國立政治大學心理學系114-2學術研討會
講者：Dr. Yaron Caspi博士後研究員 (國立台灣大學腦與意識實驗室)
講題：Cerebellum and Consciousness
時間：2026年04月09日（星期四）14:10 – 16:00
地點：政治大學果夫樓心理系080101會議室
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演講大綱：
The Scientific Studies of Consciousness, one of the fields of cognitive sciences that attracts increasing attention, aims at finding the brain substrate of conscious experiences. Usually, the search is cashed out in terms of the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC), which are supposed to represent brain regions that uniquely participate in conscious experiences (in contrast to unconscious processing). Within this framework, the cerebellum is typically presented as an example of a brain region that is not part of the NCC.
Traditionally, the cerebellum has been conceived as a motor-related brain part associated with the organism's output behavior or its kinematic state. Even today, this is the mainstream view in many cognitive neuroscience and neurobiology educational textbooks. Nevertheless, our understanding of the cerebellum has undergone a revolution in the last 25 years. Today, the cerebellum is recognized for its involvement in various brain functions, including cognition, affect, language, and working memory.
In the current lecture, I will claim that, despite the mainstream view in consciousness studies, the current published scientific literature also supports a function for the cerebellum in conscious experiences. This function exists on two levels. First, it supports the participation of the cerebellum in felt experiences (e.g., perception, episodic memory, mental time travel, psychedelics, fatigue, pain, illusions and hallucinations, body ownership and sense of agency, emotions, and even the female orgasm). Second, it supports the involvement of the cerebellum in the levels of consciousness (sleep-wake cycle, temporal lobe epilepsy, anesthesia, and disorders of consciousness). In both cases, the primary function of the cerebellum is to act as a modulator of consciousness. Finally, the cerebellum also participates in brain functions that are associated with consciousness, including attention, social cognition, and various psychiatric conditions.
I will present evidence that the cerebellum participates in various facets of conscious experience. I will further discuss some technical pitfalls and prejudices that contribute to this cortical myopia. Following, I will demonstrate how integrating knowledge about the cerebellum can instruct and support the development of theories of consciousness. Finally, I will discuss a framework for consciousness studies that expands the narrow view of the NCC to a broader framework. This modified framework – the Neural Modulators of Consciousness (NMC) is centered around the identification of modification mechanisms in the brain that influence conscious experience as the primary goal of Consciousness Studies.
講者簡介：
Dr. Yaron Caspi現為國立臺灣大學心理學系博士後研究員，研究背景橫跨生物物理、合成生物學、微生物力學、植物訊號、神經影像、精神病與老化等領域。目前研究主軸為意識知覺的生物學基礎，關注從遺傳、生理到腦部機制等不同層次的生物因素，如何與個體之意識與感知相互關聯；此外，他亦探討小腦對意識的貢獻，並致力於思考可塑性作為跨領域概念的理論意涵與應用可能。
講者網頁：
