Oct 4, 2021 | News
By Ana Maria Ganev, PhD Candidate Faculty of Bioethics – Intern UNESCOBIOCHAIR
“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche ―
The Research Group of Neurobioethics of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights has been actively exploring scientific developments in neuroscience in order to discern some points of contact between neuroscience and a philosophical-anthropological vision centered on the human person. One of the most fascinating challenges is trying to disentangle what makes us human. A frequent answer to this old-age question is Creativity, but creativity itself is a mystery that engages cognitive neuroscientists in uncovering the neural correlates involved in this enthralling process.
Creativity is the ability to perceive the world in new ways; its benefits are widely recognized and appreciated. Indeed not only do art, music, literature, and scientific discoveries contribute to the survival and evolution of our species, but such creative innovations improve our daily living and enrich the human experience on both the individual and societal level. The main characteristics of the creative process include the ability to make new connections or “thinking outside the box”, the capacity to generate new ideas, recognizing alternative possibilities, divergent thinking, imagination and evaluation, cognitive abilities and intrinsic motivation.
While artistic, literary, musical and scientific creativity are perhaps the most fascinating of all human achievements, their basic brain counterparts remain poorly defined. Scientists relentlessly seek a neuroscientific explanation of the puzzling phenomenon of creativity in order to define it, understand how it works, predict individual creative abilities from patterns of brain connectivity and eventually find ways to nurture and enhance creativity skills.
Contrary to common belief, creativity does not involve a single brain region or single side of the brain, in fact the brain participates as a whole in the creative process. We are all acquainted with the image of the “split brain” suggesting that the left hemisphere might be responsible for the logical, practical and analytical human traits, while the right hemisphere is accountable for creativity and boundless imagination. Although the left brain/right brain dichotomy remains prominent in the contemporary frame of mind, it no longer features in modern science, although there is of course a well-documented pattern of relative differences in function between the two sides of the brain (Corballis 2018).
Among the most common misconceptions or myths about creativity that may possibly lead to detrimental effects in the educational context, there is the belief that creativity is limited to arts, that no prior knowledge or hard work is needed, that it is just fun and requires nothing but pure talent, and that creativity is more of a product and not a process.
The cognitive neuroscience of creativity has made considerable progress by mapping brain networks involved in creative cognition. Three cognitive processes related to network interactions during creative performance have been identified: goal-directed memory retrieval (the ability to strategically search episodic and semantic memory for task-relevant information or, in other words, the recollection of past experiences specific to a time and place), prepotent-response inhibition (the ability to suppress interference from dominant or salient response tendencies such as obvious concepts or ideas that come to mind during divergent thinking, meaning that one has to inhibit the tendency of producing an automatic response), and internally-focused attention (the focusing of attention on self-generated thought processes and the shielding of internal processes from external interference) (Benedek et al., 2014; Beaty et al., 2019).
Furthermore, correlational work using prediction modeling indicates that functional connectivity between networks — particularly the executive control network (activated during decision-making and task-oriented processes) and default mode network (activated during passive rest and mind-wandering) — can reliably predict an individual’s creative thinking ability.
By mapping neural dynamics, scientists could provide interesting insights into key cognitive mechanisms, showing evidence that the capability for creativity is universal, thus each of us, in various ways and with varying degrees of skill, expresses it. Apart from our innate creative capabilities, in order to come up with new ideas and unexpected associations, we have to divest ourselves of inhibitions, allowing our minds to wander more freely and to seek new connections among many possible solutions.
“Electricity is not only present in a magnificent thunderstorm and dazzling lightning, but also in a lamp; so also creativity exists not only where it creates great historical works, but also everywhere human imagination combines, changes, and creates anything new.” ― Lev Vygotsky ―
Read the article in Italian
Oct 1, 2021 | News
OBJECTIVES:
We intend to enhance the knowledge of teachers in practical innovative methodologies implemented in other centers that contribute to the development of digital competencies of students, as well as learning to plan sports and cultural activities to involve and reduce absenteeism among younger students, enhancing group membership and group cohesion.
We also want to learn multicultural ways of working that favor the social and cultural inclusion of students and develop skills and abilities that allow them to acquire basic competencies.
