<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">Hi Everyone,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">Master’s and PhD positions available in computational/experimental
neuroscience on </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">“Unraveling the Neural Mechanism of
Consciousness via Development and Testing of Machine Consciousness” </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">at Tokyo
University, School of Engineering, Dept. of Systems Innovation. For further details,
please contact Associate Prof. Masataka Watanabe (<a href="mailto:watanabe@sys.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp">watanabe@sys.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp</a>).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">Starting date: 2023 October/2024 April</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">Supervisor: Masataka Watanabe (MW),
Associate Professor at University of Tokyo, School of Engineering.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">Keywords: Consciousness, Subjective
Experience, Artificial Consciousness, Brain Machine Interface, Spiking Neural
Networks</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">Related Links: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">A book from MW</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif">“<span lang="EN-US">From Biological to Artificial
Consciousness” (Springer) 2022</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-91138-6">https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-91138-6</a><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">TEDx U-Tokyo Talk by MW</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2wb1p0sN7k" style="color:blue">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2wb1p0sN7k</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">Details on admission</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.sys.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/admissions/regularadmission/?lang=en" style="color:blue">https://www.sys.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/admissions/regularadmission/?lang=en</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif">（<span lang="EN-US">Foreign students who have obtained their
bachelor’s degree outside of Japan would qualify for Special Admission with
benefits</span>）<span lang="EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">Tentative Laboratory Web Page</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://sites.google.com/view/watanaberesearchlab/home" style="color:blue">https://sites.google.com/view/watanaberesearchlab/home</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">(official:<a href="https://www.sys.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/memberpage/3366/?lang=en" style="color:blue">https://www.sys.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/memberpage/3366/?lang=en</a>
)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">The aim of the project “Unraveling the
Neural Mechanism of Consciousness via Development and Testing of Machine
Consciousness” is to </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">1) Research and Development of Machine
Consciousness </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">Develop a large-scale spiking neural
network as a candidate system of machine consciousness. Utilize discrete
synaptic connections obtained from invasive connectome projects as initial
weights. As a working hypothesis, determine a system architecture (e.g.
generative model) and train the network according to the loss functions defined
by it. Validate the final product using objective measures such as network
function (e.g. visual recognition) and network dynamics (e.g. similarity to
noisy neural dynamics observed in mammal brains).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">2) Developing a Test for Machine Consciousness:
integration of biological and mechanical brain hemispheres</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">Since it is impossible to test machine
consciousness through external observation or investigation of internal mechanisms
using objective measures, only one method remains: making use of subjectivity. We
need to connect our own brains to the machine and “see” for ourselves whether
consciousness resides within. By making use of the “master-master”
configuration of visual consciousness in our two biological hemispheres, we
replace one of our hemispheres with a mechanical hemisphere. If we subjectively
experience the machine visual field, we must conclude that a stream of visual
consciousness has genuinely emerged in the mechanical hemisphere.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">3) Developing a Radically New Type of Brain-Machine
Interface that Reads and Writes from Nerve Bundle Sections:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">The key to the approach is a totally new
type of BMI that enables reading and writing information with unprecedented
precision. The best part of the brain to tap into is the three neural fibres
that connect the two cortical hemispheres, namely, the corpus callosum, the
anterior commissure, and the posterior commissure. I proposes dissecting the
three neural fibres and inserting a CMOS based, double-sided two-dimensional
electrode array. Importantly, it would be coated with biological tissue to
provide a target for he dissected axons to regenerate onto and firmly attach to
the interface surface. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0mm;text-align:justify;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:游明朝,serif"><span lang="EN-US">The objective is to read from and write
into all of the axons required to integrate the two potentially independent
streams of consciousness. Importantly, due to the critical problems suggested
by Histed, Bonin and Reid (Neuron, 2009), regarding writing information with
conventional electrodes placed in the grey matter, the proposed brain–machine
interface is likely the only plausible method for the brain to sufficiently
communicate with artificial devices.</span></p></div>