News & Events
On January 9, 2013, Escola Secundária António Damásio was dedicated in the presence of patron Antonio Damasio, the Minister of Education and Science of Portugal (Nuno Crato) , and the Mayor of Lisbon (António Costa).
New BCI Building opens November 6, 2012.
The Open University of Catalonia presents USC Dornsife’s Hanna Damasio its highest honor for her digital imaging brain research. November 2, 2012
Thd Los Angeles Philharmonic Association (LA Phil), the Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) and the Brain and Creativity Institute announced a research collaboration to investigate the emotional, social and cognitive effects of musical training on childhood brain development. October 9, 2012
Associate Professor of Psychology at the BCI, John Monterosso, co-authored an opinion piece in the New York Times on Sunday July 29, 2012, entitled: Did Your Brain Make You Do It?
The BCI and USC Visions and Voices presented Do You Dream In Color on Thursday, March 8, 2012 at 7:00 PM the AT&T Center Theatre, 1150 S. Olive Street, Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Times Review : Do You Dream in Color?
Antonio Damasio spoke at the TED conference on March 1, 2011
Antonio and Hanna Damasio have been appointed USC University Professors - January 12, 2011
Self Comes to Mind in Science Humaines - February 16, 2011
Self Comes to Mind selected as Book of the Week by The Guardian - February 12, 2011
Financial Times review of Self Comes to Mind - January 14, 2011
Antonio Damasio's Self Comes to Mind has been selected by the Financial Times as one of the best books of the year - November 27, 2010
Hanna Damasio and Antonio Damasio awarded
Doctor Honoris Causa, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Swiss Institute of Technology), 2011
Los Angeles Review of Books "The Symphony of Self" February 7, 2012
Other news of 2011
Corine International Book Prize (for Self Comes to Mind), Germany, 2011
Dallas Morning News Review of Self Comes to Mind -November 14, 2010
NPR Airtalk Interview with Antonio Damasio November 5, 2010 on Self Comes to Mind
Wired.com - November 8, 2010 - Interview with Jonah Lehrer
Antonio Damasio Wins International Honda Prize, Announced September 21, 2010
Antonio Damasio's new book, Self Comes to Mind, was published by Pantheon on Fall, 2010.
The Institute's New Building Has Been Completed
The new building of USC's Brain and Creativity Institute has now been completed. The lead gift for the building is from Dana and David Dornsife. Other important gifts are from Joyce Cammilleri and Warren Cross.
The architectual firm of Perkins + Will has finalized the project based on conceptual plans previously prepared by Michael Maltzan Architecture:
New York Times article on Michael Maltzan
USC News: David and Dana Dornsife
USC News: Joyce J. Cammilleri
Upcoming
Selected Recent Events
November 5 & 6, 2012, Pepe Romero Master Class co-sponsored by
the USC Thornton School of Music
and the Brain and Creativity Institute
September 14, 2010
Brain and Creativity Institute Lab Meeting with Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget
May 30, 2010
REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater) and the Brain and Creativity Institute presented "Myth, Wagner and the Human Brain", a colloquium featuring theater and opera director Peter Sellars, visual artist Bill Viola, and Antonio Damasio as part of the city-wide Ring Festival LA, which involved collaborations with a number of Los Angeles institutions in conjunction with LA Opera's performance of Richard Wagner's four-part Der Ring des Nibelungen.
May 26, 2010
April 25, 2010
BCI Article Receives Prize from the National Academy of Sciences
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Andrea McColl, Hanna Damasio, and Antonio Damasio have been been named recipients of the 2009 Cozzarelli Prize, given annually to one paper from each of the six categories published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, for their paper "Neural correlates of admiration and compassion".
The awardees were recognized during the National Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting in National Harbor, Maryland.
March 8, 2010
The Brain and Creativity Insitute presented a lecture by Dr. Jean-Pierre Changeux, entitled "Neuronal Architectures for Conscious Processing and the Global Neuronal Workspace Model".
