Lecture | Raphaël Julliard "The Creative Engine and the Sense of Rightness"

Raphaël Julliard | Anthropology of the Creative Process | Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale, Ehess, Paris, France  "The Creative Engine and the Sense of Rightness"  My research operates at the intersection of anthropology, the psychology of creativity, and micro-phenomenology. It is driven by a central question: in the uncertainty of the creative act, how do creators know when it works? While traditional approaches often rely on retrospective reconstruction, my work focuses on the "creative engine": the real-time feedback loop between Action (what the maker does) and Affect (how the emerging form acts back upon the maker). I posit that creativity is not a cognitive planning process, but a navigational skill steered by a pre-reflective affective criterion—a felt sense of fitness we conceptualize as "Rightness"—guiding the artist between the risks. To study this, I have moved from historical analysis to experimental ethnography, developing a novel methodology—The Researcher-As-Obstacle (RAO)—designed to investigate the creative mind in action. My goal is to establish a rigorous anthropology of this navigational competence, specifically addressing how subjects maintain agency and a path toward Rightness within the flow of creation.  Links to referenced texts: Julliard, R. (2025). Action and affect: Ritual dynamics in Jackson Pollock’s creative process. Journal of Material Culture, 30(2), 171-190. → https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/xpbcw_v1 Julliard, R., Roy, D., & Botella, M. (2026).  The Researcher-As-Obstacle: A methodology for the study of creativity while it happens. Qualitative Research, 26(1), 3-22. → https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/shnax_v3  “The Feeling of Life”: Creative Dynamics Captured in Real Time → https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/92fxy_v1 If you would like to become an AFFILIATE of the Center, please let us know.Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get updates on our latest videos.Follow along with us on Instagram |  Facebook 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.

Chris Krupenye | Psychological & Brain Sciences | Johns Hopkins University  "The Social Minds of Humans and Other Apes"  Humans are defined in no small part by the complexity of our social lives, and the cognitive mechanisms we possess for making sense of our social worlds. These capacities support unique forms of communication, cooperation, and culture. But how did they evolve, and to what extent do they rely on language or other uniquely human representational machinery? To address these questions, I will explore the social lives of our closest relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, and present a number of controlled experiments probing their cognition. These studies reveal that other apes gather a diversity of knowledge about their social worlds, and share with humans numerous capacities for tracking and predicting the behavior of their groupmates. These rich foundations of human social intelligence therefore can operate in the absence of language, and very likely evolved at least 6-9 million years ago in the ancestors we share with other apes. 00:00 CMBC Introduction by Dietrich Stout  04:11 Speaker Introduction by Dietrich Stout  05:44 Lecture by Chris Krupenye  01:00:11 Q&A session If you would like to become an AFFILIATE of the Center, please let us know.Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get updates on our latest videos.Follow along with us on Instagram |  Facebook 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.

Ken Paller | Neuroscience | Northwestern University  "Sleep-based Memory Reactivation and Opportunities for Better Benefits from Sleep"  "Sleep is critical not only for its restorative benefits but also for its contributions to memory function. Memory reactivation occurs covertly during sleep. Corresponding changes in the brain move memory consolidation forward, enhancing the likelihood of later remembering and stoking creativity. Our habits of overnight memory reactivation—and the specific memories we reactivate each night—influence our daytime psychological well-being. What transpires in our brains after we fall asleep may seem beyond volitional control. To the contrary, it can be strategically modified to seek various benefits. We have developed methods to modify sleep-based memory reactivation using sensory stimulation, and studies with these methods have uncovered various facets of this covert processing, including dreaming. We’ve also sought insights through studies of the well-documented methods of contemplative sleep practices from Tibetan-Buddhist traditions going back many hundreds of years. We are now seeking to apply this knowledge through new health-related applications to make sleep better and help people with sleep disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnea, and nightmares."   00:00 CMBC Introduction by Dietrich Stout  04:20 Speaker Introduction by Stephan Hamann  06:35 Lecture by Ken Paller  54:58 Q&A session If you would like to become an AFFILIATE of the Center, please let us know.Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get updates on our latest videos.Follow along with us on Instagram |  Facebook 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.

