Preparation Meeting on Friday, October 24, 2014 - 2-4 pm, meeting point: Foyer of the Institute of Philosophy, Habelschwerdter Allee 30. All participants should attend this meeting! Sprechstunde nach Vereinbarung: jan.slaby@fu-berlin.de close

A new approach is changing how neuroscientists understand brain organization. Central is the notion of the brain as a network, and the totality of interconnections in this network has been called the connectome. Connectomics is the investigation of brain networks by mapping structural and functional connections between brain regions in large-scale studies, or analysing vast amounts of neuroscientific data with computer models based on graph theory. Among the aims of such studies is the establishment of wiring diagrams for the brains of various model organisms, and eventually, the human brain. The promise of connectomics is not only to provide a new foundational framework for brain organization, but also a better understanding of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer, or cognitive disorders like ADHD. The connectome poses a number of philosophical questions that we will address: - Scientific method: How do data-driven connectomics studies differ from small, hypothesis-driven experiments that were long the standard of cognitive neuroscience? - Scientific models: Is the connectome a model of, or itself the structure of brain organization? - Scientific explanation: Do network-based studies, as some philosophers have argued, provide a new model of explaining neural phenomena? - Science and Society: What is the relationship between the connectome and a global society of social networks and flexibility? Our discussions will be supported by invited neuroscientific experts. ACHTUNG! Preparation Meeting on Friday, October 17, 2014 - 2-4 pm, meeting point: Foyer of the Institute of Philosophy, Habelschwerdter Allee 30. All participants should attend this meeting! Initial Reading Ankeny, R. A. (2000). Fashioning descriptive models in biology: Of Worms and wiring diagrams. Philosophy of Science 67 (3), S260-S272. Bechtel, W. (2013). The endogenously active brain: the need for an alternative cognitive architecture. Philosophia Scientae 17(2), 3-30. Sporns, O. (2012). Discovering the Connectome. Cambridge: MIT Press. close

Initial Reading Ankeny, R. A. (2000). Fashioning descriptive models in biology: Of Worms and wiring diagrams. Philosophy of Science 67 (3), S260-S272. Bechtel, W. (2013). The endogenously active brain: the need for an alternative cognitive architecture. Philosophia Scientae 17(2), 3-30. Sporns, O. (2012). Discovering the Connectome. Cambridge: MIT Press. close