From sacampbell at uwaterloo.ca Fri Oct 10 08:00:00 2025 From: sacampbell at uwaterloo.ca (Sue Ann Campbell) Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2025 12:00:00 +0000 Subject: [CTN] CTN Seminar - October 21 In-Reply-To: References: <1ea206cc-fb3e-4a7d-ab42-4cacea3036ee@informatik.uni-leipzig.de> Message-ID: Hello Everyone, I'm happy to announce our first CTN Seminar of the term will be held just after reading week: Tuesday, October 21 at 3:30 p.m. in DC 1304 Speaker: Patrick Schöfer, Department of Neuromorphic Information Processing, University of Leipzig Title: Boredom as Homeostasis of Cognitive Resource Utilization using Spiking Neural Networks Abstract: In this talk, I will present our approach to modeling boredom as a homeostatic mechanism that maintains an optimal level of cognitive engagement. When engagement deviates from this “Goldilocks zone” due to under- or overstimulation, the system dynamically adjusts neural activity to restore balance. Implemented as a control loop in a spiking neural network, the model monitors and regulates simulated cognitive resource utilization through excitation and inhibition. Hope to see you there, Sue Ann -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From britt at uwaterloo.ca Sat Oct 11 03:19:21 2025 From: britt at uwaterloo.ca (Britt Anderson) Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2025 07:19:21 +0000 Subject: [CTN] Announcing a new book by Founding CTN member Paul Thagard Message-ID: <87y0phkiml.fsf@uwaterloo.ca> As you will see on from the news item on the CTN home page (https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-theoretical-neuroscience/) Paul Thagard has a new book out: Dreams, Jokes and Songs: How Brains Build Consciousness. To quote my news item: The book provides: -- Clear and empirically supported explanation of consciousness as resulting from four brain mechanisms. -- Application to a broad range of conscious experiences including smell, hunger, loneliness, self-awareness, religious experience, sports performance, and romantic chemistry. -- Use of these mechanisms to generate novel theories of dreaming, humor, and musical experience. -- Proposal of a new theory of time consciousness drawing on recent advances in neuroscience. -- Assessment of consciousness in non-human animals and machines, including the new generative AI models such as ChatGPT. -- Development of a new solution to the mind-body problem, called coherent materialism. And in a preview of coming attractions, stay tuned for his next book AI Boom or Doom? Philosophy and Psychology of the New Artificial Intelligence, to be published soon by MIT Press For more information you can follow Paul´s blog. Book site: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/dreams-jokes-and-songs-9780198962359?facet_narrowbypubdate_facet=Last%203%20months&lang=en&cc=ck Paul´s Blog: https://paulthagard.com/dreams-jokes-and-songs/ -- Britt Anderson, PhD & MD Dept. of Psychology and Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience University of Waterloo, Canada https://brittlab.uwaterloo.ca