1st Canadian Consciousness Research Symposium

10:45-11:00 AM (EST)

Welcome and Introduction

Catherine Duclos, PhD (McGill University)

Stefanie Blain-Moraes, PhD (McGill University)

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (EST)

Keynote Address

Adrian M. Owen, PhD (Western University)

When Thoughts Become Actions: Using Neuroimaging to Detect Residual Cognitive Function after Serious Brain Injury

12:00-12:30 PM (EST)

Lunch Break

12:30-2:10 PM (EST)

Consciousness, meditation and creativity

Moderator: Naila Kuhlmann, PhD

12:30-12:50    Tim Squire, MD (Townsville University Hospital,

                        Australia) - The role of circadian rhythm for

                      radiation protection in space

12:50-1:10         Annalisa Pascarella, PhD (Institute of Applied

                        Mathematics M. Picone, National Council of

                        Research, Italy) - Distinct changes in oscillatory

                      brain dynamics during Samatha and Vipassana

                      meditation:  Insights from MEG recordings in

                      Buddhist monks

1:10-1:20            Minza Haque, MSc (McGill University)  

                     Identifying the role of thalamocortical activity in          

                     modulating consciousness

1:20-1:30         Vanessa Hadid, MSc (Université de Montréal)  

                      Decoding the role of gamma oscillations in

                      (un)conscious processing: Novel insights from

                      MEG in affective-blindsight 

1:30-1:40         Antoine Bellemare, MSc (Concordia University)   

                      I see a smiling unicorn: Pareidolic capacities are

                      enhanced in creative individuals

1:40-1:50         Pedro Mediano, PhD (University of Cambridge,

                         UK) - Spectrally and temporally resolved

                      estimation of neural signal diversity

1:50-2:00         Marianne Broeker, MA (Columbia University,

                          USA) - Evidence for perceptual insight in an    

                       online psychophysics experiment

2:00-2:10         Jay Olson, PhD (Harvard University, USA) 

                         Rapid creativity measurement

2:10-2:40 PM (EST)

Virtual Coffee Break

2:40-4:40 PM (EST)

Disorders of consciousness and delirium

Moderator: Matthew Owen, PhD

2:40-3:00         Loretta Norton, PhD (King’s College at Western   

                           University) - Functional Magnetic Resonance  

                        Imaging as a Communication Tool in Severe   

                        Guillain-Barré Syndrome 

3:00-3:20         Stefanie Blain-Moraes, PhD (McGill University)  

                        Assessing consciousness and personhood in

                        non-responsive individuals

3:20-3:40         David Williamson, PhD (Université de Montréal)

                           Antipsychotic use in critically ill patients with

                        TBI

3:40-4:00         Louis de Beaumont, PhD (Université de

                            Montréal) – Application of optimized

                         transcranial alternating current stimulation

                         protocol to modulate alpha activity in the

                         healthy and comatose brain

4:00-4:10         Catherine Duclos, PhD (McGill University)  

                        Anesthesia as a tool to predict recovery from

                        coma and disorders of consciousness

4:10-4:20         Charlotte Maschke, BSc (McGill University)  

                        Identifying prognostic value for unresponsive

                        patients using machine learning and time-

                        resolved functional connectivity of EEG during       

                        exposure to propofol

4:20-4:30         Geoffrey Laforge, MSc (Western University) 

                           Identifying Neural Markers of Naturalistic  

                        Processing in Patients with Severe Acute Brain

                        Injury: A Multi-Method EEG Approach

4:30-4:40         Andrea Luppi, MSc (University of Cambridge)  

                        Diminished causal emergence in the brain

                        dynamics of patients with disorders of

                        consciousness

4:40-4:45 PM (EST)

Closing Day 1

10:55 - 11:00 AM (EST)

Welcome Day 2

Catherine Duclos, PhD (McGill University)

Stefanie Blain-Moraes, PhD (McGill University)

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (EST)

Keynote Address

Antonio Zadra, PhD (Université de Montréal)

From lucid dreaming to sleepwalking: A window into the study of consciousness during sleep

12:00-12:30 PM (EST)

Lunch Break

12:30-1:40 PM (EST)

Pharmacologically-induced alterations in consciousness

Moderator: Stefanie Blain-Moraes, PhD

12:30-12:50      Karim Jerbi, PhD (Université de Montréal) 

                      AI-driven exploration of consciousness

12:50-1:00       Anirudha Kemtur, MSc (Université de Montréal)  

                      How (dis)similar are anesthesia and sleep?    

                      Insights combining EEG and Domain adversarial

                      neural networks (DANN)

1:00-1:10           Manesh Girn, MSc (McGill University)

                         LSD and psilocybin flatten the macroscale

                      functional hierarchy of the brain

1:10-1:20           Timothy Nest, MSc (Université de Montréal) 

                         Alterations in local and long-range oscillatory

                      brain synchrony under LSD: New insights from

                      MEG

1:20-1:30          Sidath Rankaduwa, MA (Western University)  

                       Looking for Higher Consciousness: The Effects of

                       Psilocybin on Top-Down Visual Illusions

1:30-1:40         Hamid Ramezanpour, PhD (York University)

                      A degraded state of consciousness in healthy

                      awake humans 

1:40-2:10 PM (EST)

Virtual Coffee Break

2:10-3:50 PM (EST)

Sleep and dreaming

Moderator: Catherine Duclos, PhD

2:10-2:30          Emily Coffey, PhD (Concordia University)     

                       Sound asleep: bidirectional interactions between

                       audition and brain state

2:30-2:50         Tristan Bekinschtein, PhD (U of

                           Cambridge, UK) - Alertness differentially

                        modulates cognitive control

2:50-3:00         Elizaveta Solomonova, PhD (McGill University) 

                           Sleep difficulties and other challenges

                        associated with intensive meditation practice 

3:00-3:10          Narges Kalantari, MSc (Université de Montréal) 

                        Developmental Changes in the Frequency of

                        Episode-related Sleep Mentation in Chronic

                        Somnambulism

3:10-3:20         Noor Abbas, HBSc (University of Toronto)  

                       Testing Evolutionary Hypotheses on Dreaming:

                       Preliminary results on university students'

                       dreams during COVID-19 shows evidence

                       consistent with threat simulation.

3:20-3:30         Arthur Dehgan, MSc (Université de Montréal) 

                          Decoding the neural correlates of dream recall

                       from EEG using machine learning and

                       Riemannian geometry

3:30-3:40         Anirudha Kemtur, MSc (Université de Montréal)

                           Classification of high and low dream recallers      

                        using sleep EEG: A deep learning approach

3:40-3:50         Hugo Jourde, MSc (Concordia University) 

                           The Portiloop: a flexible and adaptive device to

                        manipulate brain oscillations.

3:50-4:00 PM (EST)

Short Break

4:00-4:45 PM (EST)

Closing Discussion

The future of consciousness research in Canada