The 26th Ockham Lecture - From Neurons to Perception: How Physics Opened the Black Box

With over 85 billion neurons making approximately 1.5x1014 connections (synapses) and a similar quantity of non-neuronal cells all within the adult human brain, it's a feat of brilliance and beauty that our perceptions and creative thinking arise from their interplay. Our knowledge of how this occurs has grown significantly in the past few decades, and physicists have been at the forefront of this wave in understanding. In this talk, Professor Irene Tracey, Nuffield Chair of Anaesthetic Science and Head of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, and Warden-elect of Merton College walks you through some of the landmark discoveries and their application to the brain, highlighting Oxford’s major role in developing the modern field of neuroscience. Finally, she gives a brief overview of her own work using advanced neuroimaging to understand pain perception, pain relief and anaesthesia-induced altered states of consciousness.