March 6, 2010
Antonio Damasio's work (including the collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma and Bruce Adolphe) was featured in the Portuguese magazine Publico.
February 8, 2010
Antonio Damasio received an Honorary Doctorate (honoris causa) from Leiden University, the Netherlands' oldest university (founded in 1575). Also receiving honorary degrees were novelist and essayist Dame Antonia S. Byatt (A.S. Byatt) and astrophysicist Prof. Reinhard Genzel (Max Planck Institute and UC Berkeley). See pictures from the ceremony here.
January 22, 2010
The USC School of Cinematic Arts presented "The Brain and Creativity", a conversation with Dr. Antonio Damasio and
7-time Academy Award-winner (and USC Cinema alumnus) Gary Rydstrom, as part of the 2010 Sloan Science Seminar.
January 2010
In the January issue of Sciences Humaines, Antonio Damasio's Descartes' Error is named as one of the 20 books published between 1989 and 2009 that have changed our vision of the world.
July 2009
Antonio Damasio was interviewed by David Brooks at the Aspen Institute's Aspen Ideas Festival.
See the full interview here
Sunday, May 4, 2009
Yo-Yo Ma performs composer Bruce Adolphe's "Self Comes to Mind", a 30-minute work for cello and two percussionists, based on texts by Antonio Damasio. Accompanied by video imagery by Ioana Uricaru and Diego Miralles, based on images from Hannah Damasio, the piece premiered at the American Museum of Natural History.
Reviewed by the New York Times
Discussed on NPR's All Things Considered
Friday, March 6, 2009
Of Mind, Medicine, and Music. Visions and Voices event. Antonio Damasio and composer Bruce Adolphe present their neuroscience-inspired musical work Memories of a Possible Future. USC, Health Sciences Campus, Mayer Auditorim.
Bruce Adolphe's Learning Maestros
Monday, November 24, 2008
Challenges in Neuroimaging Workshop, with Dr. Marcus Raichle, Arthur Toga, and Van Wedeen.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
The Musical Mind
The Tokyo String Quartet and Drs. Antonio and Hanna Damasio discuss the neurological aspects of music making, particularly memory and the unique qualities of a "creative Brain." This event was sponsored by USC's Visions and Voices.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Professor Olaf Sporns gives a talk entitled "Mapping and Network Analysis of the Human Cerebral Cortex".
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Philosophy Professor Patricia Churchland gives a lecture entitled "How Do Brains Navigate Teir Social/Moral Worlds?"
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel gives a talk entitled: "Mechanisms for the Initiation and Persistence of Long Term Memory Storage".
Other BCI Visitors
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Renowned Neuroscientist Giacomo Rizzolatti from Parma spoke on "Mirror Neurons"
Monday, March 12, 2007
Acclaimed Pianist Alfred Brendel read his Poetry and engaged in a conversation on creativity with Antonio Damasio.
See article about Brendel Event in the USC Chronicle: "Pianist with a Penchant for Poetry" (March 23, 2007)
Friday, March 2, 2007
Nobel Laureate David Hubel (Enders Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard University) discussed his pioneering work on brain and vision. The title of the lecture was:
"The crystalline organization of the visual cortex
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Star pianist Piotr Anderszewski talked with Antonio Damasio about brain and music and played out his ideas at 4:00 PM at Alfred Newman Hall, University Park Campus, USC.
Co-sponsored with the Thornton School of Music
Thursday, October 26, 2006
The Brain and Creativity Institute hosted a conversation between John Burnham Schwartz and Antonio Damasio.
Acclaimed novelist John Burnham Schwartz read from his novel "Reservation Road" and discussed his writing of the screenplay with neuroscientist Antonio Damasi.
Tuesday, June, 22, 2006,
The Brain and Creativity Institute hosted a screening of "House of Sand", directed by Andrucha Waddington.
