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The Projecting Brain | James Vickers in Conversation

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Fullers Bookshop 131 Collins St, Hobart, TAS, 7000 Get directions

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It is apparent that most people don’t spend much time thinking about their brains and this most important of organs provides them with all of their human qualities and abilities. The adult ‘you’ corresponds to about 1.3-1.4 kg of protein and fat that lives in a warm, dark bony cave that has no direct contact with the external world and has very little sense of itself. The conscious perception that feels like ‘you’ is a manufactured product of the brain in its skull – a construction that involves sampling the external world which is then seamlessly projected into the external world to create a ‘you’. Every colour, every sound, every sense of "being here" — none of it arrives from outside. It is generated, moment by moment, inside your skull, and then experienced as if it were simply out there. In The Projecting Brain, neuroscientist Professor James Vickers introduces a new theory that conscious experience is the result of the brain projecting itself into the external world. This theory has ramifications for how we interact with technology as well as for maintaining a healthy brain throughout life.

James Vickers is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Tasmania. Professor Vickers is a co-founder and past Director of the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre. Distinguished Prof Vickers has an extensive track record in neuroscience, interventional cohort studies, cognition, digital educational/health literacy tools, health services research and education, and has published over 200 refereed articles. Distinguished Prof Vickers has held several national leadership roles, such as President of the Australasian Neuroscience Society and is a member of the Dementia Expert Reference Group for the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.

In conversation with James is Dr Matt Kirkcaldie. Matt is a neuroscientist and senior lecturer at the Wicking Dementia Centre, whose main interest is the relationship between the physical brain and the mind. His research focuses on the cerebral cortex, the relationship between the human brain and other mammal brains, and lab models of dementia. He has co-authored several reference works including brain atlases and a textbook on the nervous system used for the Australasian Brain Challenge. He has 25 years of lecturing experience in medical sciences, psychology and dementia courses.

Join James and Matt at the Afterword Cafe.