On the other hand, we believe that participating in a European project in which teachers and students are given the opportunity to travel to other European countries and learn about other ways of working and other cultures can provide the center with an extra motivation for work, participation and enthusiasm that leads to a review and continuous improvement of the teaching-learning process.
The partners in the TransFORMANDOnos project are:
CEPA Joaquín Sorolla (Project Leader)
BIDA and V. Kultur und Bildung en Suhl (Alemania)
4th Provincial Center for Adult Education of Rome and Lazio (Italy)
Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome (Italy)
ACTIVITIES:
In the presented project we have planned two learning-by-observation activities. One of them to Suhl in Germany and the other to Rome in Italy. The work they do focused on integration and cultural exchange through different disciplines such as art, sports or new technologies will help the visiting teachers to transfer to our center all the information gathered to implement these educational practices.
We will also carry out two group mobilities of adult students to Rome in Italy and to Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria. With these mobilities we will promote cooperation and coexistence among students from different countries, language learning, knowledge of cultural and historical heritage of the host countries and belonging to the EU.
Finally, we will celebrate an Intercultural Conference with a multitude of activities that will be attended by expert teachers from each of the collaborating countries, which will help us to implement innovative methodologies to our center.
CALENDER OF THE ACTIVITIES:
- September 29, 2021: We are approved and awarded the project “TransFORMANOnos” according to the Resolution publishing the lists of selected, rejected and excluded applications for Key Action 1 – Educational mobility of people (KA121, KA122, KA131) and Erasmus Accreditation for Higher Education Mobility Consortia (KA130), corresponding to the Call for Proposals of the Erasmus+ 2021 program.
- December 2, 2021: Signing of the Erasmus+ Agreement December 9, 2021: Creation of Infopoint Erasmus+ in CEPA Joaquín Sorolla December 20, 2021: Celebration of the event of Presentation and Start of our Erasmus+ Project “TransFORMANDOnos” with the confirmed attendance of important personalities of the Administration and collaboration with the European Union.
- April 19, 2022: Presentation of the project at the Real Casa de Postas de Madrid. CEPA Joaquín Sorolla has participated in the Presentation of the European Projects of Direct Management of the Madrid entities of the third sector, which have had the support of the Madrid Advisory Service for European Programs (sMape). Among other personalities, we have counted with the assistance of the Counselor of Presidency, Justice and Interior, Mr. Enrique López López, and Mr. José Francisco Herrera, General Director of Cooperation with the State and the European Union.
- From May 1 to 7, 2022: Observation learning visit to Suhl (Germany) by two teachers from CEPA Joaquín Sorolla.
- From July 4 to 10, 2022: Observation learning visit to Rome (Italy), to the Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum by two teachers from CEPA Joaquín Sorolla.
- February 2023: Mobility of students to Rome (Italy).
- April 2023: Visit to Madrid, to CEPA Joaquín Sorolla, of 8 European guest experts. Celebration of Intercultural Days and closing of the project.
IMPACT
We hope that the participation of our center in this project will mean a before and after in aspects related to the spatial-temporal organization of teaching, with a methodological change in the teaching-learning process using new technologies to develop digital skills of teachers and students and that these actions will lead to a reduction in absenteeism of younger students. We also want to innovate and learn methods of integration of different cultures.
On the other hand, we hope to motivate students to learn languages, help them gain confidence and independence, get to know and relate to other cultures and develop a sense of belonging to the European Union.
As a final goal, we intend to establish bonds of union and collaboration with the host institutions that will last over time and that will serve to improve the quality of the service we provide to our students.
Jul 29, 2021 | News
“A Lot to Think About” (Copyright © 2009 Linda Apple).
By Ana Maria Ganev, Intern and PhD candidate
“Reflect, before you think.”
― by Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
Have you ever wondered about mind-wandering? Curiously we think our brains work less when we are being absent-minded, as if in a “stand-by” mode; nevertheless, recent studies contradicted this impression, demonstrating that our brains are extremely active and energy-consuming especially during our “resting-state” mode (i.e. when non engaged in active tasks). In fact, the Default Mode Network (DMN) is a set of brain regions that exhibits an increased blood-flow, glucose metabolism and oxygen consumption during resting-state and is thought to be activated when individuals are focused on their internal mental-state or “metacognitive” processes, such as self-referential processing, interoception, autobiographical memory retrieval, or envisioning the future. Conversely, DMN is deactivated during cognitive task performances. The specific regions thought to be part of the DMN include the medial prefrontal cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex, the inferior parietal lobule, the lateral and inferior temporal cortex and the medial temporal lobes (Buckner et al., 2008).
Its discovery was an unexpected scientific accident, a consequence of brain-imaging studies. For a long time, fMRI investigators considered that the brain was completely at rest during the control condition when participants lie quietly in an fMRI machine with eyes closed or eyes open fixed on a cross. Images taken under these conditions were considered to be just noise, but they turned out to be more than that. The DMN was originally described by the neurologist Marcus Raichle in 2001, who observed that select brain regions increased metabolic activity during rest and decreased activity when engaged in goal-directed (i.e., cognitively demanding) behavior. DMN activity increases during perspective-taking of the desires, beliefs, intentions and emotions of others (i.e., theory of mind or attribution of mental states to others), in remembering the past (e.g., autobiographical memory), in time-traveling (e.g., planning the future), in moral decision-making, in self-criticizing and other experiences of self (Buckner et al., 2008).
It may be that the stream of consciousness flows through those same key structures of the DMN. Ever since its discovery, the DMN has been described by various neuroscientists as the brain’s “orchestra conductor” or as an “uber-conductor” that ensures to keep order in a complex system of competing signals. This network is also known as “the me network”, because it appears to play a crucial role in the creation of mental constructs of the self, or “ego”. It’s worth mentioning as well the contribution of the DMN in aesthetic processing. While additional research is needed to better understand this role, it is likely that aesthetically pleasing images are both more evocative and lead to increased internal mentation (Belfi et al., 2018).
DMN-mediated self-reflection can lead to amazing intellectual and artistic achievements but also to destructive forms of unhappiness. A frequently cited quote is “A Wondering Mind is an Unhappy Mind”, thus stressing out the strong correlation between mind-wandering or daydreaming and sadness. This system might be broken as well, if its fragile equilibrium is shifted towards excessive rumination and obsessive thoughts, leading to psychological illnesses and mental disorders like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorders and existential distress. Furthermore, therapies like meditation have received attention for influencing activity in the DMN, suggesting this may be part of their mechanism for improving well-being.
“If the doors of perception were cleansed
every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite.
For man has closed himself up,
till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.”
― by William Blake from “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”
Jul 20, 2021 | News
The UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights in collaboration with The University of Anáhuac, Mexico (Faculty of Bioethics) is launching the NEW Interdisciplinary Neuroethics Diploma Course to give basic knowledge about what is neuroethics, from an interdisciplinary perspective that allows appreciation of its neuroscientific and philosophic identities, and the practical use offered by the field of neuroethics and its study and application within each discipline.
CLASSES
Language: English
Duration: 100 hours
Class hours: Take your classes at the time that suits you best. And on Saturdays we will have Live-Stream sessions from 9:00 am. to 12:00 pm. (Mexico time)
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS (ONLINE CLASS)
Computer with webcam and microphone.It is recommended that you connect to the internet with at least 10 megabytes.
CONTACT:
Dr. Mariel Kalkach Aparicio
mariel.kalkach@anahuac.mx
Lorea Sagasti Pazos
lorea.sagastipa@anahuac.mx
Sofia Yarza Del Villar
sofia.yarzade@anahuac.mx
AFFILIATIONS / COLLABORATIONS
- Anahuac University Mexico
- UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights, Rome, Italy
- Istituto Scienza e Fede Gruppo di Neuroebioetica
- Bioética Clínica y Neuroética Anáhuac BINCA
- Education Faculty
- Law School
- Health Sciences Faculty
- Economics and Business Faculty
- Psychology Faculty
- Bioethics Faculty
For further information, application and spanish version click here.
