Hemispherotomy is a maximally invasive neurosurgical procedure indicated as a last resort for certain individuals with catastrophic drug-resistant epilepsy. It results in the complete isolation of one hemisphere from the rest of the central nervous system. Such an isolated hemisphere raises the question of its state of consciousness and inspires a debate on "islands of awareness". Together with other researchers / colleagues at the Department of Epileptology, Tobias, Markus and Theodor have developed approaches to investigate this hemisphere using advanced network modeling and innovative fMRI paradigms. The results require neurophilosophical expertise and are therefore contextualized and discussed by Markus Gabriel and Charlotte Gauvry. This collaboration shows once again how fruitful transdisciplinary research projects can be. What exactly this means will hopefully be published soon...
Markus Gabriel is Professor of Epistemology, Modern and Contemporary Philosophy and Director of the International Center for Philosophy at the University of Bonn. Charlotte Gauvry is a postdoctoral researcher at the International Center for Philosophy, focusing on the philosophy of neuroscience and consciousness.
Charlotte and Theodor have organized the Bonn Conference on "Detecting unusual consciousness" together with Uwe Peters, which will took place on September 27-28 at the International Center for Philosophy and the Department of Epileptology.
