Skip to main content

The Unreal Self: Neurocognitive Correlates of Hallucination and Dissociation in Non-clinical Populations.

When: —
Venue: Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street

No booking required

The Unreal Self: Neurocognitive Correlates of Hallucination and Dissociation in Non-clinical Populations.

Jason J Braithwaite, Lancaster University

Abstract

The factors which contribute to our typically stable and coherent sense of self are not error-proof and can break down, with striking consequences for our conscious experience. Many of these instances can result in certain forms of hallucination or dissociative episodes. Such instances are not confined to neurological conditions, clinical disorders, or psychopathology but are also surprisingly common in non-clinical groups. In this talk I will present some of the evidence from my research which has examined the neurocognitive correlates of aberrant experiences in non-clinical groups. A focus will be placed on both the out-of-body experience (OBE) and depersonalization / derealization like experiences and what these experiences tell us about the varieties of human consciousness and how they might map onto neurocognitive substrates.

Brief Biography

Dr Jason Braithwaite obtained his first degree (Psychology: BSc Hons) at Lancaster University in 1999, before moving to the Behavioural Brain Sciences Centre at the University of Birmingham to study for his PhD on Inattentional Blindness under the late Prof Glyn Humphreys. Straight after completion of his PhD he was awarded a number of consecutive independent Fellowships spanning 9 years (ESRC, British Academy, RCUK: Senior Roberts Fellowship) before taking up a lectureship at Birmingham in 2010. He became Senior lecturer in 2013. While at Birmingham he established the Aberrant Experience and Belief research theme which championed research into disorders of consciousness and aberrant experiences. In 2016 Dr Braithwaite was awarded a Readership in Brain Science at Lancaster University.

Contact name: