Collaborative proposal: GCR: In Search for the Interactions that Create Consciousness

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This project focuses on the physical footprints of consciousness. A convergent team of engineers, neurosurgeons and neuroscientists will focus on the fundamental problem of understanding what causes the emergence of consciousness. Using techniques from systems neuroscience, neurosurgery, signal processing and machine learning, and data collected with humans and non-human primates, the research aims to develop models of the brain circuit interactions supporting consciousness. Improved understanding of the mechanism of consciousness will facilitate the advancement of new therapeutic approaches for disorders of consciousness and cognitive problems (among other broader impacts). The project includes interdisciplinary research training, will integrate research findings into teaching, and includes outreach to high-school and middle-school students.The theory that the thalamus supports the flexible formation/activation of cortical neural ensembles required for the content of consciousness will be refined, and methods that will restore consciousness in non-human primates will be developed. These advances will be enabled by building novel models, advancing machine learning methods, and researching their theoretical and practical underpinnings. The new methods will be scalable and it is anticipated that they will able to identify causal interactions between brain regions, i.e., whether activity in one area causes activity in another.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.