Press

2022

      • 10/21/2022: For Part II of the recent Homo Roboticus virtual studio, Prof. Giulio Tononi discussed issues related to artificial intelligence, consciousness and ontology. You can watch his presentation and the subsequent discussion here.
      • 7/17/2022: Prof. Chiara Cirelli sat down with WPR’s University of the Air to discuss why the brain requires sleep. Listen to the full interview here.
      • 05/06/2022: Prof. Chiara Cirelli has won the prestigious Pisa Sleep Award for her work on the development of the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis (SHY), a global hypothesis about the function of sleep.
      • 01/13/22: The Sleep Science Podcast recently sat down with WISC Researcher Prof. Chiara Cirelli to discuss her research, the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis, and the importance of studying sleep in different species using a variety of methods. You can listen to the entire interview here.

2021

      • 12/10/21: CSC Co-Director Giulio Tononi has just been recognized on the Institute for Scientific Information™ list of Highly Cited Researchers 2021. You can read more about Dr. Tononi and the other highly cited researchers in this press release from UW research.
      • 11/17/21: Patients with idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) never feel rested, despite sleeping as many as 11 hours in one day. In this short documentary, Science Magazine interviews CSC co-director Prof. Chiara Cirelli about the function of sleep and how sleep disorders like IH affect our ability to learn.
      • 10/18/21: Research on brain organoids has the potential to both further our understanding of the human brain and to spur advances in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders and neurological injuries. But are these organoids conscious? If so, is it ethical to conduct research on them? In this podcast episode of BBC Crowd Science, Marnie Chesterton and Sam Baker sit down with Prof. Giulio Tononi and others to discuss scientific and ethical issues that arise in the context of cutting-edge research on organoids.
      • 8/25/21: Can we measure consciousness in unresponsive patients with brain injuries? If so, how? In this article, MIT Technology Review’s Russ Jaskalian discusses CSC collaborator Dr. Marcello Massimini’s pioneering work on measuring consciousness and how it relates to integrated information theory.
      • 8/25/21: In this article in the MIT Technology Review, Dr. Christof Koch discusses the integrated information theory of consciousness, its panpsychist implications and how such implications can be tested.
      • 4/25/21: In this short article, author David Crookes interviews researcher Johannes Kleiner about panpsychism and about using the tools of the integrated information theory to understand whether systems are conscious.
      • 4/17/21: In this article, author Eric Beyer discusses whether artificial consciousness is possible and what IIT has to say about the issue.
      • 4/5/21: In the article ‘Minds without brains?’, author John Farrell of Mind Matters News discusses concerns about AI and what IIT has to say about the possibility of artificial consciousness.
      • 4/4/21: A new article in Mind Matters News discusses IIT and Panpsychism.
      • 3/15/21: In this article in Discover Magazine, Dr. Christof Koch of the Allen Institute for Brain Sciences provides an overview of the integrated information theory and discusses the theory’s predictions and virtues.
      • 2/16/21: Discover Magazine discusses Panpsychism and the integrated information theory of consciousness in this article.
      • 1/23/21: In ‘What is consciousness? Scientists compete to find out,Bloomberg writer Andreas Kluth discusses Prof. Giulio Tononi’s integrated information theory of consciousness and the role it is playing in the Templeton World Charity Foundation’s  Adversarial Research Collaboration (ARC).

