June 15 to 18 2006, Island of Elba

Organizers: Dr. Britta Glatzeder and Dr. Eduard Kraft

Parmenides Workshop 13 is intended to address one of the key objectives of the research activities of the Parmenides Center: the brain mechanisms underlying reasoning and thinking.

Although thinking is undoubtedly a most unique cognitive faculty of human beings, it is not a major topic in the current cognitive neuroscience literature. There is a manifold of cognitive theories attempting to explain aspects of higher cognition like concept acquisition, deductive versus inductive reasoning, or decision making. But there is no overall framework, allowing for integrating the wide range of different facets of human thinking.

Functional imaging techniques have greatly improved our capability to identify the neuroanatomic correlates of cognitive processes and might be helpful in guiding new approaches to a general concept of thinking. We would like to discuss with neuroscientists from different backgrounds the limitations and potentials of imaging techniques to gain insights into thinking processes and to exchange experiences in this truly multidisciplinary enterprise.

• Robert Aunger, Department of Infectious & Tropical Diseases London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London
• Peter A. Bandettini, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda
• Kalina Christoff, Dept. of Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience of Thought Lab, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
• Alain Dagher, McConnell Brain Imaging Center, McGill University, Montreal
• Joseph T. Devlin, FMRIB Centre, Dept. of Clinical Neurology, University of Oxford
• Thomas Elbert, Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz
• Vinod Goel, Dept. of Psychology, York University Toronto
• Klaus Gramann, Department of Experimental Psychologie, University of Munich
• Oliver Gruber, Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Saarland University Hospital, Homburg
• Balázs Gulyás, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm
• Markus Knauff, MPI for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen; Center for Cognitive Science, University of Freiburg
• Domenico Parisi, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome
• Susan Sara, Institut des Neurosciences, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
• Eörs Szathmáry, Collegium Budapest
• Eörs Szathmáry, Collegium Budapest
  Evolutionary biology

• The origins of thinking
  Robert Aunger
• What functional MRI can, can't, and might do
  Peter Bandettini
  
• Neural principles of complex cognition, as revealed by functional neuroimaging
  Kalina Christoff
  
• The role of dopamine and the basal ganglia in cognitive control
  Alain Dagher
  
• From functional anatomy to neural information processing: Language in perspective
  Joseph Devlin
  
• Studying higher cognition with magnetoencephalography (MEG)
  Thomas Elbert
  
• Towards an Understanding of the Roles of the Prefrontal Cortex in Logical & Emotional Processing
  Vinod Goel
  Dept. of Psychology, York University Toronto
• EEG Analysis of cognitive processing - methodological pitfalls
  Klaus Gramann
  Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Munich
• Working memory and complex thinking from an evolutionary neurocognitive perspective
  Oliver Gruber
  Saarland University, Homburg, Germany
• Functional neuroimaging and the logic of conscious and unconscious mental processes
  Balázs Gulyás
  Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm
• Visual images can be a nuisance in reasoning
  Markus Knauff
  Center for Cognitive Science, University of Freiburg
• Neuromodulation and Cognitive Processes
  Susan Sara
  Institut des Neurosciences, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
• An evolutionary framework for neuronal architectures
  Eörs Szathmáry
  Collegium Budapest