Selected Recent Scientific Publications
Nature Reviews Neuroscience: Antonio Damasio, Gil Carvalho: Feelings and Sentience: What, Where and Why. (2012 in press)
Cerebral Cortex: Antonio Damasio, Hanna Damasio, Daniel Tranel. "Persistence of feelings and sentience after bilateral damage of the insula" (2012)
Scholarpedia: Antonio Damasio: "Neural basis of emotions" (2011)
Cerebral Cortex: Kaspar Meyer, Jonas T Kaplan, Ryan Essex, Hanna Damasio, Antonio Damasio. "Seeing touch is correlated with content-specific activity in primary sensory cortex" (2011)
Current Biology: Justin Feinstein, Ralph Adolphs, Antonio Damasio, Daniel Tranel. "The human amygdala and the induction and experience of fear" (2011)
Nature Neuroscience: Kaspar Meyer, Jonas T. Kaplan, Ryan Essex, Cecelia Webber, Hanna Damasio, Antonio Damasio, "Predicting visual stimuli based on activity in auditory cortices" (2010)
Neuron: Liane Young, Antoine Bechara, Daniel Tranel, Hanna Damasio, Marc Hauser, Antonio Damasio "Damage to ventromedial prefrontal cortex impairs judgment of harmful intent" (2010)
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Andrea McColl, Hanna Damasio, and Antonio Damasio "Neural correlates of admiration and compassion" (2009)
Trends in Neurosciences: Kaspar Meyer, Antonio Damasio "Convergence and divergence in a neural architecture for recognition and memory" (2009)
Brain: L. Clark, Antoine Bechara, Hanna Damasio, MR Aitken, BJ Sahakian, TW Robbins "Differential effects of insular and ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions on
risky decision-making" (2008)
Science: Kaspar Meyer "How Does the Brain Localize the Self?" (2008)
Nature: Kaspar Meyer, Antonio Damasio "Mirror Neurons: Behind the Looking Glass" (2008)
Journal of Neuroscience: Antonio Damasio "Rapid Interactions between the Ventral Visual Stream and Emotion-Related Structures Rely on a Two-Pathway Architecture". (2008)
Journal of Physiology: Antonio Damasio, Lisa Aziz-Zadeh "Embodied semantics for actions: Findings from functional brain imaging". (2008)
Neuroimage: Hanna Damasio "Effects of spatial transformation on regional brain volume estimates" (2008)
Neuroimage: Hanna Damasio "Thresholding lesion overlap difference maps: Application to naming and recognition deficits in various categories of concrete entities" (2008)
Cortex: Hanna Damasio "The earliest behavioral expression of focal damage to human prefrontal cortex" (2007)
Science: Hanna Damasio, Antoine Bechara "Damage to the insula disrupts addiction to cigarette smoking" (2007)
Nature: Antonio Damasio "Damage to the prefrontal cortex increases utilitarian moral judgments" (2007)
Selected Recent Lectures
European Neurosurgery Congress, Keynote Address, Neural Correlates of Feeling States, Lisbon, Portugal September 2012
WWW Conference, September 2012
Summer School in Cognitive Sciences, University of Quebec, Feelings and Sentience, Montreal July 2012
Luminato Festival, Music and the Brain, Toronto June 2012
Commencement address, Thornton School of Music,
University of Southern California, May 2012
XLIV MEMORIAL JIMENEZ DIAZ Lecture, Madrid, May 2012
INSTITUTE FOR NEW ECONOMIC THINKING (INET) Conference, Berlin, Keynote Address, April 2012
SAP CEO Conference, "The Digital Brain", Miami March 2012
A public dialogue with theologian Hans Küng, moderated by philosopher Armando Massareuti (in the setting of the Nonino Prize celebrations) Udine Italy January 2012
Keynote at the Encéphale Congress, "The Neuroscience of Feeling", Paris January 2012
KAVLI LECTURE, “Feelings and Sentience”, Society for Neuroeconomics, Chicago, September 2011