2020

      • 11/17/20: This article in The Economist discusses the integrated information theory, a theory of consciousness developed by Prof. Giulio Tononi, in the context of the Templeton World Charity Foundation’s ARC initiative.
      • 06/17/20: The American Academy for the Advancement of Science has published this release on our recent study involving slow wave sleep in split-brain patients. The study, which was a collaboration between the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca and members of the CSC, advances our understanding of the way that slow waves propagate in the human brain during sleep.
      • 5/3/20: This brief article by Mind Matters News discusses some of the interesting implications of integrated information theory, developed by Prof. Giulio Tononi.
      • 5/2/20: The Technology Times has done a short article on what the integrated information theory, developed by Prof. Giulio Tononi, can tell us about the possibility of machine consciousness.
      • 4/29/20: This article in the New Scientist and this short piece by the Byte discuss some of the interesting implications of the integrated information theory of consciousness, developed by Prof. Giulio Tononi.
      • 4/25/20: The Templeton World Charity Foundation has begun their Accelerating Research on Consciousness initiative, an initiative that aims to stimulate progress in the field of consciousness research by assessing the major theories of consciousness. In this article in the BBC’s Science Focus Magazine, author Christian Jarrett discusses these theories, one of which is the integrated information theory developed by Prof. Giulio Tononi.
      • 01/25/20: In this article from Prospect Magazine, author Philip Ball discusses the application of the integrated information theory, developed by Prof. Giulio Tononi and collaborators, to the question of whether machines can be conscious.
      • 01/17/20: The trailer for the new Arte documentary ‘Losing Sleep’ has been made available here. The documentary, set to be released in early 2020, features an interview with Prof. Chiara Cirelli about her research on sleep and the Synaptic Homeostasis Hypothesis.

2019

      • 12/23/19: In this episode of the Wisconsin Public Radio program Central Time, CSC postdoctoral researcher Dr. Amandine Valomon discusses fearful dreams and some theories of why we have them. (Interview from 00:14:33 – 00:22:00).
      • 11/7/19: In their new episode on sleep, the Science VS podcast interviews CSC researcher and Asst Director of WISC Brady Riedner on the phenomenon of ‘local sleep.’
      • 10/19/19: This article in Scientific American discusses Prof. Chiara Cirelli and Giulio Tononi’s recent publication in Science, which links the need for sleep with synaptic function.
      • 8/27/19: In ‘Better sleep in space?,’ Channel 3000’s News 3 highlights the Philips SmartSleep Deep Sleep Headband, a sleep-optimizing device that will soon be tested on astronauts in space.
      • 8/11/2019: In this video, Spectrum TV’s Kathryn Larson interviews WISC Assistant Director Stephanie Jones on the Philips SmartSleep Deep Sleep Headband.
      • 7/17/2019: Prof. Chiara Cirelli appeared on the Wisconsin Public Radio’s Morning Show to discuss why the brain requires sleep. Listen to the full interview here.
      • 7/6/2019: In this article, the Wisconsin State Journal sits down with WISC Assistant Directors Stephanie Jones and Brady Riedner to discuss the new Philips SmartSleep Deep Sleep Headband, a device designed to make sleep more efficient by promoting restorative, slow wave activity.
      • 7/1/2019:This Science Daily article discusses a recently published study by CSC postdoctoral researcher Dr. Giovanna Spano that provides further support for the Synaptic Homeostasis Hypothesis.
      • 6/4/2019: In this article in Science News, Laura Sanders discusses recent research on dreaming undertaken by Prof. Giulio Tononi and colleagues.
      • 2/21/2019: In this article, Sally McGrane of Medium talks with CSC researcher Dr. Benjamin Baird and others about lucid dreaming and the future of research in the field.
      • 4/15/2019: In this short article, Amelia Kaye of the The Statesman discusses Prof. Giulio Tononi’s Mind/Brain Lecture at Stony Brook University.
      • 3/27/2019: In ‘Are we close to solving the puzzle of consciousness?’ BBC Future‘s David Robson discusses the integrated information theory of consciousness with Prof. Giulio Tononi.
      • 3/6/2019: In ‘Neuroscience Readies for a Showdown Over Consciousness Ideas,’ Quanta Magazine‘s Philip Ball discusses the major competitor theories of consciousness, including the integrated information theory, a theory developed by Prof. Giulio Tononi and his colleagues over the past 20 years.
      • 1/26/2019: In this interview with the Spanish science blog NAUKAS, CSC Associate Scientist Larissa Albantakis discusses consciousness and the integrated information theory.

