose approaches will serve as a reference for discussions.

Some of the activities have already been defined by the group: to contribute to the realization of the international symposium NEWroscience 2013 - Epilepsies: Complexity and Comorbidities, to be held in September (18-21) at FMRP, to organize roundtables on controversial issues related to contemporary neuroscience in order to continue the series of events on the topic held in 2012 and 2013, and to contribute to the dissemination of the ‘3ª Semana Nacional Cérebro’ (3rd National Brain Week), scheduled for March 2014.