2013 Programme
EVENT #35
Edoardo Boncinelli
What will change our future. The secret brain
Recently it was shown that there is a sort of “brain in the brain”, that is, an area in the brain that gets very busy when the brain itself is not doing anything in particular. The area includes parts of the prefrontal cortex, which is activated when we think and imagine, and of the posterior parietal cortex. All of this area of the brain does has no name, but we could call it the default circuit, because it is activated by default. It is more active when the brain does not do anything and calms won when it is doing something specific. So what is the purpose of this vast area of the brain? According to one particularly interesting hypothesis, it “thinks of the future”, that is makes plans for what will be, or better still, what can be in the future. According to another hypothesis its activity is connected with consciousness, that is, the awareness we are there, even in the absence of any specific content of the brain.
https://www.festivaldellamente.it/it/live-streaming-alessandro-barbero/trained as a physicist and head of prestigious research institutes, he is committed to studying and teaching genetics and molecular biology. He contributes to Corriere della Sera and to Le Scienze. His writings include: Prima lezione di biologia (Editori Laterza, 2007); I nostri geni (Einaudi, 2008); L’etica della vita (2008), Perché non possiamo non dirci darwinisti (2009), Lo scimmione intelligente (con G. Giorello, 2009), Lettera a un bambino che vivrà 100 anni (2010), La scienza non ha bisogno di Dio (2012), Quel che resta dell’anima (2012) all for Rizzoli; Mi ritorno in mente (Longanesi, 2010); Come nascono le idee (2008) and La vita della nostra mente (2011), for the series «i Libri del Festival della Mente» published by Editori Laterza; Vita (Bollati Boringhieri, 2013).
EVENT #18
Stefano Bartezzaghi, Massimo Recalcati
To inherit or to be creative? Art in the time of disoriented generations