2018

2017

2016

      • 12/21/2016: In ‘En formel för medvetandet (A formula for the mind)’, author Per Snaprud discusses the Integrated Information Theory, a theory of consciousness developed by Prof. Giulio Tononi and colleagues
      • 7/4/2016: In this article, George Johnson of the The New York Times discusses the hard problem of consciousness and the integrated information theory.
      • 6/8/2016: In ‘2,300 years later, Plato’s theory of consciousness is being backed up by neuroscience’, Olivia Goldhill of Quartz discusses a connection between the integrated information theory of consciousness and some views by the philosopher Plato.
      • 6/2/2016: In this article, the Huffington Post discusses what the integrated information theory and other theories of consciousness have to say about the possibility that digital computers could be conscious.
      • 6/1/2016: In this article, Olivia Goldhill of Quartz discusses the race to create conscious robots, and how research on consciousness at the CSC is playing a role
      • 4/19/2016: This short article in Forbes magazine discusses the integrated information theory and panpsychism.
      • 3/18/2016: In this Science Alert, Matthew Davidson discusses integrated information theory and explores some its predictions concerning what kinds of systems can be conscious.
      • 2/22/2016: Tia Ghose of Live Science discusses integrated information theory and panpsychism here.
      • 2/25/2016: In ‘Consciousness Creep’, George Musser of Aeon extensively discusses the integrated information theory of consciousness and how it is being deployed to answers some of our most difficult questions about consciousness.
      • 1/14/2016: In this short article on Huffington post, Physicist Max Tegmark discusses the possibility of measuring consciousness, and the specific measure proposed by IIT.

2015

      • 12/9/2015: This article discusses how research at the CSC is contributing to an ambitious project, funded by the Core Research for Evolutionary Science and Technology (CREST) program, that aims at creating artificial consciousness.
      • 12/1/2015: This article in Aeon discusses the hard problem of consciousness, and the role that Prof. Giulio Tononi’s research on integrated information theory is playing in its solution.
      • 11/14/2015: In his article in Scientific American Mind, Christof Koch discusses panpsychism and Prof. Tononi’s research on integrated information theory.
      • 10/16/2015: This op-ed piece discusses integrated information theory and what is entails about the possibility of artificial consciousness in different types of systems.
      • 10/7/2015: In this article, Wired‘s Emily Reynolds discusses the question of how to assess the level of consciousness of different systems, and how integrated information theory is being used to answer this question.
      • 2/25/2015:This article by the Kurzweil Network discusses work by Associate Scientist Larissa Albantakis on how increasingly difficult tasks have evolved the brain.
      • 1/29/2015: This Eurekalert! post discusses recent work by Associate Scientist Larissa Albantakis showing that adapting to complex environments drives increases in organisms’ neural complexity.

2014

      • 2/7/2014: This post by Harvard Medical School’s Kreiman Laboratory discusses the recently published paper ‘Quantifying causal emergence shows that macro can beat micro‘ by CSC researchers Erik Hoel, Larissa Albantakis and Giulio Tononi.
      • 1/1/2014: The Scientific American Mind article ‘Is consciousness universal?’ explores the doctrine of panspychism and its relation to integrated information theory, a theory of consciousness developed by Prof. Giulio Tononi and colleagues.

2013

      • 11/14/2013: In his interview with Wired, neuroscientist Christof Koch discusses the integrated information theory of consciousness and its implications.
      • 6/6/2013: In ‘How much consciousness does an iphone have?’, The New Yorker‘s Gary Marcus discusses integrated information theory and what it has to say about the possibility of artificial consciousness.
      • 1/1/2013: In this article in The Atlantic, Prof. Giulio Tononi is interviewed about his theory of consciousness and the method that he and his colleagues have developed to measure consciousness.

2012

      • 11/18/2012: In this interview for Wisconsin Public Radio’s To the best of our knowledge, Steve Paulson sits down with Prof. Giulio Tononi to discuss his research on sleep and consciousness.
      • 10/8/2012: The Wall Street Journal has published a review of Prof. Giulio Tononi’s new book ‘Phi: A journey from the brain to the soul.’
      • 9/19/2012: In this interview with The Boston Globe, Prof Giulio Tononi discusses estimating the level of consciousness of different systems by using the resources of integrated information theory.
      • 9/2/2012: Nature has published a review of Prof. Giulio Tononi’s new book ‘Phi: A journey from the brain to the soul.’

2010

    • 9/20/2010: In the New York Times article ‘Sizing up consciousness by its bits,’ author Carl Zimmer details Prof. Giulio Tononi’s efforts to develop a theory of, and method to measure, consciousness.