CHAMPALIMAUD NEUROSCIENCE SYMPOSIUM, Inaugural Lecture, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, September 2011
HESSE LECTURE, “Brain, Emotion and Music” Aldeburgh Festival, Aldeburgh U.K. June 2011
NEUROPSYCHOANALYSIS CONGRESS, “Constructing Selves” Berlin Germany June 2011
JANSSEN LECTURE, “The Conscious Brain”, Madrid Spain June 2011
LINCOLN CENTER FILM SOCIETY , “I am a studio: notes on brain, self and cinema”, NY June 2011
APS Convention, Consciousness, “Then Neural Self” Washington D.C. May 2011
DALAI LAMA PANEL DISCUSSION, USC, Los Angeles CA May 2011
TED LECTURE, Long Beach CA, March 2011
L.A. CHAMBER ORCHESTRA, Broad Theatre, performance of Self Comes to Mind, and colloquium with Bruce Adolphe, March 2011
JANSSEN LECTURE, Lisbon Portugal, March 2011
POLYMATHY ACADEMY Inaugural Event with David Brooks, University of Southern California, February 2011
HONDA FOUNDATION PRIZE LECTURE, Tokyo, November 2010
HAMMER MUSEUM CONVERSATIONS, Los Angeles CA,
November 2010
GOOGLE LECTURE, San Francisco, October 2010
MICROSOFT LECTURE, Seattle, October 2010
Cité de la Science, Brain and Consciousness, Paris, September, 2010
KAVLI PRIZE SYMPOSIUM on Neuroscience, Keynote Address, Oslo, September, 2010
IPSEN FOUNDATION, "The Neural Self” Paris, April, 2010
CALARTS PRESIDENTIAL SERIES LECTURE AT REDCAT
“Art and the Conscious Brain”, Los Angeles, March, 2010
AMERICAN NEUROLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, PRESIDENTIAL SYMPOSIUM,“The Neural Basis of Human Consciousness”, Baltimore, MD, October, 2009
A SENSE OF PLACE, Keynote Address, “Then and Now: the extraordinary case of progress in the Neurosciences”, Lisbon, October, 2009
GLOBAL CREATIVE LEADERSHIP SUMMIT, “Socio-biological Perspectives of Neuroscience”, New York, NY September, 2009
LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS WOLLHEIM LECTURE, “Reflecting on Emotion and Art from the Perspective of Neuroscience”, London, June, 2009
REPSOL FOUNDATION, Keynote address, “The Brain, Emotions and Decision-making in a Time of Cultural Crisis” San Sebastian, Spain, June 2009
VATICAN WORKSHOP on “Endogenous Processes and Causation in Brain and Behavioral Sciences” Vatican City, Italy, April, 2009
CADIM CONFERENCE, Keynote address “Freud and Neuroscience”, Lisbon, March, 2009
SALK INSTITUTE, Keynote address, “Art and Emotion” in CARTA Symposium on “Evolutionary Origins of Art and Aesthetics”, UC Irvine, March, 2009
SALK INSTITUTE HELMHOLTZ LECTURE, "Complex Networks and Consciousness", UC Irvine, March, 2009
NATIONAL THEATER COMPANY COLLOQUIUM
London, December, 2008
EMBODIED MIND SYMPOSIUM/GULBENKIAN FOUNDATION
"Brain, Body and Emotion", London, December, 2008
ART, MEDICINE and THE BRAIN, Tate Mondern Gallery, London, December, 2008
VISIONS AND VOICES USC/"The Musical Mind". University of Southern California, Los Angeles, November 2008
INAUGURATION OF NEW PROGRAM AT FREE UNIVERSITY ON EMOTION RESEARCH, Keynote Lecture (Antonio Damasio) and colloquium (Hanna Damasio and Antonio Damasio). Berlin, Germany, October 2008
NEUROSCIENCE AND PSYCHIATRY CONGRESS, "The Human Mind from Philosophy to Neuroscience", Athens, Greec, October, 2008
FORUM for the FUTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION "Social Implications of Recent Advances in the Neurosciences". Aspen Institute, June, 2008
WISCONSIN SYMPOSIUM ON EMOTIONS, Keynote lecture, "The neural correlates of consiousness". University of Wisconsin, Madison. April, 2008
VII ANNUAL PSYCHIATRY SYMPOSIUM, "Advances in the Neurobiology of the Emotions and its relevance to Brain Dysfunction", Valencia, Spain. January, 2008
NEUROECONOMICS SYMPOSIUM, Keynote lecture, "Emotions, Decisio-Making and Social Cognition", New York University. January, 2008
GORDON HOLMES LECTURE, CAMBRIDGE NEUROSCIENCE SYMPOSIUM, "The Neural Basis for Emotion, Cambridge University, UK. September, 2007
Both Antonio and Hanna Damasio gave Keynote addresses at an international symposium on "Creativity in the Digital Culture". The symposium was held at the University of Seville and was hosted by Telefonica. The other Keynote speakers were: Manuel Castells (Barcelona and USC); Gilberto Gil (Minister of Culture of Brazil; composer and performer); Larry Lessing (Stanford), Sir Peter Hall (University College, London), and William Mitchell (MIT)June, 2007
BASS LECTURE, The Society of Neurological Surgeons (Cushing Society) San Francisco, California. May, 2007
Selected News
De Groene Amsterdammer (January 1, 2012)
Big Think: Consciousness is How We Know We Exist. (September 1, 2010)
National Public Radio:Our Storied Lives: The Quest for 'Something More' (August 31, 2010)
Guardian.co.uk Science Blog: "Can I hear the sound of silence? (2010)
Discover presents The Brain: "Speed Freaks" Dr. Antonio
Damasio ( 2009)
The Washington Diplomat: "Arts Smart" Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang is profiled discussing "the Mozart effect".
(2008)
The National: "Mirror, mirror in the brain" (2008)
Boston Globe: "The Next Decider" (2008)
Newsweek: "Heard Any Good Stories Lately?" (2008 page 2)
International Herald Tribune: "Portugal among world's scientific elite?" (2008)
Wired Science: "What Does it Mean to be Human", World Science Festival (2008)
New York Times: "The Neural Buddhists", Op Ed by David Brooks (2008)
Times Higher Education: "More Than a Feeling" (2008)
Sunday Independent (South Africa): "In Search of Spinoza and Adebayor: Jeremy Gordin recalls a family pilgrimage that rekindled his faith in philosophy, football and the study of Hebrew" (2008)
New York Times: "Counseling Democrats to Go for the Gut" (2007)
Boston Globe: "Hearts and Minds" (April 29, 2007)
USC Chronicle:"Moral Judgment Fails Without Feelings"(2007)
Publico (Portugal): (2007)
New Scientist: "Impaired Emotional Processing Affects Moral Judgement" (2007)
London Telegraph: "Feelings Guide You Round the Moral Maze" (2007)
LA Times: "Empathy is hard-wired into the mind, study finds" (2007)
NY Times: "Brain Injury Said to Affect Moral Choice" (2007)
Reuters: "Brain Damaged People Give Insights into Morality" (2007)
ScienceNow: "How the Heart Can Rule the Head" (2007)
Open Source Interview with Antonio Damasio on Spinoza (2007)
USC Chronicle: Brain injury and smoking (2007)
TIME Magazine: (MIND AND BODY SPECIAL ISSUE: 2007)
International Herald Tribune: "Brain injury can break smoking habit, study says" (2007)
NY Times: "In Clue to Addiction, Brain Injury Halts Smoking" (2007)
Selected Exhibitions
Goose Bumps: The Science of Fear was at the California Science Center. The work of the Damasio lab was featured prominently in this popular exhibition which travelled to the Museum of Science, Boston, MA; Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Portland, OR; Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN; COSI, Columbus, OH; Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, fort Worth, TX; and Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA.
Movies on the Mind: Psychology and Film Since Sigmund Freud was at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sci
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