Jul 16, 2021 | News
By Ana Maria Ganev, Phd Candidate of the School of Bioethics – Intern at UNESCOBIOCHAIR
The 19th Summer Bioethics Course ended with two exceptional conclusive days on July 9-10, 2021. This wide-ranging summer course on bioethics and consciousness started with an introductory speech by Alberto García Gómez, the Pro-Dean and Professor at the School of Bioethics of Athenaeum Pontificium Regina Apostolorum in Rome (APRA), who expressed his gratitude towards the coordinators of this webinar, Prof. Fr. Alberto Carrara, LC, Director of the Neurobioethics Study Group and Dr. Maria Paola Brugnoli, Coordinator of the Neurobioethics Study Subgroup on Consciousness.
The first speaker, the psychologist and hypnotherapist Katalin Varga, Director Department of Psychology, at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest in Hungary, drew to a close the psychological part of the summer course with a presentation about the suggestive communication with critically ill patients. She presented several captivating research results proving that that appropriate communication, called Psychological Support Based on Positive Suggestions, can improve the medical care in various settings. The evidence was reflected in various parameters like shorter hospital stay, better cooperation of the patient, less medication needed, reduced side effects and painkiller use, increased survival rate and faster recovery.
The section with reference to the philosophical-anthropological and theological-spiritual perspective on human consciousness was introduced by Giorgia Salatiello, Professor Emeritus of the faculty of Philosophy of the Pontifical Gregorian University. At first a clear distinction has been made between consciousness, self-awareness and self-transcendence. Self-awareness is a peculiar and exclusively human capacity which implies reflection and a complete return to oneself (the Thomistic concept of reditio completa). It is necessary to investigate the implication of these issues from a gnoseological and metaphysical point of view. Immediately afterwards, the anthropological implications are to be taken into consideration as well as the noteworthy theme of freedom and consequently the theme of responsibility. Most importantly, the capability of self-awareness ought to be set apart from its use and application.
The following speaker, Prof. Fr. Adrián Canal, LC, (APRA), undertook the purpose of shedding some light on the notion of consciousness in Descartes and Locke. The final section was dedicated to the main aspects concerning the continuity between Descartes and Locke, who both considered consciousness as an interior sentiment that accompanies thinking, as well an interior reflexivity, and is not to be confused with perception, memory, nor reflection.
The next presentation, by Prof. Fr. Alex Yeung, LC. (APRA), pursued the answer to an intriguing question: Are the Origins of Consciousness an Emergence or Divine Intervention? From an Aristotelian-Thomistic approach, integrated with neurosciences, consciousness refers to the concomitant experiential quality of intentional acts. Metaphysical reflection first centers on the principle of unity of the human person, which, being a substantial unity (biological unity besides a functioning perceptive brain), requires the presence of a spiritual soul (Aristotelian form).
The first day ended with the lecture of Prof. Fr. Michael Baggot, LC, (APRA), who focused the attention on the renowned ethicist Karol Wojtyła, who placed Thomistic interpretations of consciousness in dialogue with 20th century thinkers from other intellectual traditions. Wojtyła highlighted the mirroring and reflexive functions of consciousness, as well as the metaphysically grounded anthropological reflections in view of considering the acting person as a moral agent.
On the last day of this stimulating and compelling summer course, Prof. Fr. Francisco Ballesta, LC, (APRA), focused his presentation on clinical ethics in patients with pathologically-impaired or altered state of consciousness. After a brief analysis of the ethical criteria that must regulate the healthcare of these kind of patients, Prof. Ballesta compared them with real cases in clinical practice.
The second speaker, Emanuela Cesarella, Lawyer at the Court of Rome, gave a particular emphasis to the notion of law, to be considered not as a sterile instrument for regulating the relationships between subjects as part of the legal system, but as the manifest expression of human values. She highlighted as well the relevance of the right to conscientious objection in protecting personal ethical beliefs as opposed to controversial laws.
The final lecture was held by Prof. Melissa Maioni (APRA), who introduced the inspiring topic of the relationship between consciousness and art. Is there a neural basis for the aesthetic experience? Is there a relationship between states of consciousness and the perception of beauty? With the aim of grasping the truth of beauty and enhancing aesthetic experience with a moral insight oriented towards good and beauty, philosophical and bioethical besides neurological and psychobiological theories should be integrated and harmonized.
