Breaking frontiers to understand the brain

Symposium organized by Gretty Mirdal, former Director of the Paris IAS, Director of the Brain, Culture and Society program, on the occasion of Professor Alain Berthoz's 85th birthday, with the support of the Paris IAS.

Event closed to the public.

Alain Berthoz is Honorary Professor of the physiology of perception and action at the College de France, and member of the” Académie des sciences” and of the “Académie des technologies”. The Paris Institute of Advanced Study has wished to arrange this event in his honour, in appreciation for his contribution to research on the interaction between the human and social sciences and the neurosciences, and especially to the Institute’s Brain- Culture and Society Programme.

Presentation

The aim of this symposium is to discuss the power and limits of multidisciplinarity with senior researchers of many different disciplines, all of whom have collaborated with Alain Berthoz throughout his career. More than 35 experts from France, Italy, Belgium, England, Israel, Canada and Japan will briefly present their experiences and opinions on the topic of working across disciplines.

Interdisciplinarity is difficult and competence requires specialisation. It is tempting to build walls around our scientific domains, but there are many reasons for the interest in "Breaking frontiers between disciplines to understand the brain", among others:

• Understanding the brain and its pathology requires a combination of neuroscience and mathematical or modelling approaches, but also a combination of basic mechanisms at the neuronal, molecular, or genetic level with more global behavioural and even social or cultural dimensions.
• Formulating hypothesis and designing experimental paradigms and technical methods, may benefit from asking questions both at the level of the basic mechanisms, and at a higher cognitive level used by philosophers or human and social sciences.
• "Breaking frontiers between disciplines“ contributes to  improve tolerance and the capacity of humans to live together without the barbarians acts which have been a recurrent component of our history. Today this question has a high degree of actuality. The extreme specialisation of knowledge is a source for the more general problem of sectarism and maybe even fanatism, and may lead to losing track of what was called « L’unité de l’homme » at the legandary Royaumont meeting some fifty years ago.

With the participation of :

Pr. Saadi Lahlou (Director Paris Institute of Advanced Study and London School of Economics)
Pr. Gretty Mirdal (Univ. Copenhagen, Royal Danish Academy, Director Brain, Culture, and Society Program)
Pr. Alain Berthoz (Collège de France, Académie des Sciences, Académie des Technologies
Pr. Jean Pierre Changeux (Collège de France, Institut Pasteur, Académie des Sciences)
Pr. Y.ves Bamberger (Académie des Technologies)
Madame la Ministre Claudie Haigneré (ESA, Académie des Technologies)
Pr. Dianne Newell (Univ. British Columbia, Former Director P. Wall Institute of Advanced Study, Vancouver, Canada)
Pr. Antoine Triller (École Normale Supérieure, Secrétaire Perpétuel Académie des Sciences).
Pr. Grégoire Borst (Univ. Paris V)
Pr. Giovanni Cioni (Hospital Stella Maris, Pisa)
Pr. David. Cohen (Hôpital de la Salpétrière, Univ. Paris VI, Académie de Médecine)
Pr. Sylvie Tordjman (Univ. Hospital, Rennes)
Pr. Toshihiro Tzuzuku (ENT Clinic, Tokyo)
Pr. Pascale Piolino (Université Paris Cité)
Pr. Claude Debru (École Normale Supérieure-PSL, Académie des Sciences).
Pr. Daniel Bennequin (Univ. Paris VI)
Pr. Guy Chéron (Univ. Bruxelles)
Dr. Bernard Cohen (Hôpital Saint Antoine, Paris)
Pr. Tamar Flash (Weizmann Institute, Tel Aviv; 2023 Fellow of the Paris Institute of Advanced Study)
Pr. Mark Geller (Univ. College London; 2021 Fellow of the Paris Institute of Advanced Study)
Pr. Francesco Lacquaniti (Univ. Tor Vergata, Hospital Santa Lucia, Roma)
Francois Pitti (Managing Director/Urban Technologies - Bouygues Construction)
Pr. Stephen Cowley (Univ. South Denmark)
Pr. F. Doricchi (Univ. La Sapienza. Roma)
Pr. Cecilia Guariglia (Univ. La Sapienza, Roma)
Pr. Etienne Koechlin (École Normale Supérieure, Paris)
Pr. Edmund Rolls (Univ. of Oxford)
Dr. Jacques Fradin (Directeur Institut de Médecine Environnementale, Paris)
Pr. Jean Becchio (Consultant on hypnosis – Univ. Paris 11)
Pr. Eric Brian (École Normale Supérieure-PSL, EHESS, Paris)
Pr. Marie Jaisson (Univ. Paris 13)
Pr. Carlo Ossola (Collège de France, Univ. Turin, Accademia dei Lincei Rome)
Pr. Maurizio Sibilio (Univ. Salerno)
Pr. François Villa (Université Paris Cité)
Pr. François Garnier. (École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs, PSL, Paris)
Pr. Jos Houben (École Internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq)
Pr. Marie Hélène Tramus (Univ. Paris 8)
Pr. Etienne Armand Amato (Univ. Marne la Vallée)
Pr. Yoshihiro Nakamura (Univ. Tokyo, Japan)
Madame Fabienne Verdier (Artiste, Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium)