Human Brains: Conversations

Fondazione Prada presents the online project “Human Brains: Conversations,” the second phase of the multidisciplinary program “Human Brains” dedicated to brain studies. “Conversations” will take place from September 2021 to April 2022 and will be available on the Human Brains website and on Fondazione Prada’s YouTube channel. The online project consists of 7 pairs of video lectures by international scientists, philosophers and researchers followed by seven livestreaming conversations that will include interaction with the remote audience.

“Human Brains” is the result of a complex research conducted by Fondazione Prada in collaboration with a scientific board chaired by neurologist Giancarlo Comi and composed of researchers, physicians, psychologists, linguists, philosophers, popularizers and curators, such as Jubin Abutalebi, Massimo Cacciari, Viviana Kasam, Udo Kittelmann, Letizia Leocani, Andrea Moro and Daniela Perani. This project on science is a true challenge for a cultural institution like Fondazione Prada. The dialogue embodied by “Human Brains” underlines the importance of cooperation in order to give value and disseminate meaningful studies and practices for our present.

“Conversations” is an innovative format for in-depth analysis, communication and popularization addressed to a heterogeneous and international public composed of students, researchers, and people of all ages and backgrounds interested in neurosciences and brain studies in general.

Each conversation will consist of a 40-minute online debate in which two prestigious researchers will dialogue with each other via livestreaming on a specific topic, coordinated by a moderator. Anatomist, author and broadcaster Alice Roberts will take up the role for the first six events.

The “Human Brains: Conversations” programme includes the following appointemnts:
Syntax as the Fingerprint of Human Language
Angela D. Friederici (Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig) and Robert C. Berwick (MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA)
Live: September 30, 2021, 7pm (CEST)

Hemispheric Lateralization and Attentional Mechanisms
Guido Gainotti (Policlinico Gemelli, Università Cattolica, Rome) and Paolo Bartolomeo (ICM – Paris Brain Institute, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris)
Live: October 21, 2021, 7pm (CEST)

Advantages/Disadvantages of Having a Bilingual Brain
Ellen Bialystok (York University of Toronto, CAN) and Jason Rothman (UiT - University of Tromsø, Norway)
Live: November 25, 2021, 7pm (CET)

Language, Music and the Brain
Steve Mithen (University of Reading, UK) and Stefan Koelsch (University of Bergen, Norway)
Live: January 27, 2022, 7pm (CET)

Enhancing Brain Plasticity with Neuromodulation
Jeffrey Kleim (University of Arizona, USA) and Álvaro Pascual-Leone (Harvard Medical School, Boston; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Live: February 17, 2022, 7pm (CET)

Relationship Between Science, Biological Evolution and Philosophy
Simona Ginsburg (Open University of Israel) and Eva Jablonka (Tel Aviv University)
Live: March 24, 2022, 7pm (CET)

History of Modern Philosophy
Massimo Cacciari (Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan) and Michele Di Francesco (IUSS – Scuola Universitaria Superiore di Pavia)
Live: April 14, 2022, 7pm (CEST)