Levin Kuhlmann

My long term research interests aim to understand how brain and body give rise to mind. A primary problem with understanding the mind, is how does conscious awareness arise within the brain? The best way to approach this question is to try and develop a theory on the neural correlates of consciousness. To this end, I am interested in studying the effects of neuro- and pharmaco-modulation of sensory and cognitive processing, in the normal and abnormal brain.

The brain is composed of parallel networks of neurons (brain cells) involved in processing sensory information in different modalities, such as vision, audition, smell, touch, taste, and spatial perception. Each sensory modality is processed within separate networks. However, these networks can overlap with each other to some degree. Moreover, these sensory networks interact with cognitive and motor networks. Cognitive networks are involved in higher order attention, memory, personality, and decision making. While, motor networks control the muscles of the body and allow us to move within our environments. The sensory, cognitive and motor networks of the brain are further influenced by neuromodulatory networks which help to determine the overall conscious state (i.e. awake, asleep, dreaming) of the individual. Pharmaceuticals can also modulate the overall conscious state of the individual, through a variety of different mechanisms.

Somehow, the sensory, cognitive, motor, and neuromodulatory systems, and their interactions, give rise to conscious awareness within an individual. Studying the effects of neuro- and pharmaco-modulation of sensory and cognitive processing, in the normal and abnormal brain, provides a means to understand how these systems and their interactions give rise to consciousness. To address these issues I study a broad variety of problems:

anaesthesia

audition

epilepsy

vision

www www.ee.unimelb.edu.au