Are you comfortably numb?

Consciousness is one of the biggest mysteries in science. How much can the oblivion of going under anaesthesia tell us about our conscious mind?

Until very recently it was thought that consciousness couldn’t be studied scientifically, but now the drive to find out how your brain can make you self-aware is one of the most significant areas of new research. What’s more, scientists are now making headway with some of the big questions. What is consciousness? How can we hope to study it empirically when it’s all about each person’s subjective experience?

Some clues to these answers may come from studying anaesthesia. When you go under anaesthetic you’re in a strange position with regard to consciousness. It’s a much deeper oblivion than sleep, but we all know stories of people becoming aware during surgery. It even appears that patients under perfectly adequate anaesthetic can still hear, and in one experiment, patients were able to learn while under!

In this event, chaired by Baroness Susan Greenfield, Prof Mike Alkire and Prof Peter Sebel will guide you through the study of consciousness. You’ll hear all about the current theories and get a peek at work on the cutting edge of research.

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