Public engagement

Sharing our research beyond academia is an important priority for our group. You can catch up with our latest appearances here.

• Prof Anil Seth ponders the meaning of life

  What IS the meaning of life? It is certainly not 42 to everybody. The Guardian posed this classic question to an eclectic mix of personalities, including Prof Seth, whose response draws not just on theories of consciousness, but also on his own mother's life experience.
  

• Prof Anil Seth on Radio 4's "Sideways"

  In this fascinating episode, Anil joins a discussion of the recent craze for 'Reality Shifting', where people are able to fully immerse themselves in an alternative reality purely in their own imagination. Find out what 'maladaptive daydreaming' is and how it contrasts with reality shifting. Do you agree with Anil that we don't all perceive reality in the same way? Do we humans construct reality based on what is evolutionarily advantageous to us?  
  

• Prof Anil Seth with Philomena Cunk

  Anil tackles some very probing questions on consciousness from Diane Morgan's 'Philomena Cunk' as part of the BBC's 'Cunk on Life' mockumentary. Watch this clip for a very interesting take on what makes imagination work. Does the brain operate the consciousness or does the consciousness operate the brain?

• Dr Adam Barrett: Scientific Spirituality and Psychedelics

  Adam spoke to the University of Sussex Psychedelic Research Society, presenting a scientific basis for a certain kind of spirituality. Watch the recording to discover more about ‘panpsychism’ i.e. consciousness being a fundamental property of all matter. Are we all in some sense part of one cosmic being?  How does ‘eternalism’ view the past, present and future to exist equally? Contact Adam if you'd like to further discuss the topic! 05/12/2024

• Prof Anil Seth: Consciousness in humans and other things

  Anil delivered this year’s Charles Simonyi Lecture at the Oxford Playhouse,  talking about the brain as an embodied “prediction machine” and the implications of this idea for society and technology, including AI. 

• Prof Zoltan Dienes: Believed-in imaginings & Dr Jenny Bosten: Colour vision and individual experience

  New Scientist masterclass: Inside the Conscious Mind

  

  Jenny Bosten speaking at the New Scientist Masterclass September 2024. Image: George Musser

  This one-day masterclass was a chance to dive ‘inside the conscious mind’ with Prof Dienes, Dr Bosten and other experts who shed light on the mystery of consciousness. Do humans have ‘phenomenological control’ over their experiences? What makes us disagree on the colour of the objects we encounter? Are we right to assume there is such a thing as a universal colour experience? This masterclass satisfied everyone’s curiosity about these questions and more.

• Dr Maxine Sherman: The brain basis of time perception

  Does time really fly when you're having fun? How accurately can you estimate the passing of time without the help of your watch or clock? Over 100 attendees heard Dr Maxine Sherman explain how our brains estimate time and how this relates to sensory processing at a Brighton Cafe Scientifique event in August 2024. 
  

• Dr Adam Barrett: A spirituality built on science

  Can science explain metaphysical matters as well as the physical?  Do rocks and trees have conscious experiences? What is 'panpsychism' and why do many neuroscientists reject it?  Dr Barrett gets to grips with these and many other deep questions in his article for Medium. Have a read and if you have further questions, why not post a comment?

• Prof Andy Clark: What is consciousness?

  Consciousness is an elusive topic which prompts many questions.  Is it a "hard" problem? Can we explain why it is that we say and do all the things that we say and do? What influences our perception of the world around us?  What is "interoceptive" information? Watch Professor Andy Clark's interview with Closer To Truth host Robert Lawrence Kuhn for a deep-dive into the topic.  Questions of your own? Let us know! 

• Prof Anil Seth: "Being You - A New Science of Consciousness"

  Prof Seth’s well-reviewed book Being You – A New Science of Consciousness has already been published in eight languages and has therefore reached a global and wide-ranging audience. Consequently, Anil receives many invitations to explain further the mind-bending concepts from his book that have sparked so much curiosity. What you think you know about yourself could be completely wrong! Take a look at some of Anil’s recent talks and interviews, including his Royal Society Faraday Lecture.

• Dr Maxine Sherman: The AI Revolution; what it means for work and wellbeing

  Maxine presented at WayfinderWoman's Work and Wellbeing event in April 2024, talking about what Chat GPT can do, cannot yet do, and will never be able to do with its current design. She also talked about how and why AI can generate stereotyped content, and what all of this might mean going forward for women in the workplace.

• Dreamachine and the Perception Census
  

  Scientific direction and management: Anil Seth. Development: James Alvarez, Reny Baykova, Trevor Hewitt, David Schwartzman

  Dreamachine is a large government-funded, collaborative research project. Its public-facing outcomes are the result of extensive work by members of our lab alongside colleagues at Glasgow University. Its three elements comprise a hugely popular live experience (London, Cardiff, Belfast, Glasgow) which took people on a journey into the power of their own minds using combinations of fast flashing light on closed eyes and panoramic sound. The second element is the Perception Census - a large-scale citizen science study of ‘perceptual diversity’ which launched in July 2022. This census mapped, for the first time, the differences in how we each experience the world. The third element is the schools programme containing over 30 specially designed lesson plans for children aged 7-13, and an accompanying programme called ‘Life’s Big Questions’ designed to galvanise interest in the mind and brain in a way that matches national curricula.

• Prof Andy Clark: Extended you

  Ever wondered where "you" ends and "not you" begins?  Or where your mind is? Professor Andy Clark's TEDxLambeth talk ponders these and other questions, considering how gesture can actually enhance our thinking and recognising the role of facial feedback in comprehension.

• Dr Maxine Sherman & Dr Warrick Roseboom: Why does time fly when you're having fun?

  How can we make our lunch break seem longer? Can busy settings influence our perception of time passing? Drs. Sherman and Roseboom's findings feature in the Daily Mail - from their original PLOS Computational Biology article.

• Prof Anil Seth: Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality

  For anybody questioning their own existence, Professor Anil Seth 's TED talk from 2017 is a must-watch. The talk has amassed over 14 million views and generated much discussion. Could we be hallucinating all of the time? Can you be persuaded that 'reality' is actually when we agree about our hallucinations? 
  

• From Body to Being (2017 British Science Festival)
  

  Our "From Body to Being" exhibit was part of the 2017 British Science Festival. The event attracted over 1200 people with 11 different installations allowing members of the public to explore how experiences of the world are shaped by the body and how bodily experience itself is actively constructed, moment-to-moment, by the brain.

• Prof Anil Seth answers neuroscience questions for Wired

  This is a chance to watch Prof Anil Seth answer common questions on neuroscience. How does our memory work? Can we implant new memories? Is face blindness a real thing? Watch this Wired video on YouTube and find the answers to these questions and more.