Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture

Héctor Álvarez | Theater Studies, Emory University  "Dilating Time: Tempo as Contemplative Tool in Ota Shogo’s Poetics of Deceleration"  This talk explores Ota Shogo's groundbreaking wordless play "The Water Station" as a paradigm of temporal expansion in contemporary theater, examining how extreme deceleration creates unique spaces for audience reflection and embodied awareness. Together we'll investigate how slowed theatrical time functions not merely as stylistic choice but as philosophical intervention—challenging our accelerated cultural rhythms and opening possibilities for deeper environmental and existential awareness.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Héctor Álvarez is an interdisciplinary artist and scholar working in performance, theater, film, and contemporary opera, who has recently joined the faculty at Emory in Theater Studies. This event marks the first in a planned series of dialogues between the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture and the Keio University Centre for Contemplative Studies in Tokyo, Japan, an interdisciplinary group of contemplative scholars, cognitive scientists and artists.       If you would like to become an AFFILIATE [https://cmbc.emory.edu/about/join.html] of the Center, please let us know. Subscribe to our YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/@emorycmbc1507] to get updates on our latest videos. Follow along with us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/emorycmbc/] |  Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/EmoryCenterForMindBrainAndCulture/]   NOTE:  The views and opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those held by the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture or Emory University.

Shay Welch | Associate Professor of Philosophy | Spelman College  "The Bio-Psycho-Social Affect Loop, HyperSensitivity, and Radical Embodied Cognition" If you would like to become an AFFILIATE [https://cmbc.emory.edu/about/join.html] of the Center, please let us know. Subscribe to our YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/@emorycmbc1507] to get updates on our latest videos. Follow along with us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/emorycmbc/] |  Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/EmoryCenterForMindBrainAndCulture/]   NOTE:  The views and opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those held by the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture or Emory University.

Tara Callaghan |  Professor of Psychology, St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada  "Fostering Prosociality in Refugee Children: An Intervention with Rohingya Children"  Prosocial behavior is a distinguishing characteristic of human nature. Although prosocial behaviors emerge early in development, contextual factors play an important role in how these behaviors are manifested over development. A large body of research focuses on the trajectory of prosocial development across diverse cultures and investigating contexts that foster it. Against this backdrop of developmental research endeavoring to understand and enhance the cooperative side of humanity, is the catastrophic impact of profoundly negative forces on social-emotional development for children forced to flee from violent conflict. Close to half a million Rohingya children, whose families were forced to flee genocide in Myanmar, now live in the largest refugee camp in the world. To examine the resilience of human prosociality in the face of extreme adversity, we documented initial levels of prosociality in Rohingya refugee children living in a mega-camp (Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh) and the extent to which those levels were improved following a multifaceted intervention designed to foster prosociality. The research was a partnership between Rohingya community members with lived experience, humanitarian practitioners, and developmental researchers. (Continued - for the full ABSTRACT follow this link: https://bit.ly/cmbclecturecallaghan [https://bit.ly/cmbclecturecallaghan] )  00:00 Intro by Philippe Rochet, Professor of Psychology, Emory University  03:52 Lecture  46:38 Q&A Session  If you would like to become an AFFILIATE [https://cmbc.emory.edu/about/join.html] of the Center, please let us know. Subscribe to our YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/@emorycmbc1507] to get updates on our latest videos. Follow along with us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/emorycmbc/] |  Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/EmoryCenterForMindBrainAndCulture/]   NOTE:  The views and opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those held by the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture or Emory University.

Alexandra (Sasha) Key | Professor, Marcus Autism Center, Emory University School of Medicine  "Building a functional communication system: Does the baby have a say?"  For a long time, language development has been framed mainly in the context of nature-nurture interactions. However, research in non-typical development suggests that another critical contributor should be considered. In this talk, I will present findings from neurophysiological studies in infants and children to demonstrate the importance of self-initiated active engagement with spoken communication for supporting more optimal developmental outcomes. Our data will demonstrate that choosing to engage with speech, an indication of social motivation, is an integral part of the previously established associations between the neural systems and the environmental factors contributing to individual differences in language development. Expanding the general conceptual approach to language to include nature-nurture-person will allow us to better understand the sources of variability in functional communication abilities across the full spectrum of developmental outcomes. If you would like to become an AFFILIATE [https://cmbc.emory.edu/about/join.html] of the Center, please let us know. Subscribe to our YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/@emorycmbc1507] to get updates on our latest videos. Follow along with us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/emorycmbc/] |  Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/EmoryCenterForMindBrainAndCulture/]   NOTE:  The views and opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those held by the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture or Emory University.

Anna Ivanova [https://psychology.gatech.edu/people/anna-ivanova] | Assistant Professor, School of Psychology | Georgia Tech College of Sciences  "Dissociating Language and Thought in Humans and in Machines"  “What is the relationship between language and thought? This question has long intrigued researchers across scientific fields. In this talk, I will propose a framework for clarifying the language-thought relationship. I will introduce a distinction between formal competence—knowledge of linguistic rules and patterns—and functional competence—understanding and using language in the world. This distinction is grounded in human neuroscience, where a wealth of evidence indicates that formal competence relies on a set of specialized brain regions (“the language network”), whereas functional competence requires the use of multiple non-language-specific neural systems. I will then present a series of case studies illustrating how the formal/functional competence distinction can help (a) delineate the functional architecture of the human brain, providing a framework for studying complex cognitive behaviors, such as computer coding and legal reasoning; (b) understand the capabilities and limitations of today’s large language models, particularly in the realm of general world knowledge.” If you would like to become an AFFILIATE [https://cmbc.emory.edu/about/join.html] of the Center, please let us know. Subscribe to our YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/@emorycmbc1507] to get updates on our latest videos. Follow along with us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/emorycmbc/] |  Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/EmoryCenterForMindBrainAndCulture/]   NOTE:  The views and opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those held by the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture or Emory University.