Jared Medina | Department of Psychology, Emory University My presentation will explore the cognitive mechanisms behind how the mind actively does embodiment. Using evidence from perceptual illusions (such as the mirror box and rubber hand illusion) and individuals with brain damage, I will discuss foundational processes that shape our bodily awareness. This overview is designed to provoke a broader dialogue on how theories and methods related to embodiment can conceptually inform the development of social AI.Dr. Medina is an Associate in the Department of Psychology at Emory University, having earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from Johns Hopkins University. His research explores the cognitive and neural mechanisms of embodiment and sensorimotor plasticity, using evidence from perceptual illusions, brain damaged individuals, and neuroimaging to investigate how the brain represents the body.   Masaki Matsubara | Center for Contemplative Sciences, Keio University + University of Tsukuba, Japan "Exploring the transition from the cognitive “Mind” to the phenomenological “Soma,” I will examine whether humans and AI can truly “dance” together through empathy as embodied joint action. I raise the fundamental question of whether a resonant “Field” (Ba) can emerge without the shared vulnerability inherent to biological life. Using the framework of Ki, Do, and Ma (Timing, Intensity, and Space), will discuss how these principles can inform experimental designs for social robots to foster our shared humanity."Dr. Matsubara is an Associate Professor at the University of Tsukuba and leads the Laboratory for Somatic Intelligence and Artistic Expression. His research integrates contemplative education, embodied cognition, and human-AI collaboration. He utilizes first-person approach and arts-based research to explore the emergence of awareness and compassion.         If you would like to become an AFFILIATE of the Center, please let us know.Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get updates on our latest videos.Follow along with us on Instagram |  Facebook 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.

Davor Vincze | Guest Artist | Hong Kong Baptist University  "Interdisciplinary Performance in Immersive & Interactive Environments"  In this lecture, Vincze explores how contemporary artistic practices move beyond single disciplines to create experiences that are immersive, interactive, and integrative. Drawing on theoretical frameworks by Janet Murray (immersion and the fourth wall), Ronald Rowe (interactive systems), and Julie Thompson Klein (interdisciplinarity), he examines how these concepts operate in practice through three recent projects: Freedom Collective, an immersive and smartphone-interactive music theatre work; manτεία, a multisensory, AI-driven guided exhibition where artworks interact with one another; and On the Other Earth, a large-scale stereoscopic choreographic installation that redefines the boundaries between dance, cinema, sound, and architecture. Together, these case studies show how composers and artists can design environments that balance structure and emergence, agency and framing, inviting audiences not only to observe but to inhabit and co-shape contemporary artworks.  Davor Vincze is a Croatian composer, sound artist, and curator whose work explores the intersections of music, technology, and interdisciplinary performance. His compositions span immersive opera, interactive installation, AI-generated media, and electroacoustic chamber music. He has collaborated with leading ensembles such as Ensemble Modern and JACK Quartet, and his works have been featured at festivals IRCAM and Music Biennale Zagreb, where he currently serves as Artistic Director. A recipient of the 2025 Giga-Hertz Production Award from ZKM Karlsruhe, Vincze is also a postdoctoral researcher at Hong Kong Baptist University, focusing on audience interactivity and the role of machine learning in composition. He studied at Stanford University, IRCAM, and the music universities in Stuttgart and Graz. His artistic language reflects a keen interest in glitch, hybridity, and meta-reality, and collective experience. 00:00 Introduction of series by Dietrich Stout, Director CMBC  01:47 Introduction of Vincze by Laura Emmery, Associate Professor of Music Theory  04:35 Davor Vincze presentation  39:15 Q&A   If you would like to become an AFFILIATE of the Center, please let us know.Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get updates on our latest videos.Follow along with us on Instagram |  Facebook 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.

Sashank Varma | Interactive Computing / Psychology | Georgia Institute of Technology "The Travelling Salesperson Problem: How Humans 'Efficiently' Solve a Problem Which is 'Hard' for Computers" “The Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP) is an important problem in mathematics and computer science. A TSP instance is a set of points. To solve it is to produce a ‘tour’ that starts at one point and returns to it after visiting all other points exactly once, and to solve it optimally is to produce a tour of minimum length. As far as we know, computers cannot solve this problem optimally. It is therefore surprising that, for small instances, people produce tours that are near-optimal (i.e., within 10% of the minimal length), and they do so in time linear in the number of points. To accomplish this remarkable feat, we propose that they adopt a divide-and-conquer strategy: first visually clustering the points, then solving each cluster as a smaller TSP instance, and finally joining together these solutions to solve the overall problem. We provide evidence for this proposal in three behavioral experiments and one computational experiment. These findings establish the psychological viability of the divide-and-conquer strategy for solving the TSP, and they set the stage for future studies of how people tame the complexity of computationally ‘hard’ problems.” 00:00 Lecture by Sashank Varma  54:22 Q&A session If you would like to become an AFFILIATE of the Center, please let us know.Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get updates on our latest videos.Follow along with us on Instagram |  Facebook 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.

Shaun Gallagher | Lillian and Morrie Moss Professor of Philosophy | University of Memphis "Compassion: Real and Artificial" I’ve proposed a pattern theory of compassion. On this view, compassion is a specific pattern of dynamically related factors that include physiological, cognitive, and affective processes, relational/intersubjective processes, and motivational/action tendencies (Gallagher, Raffone, Aglioti 2024). The idea of compassion as a dynamical pattern is reflected in neuroscientific findings, as well as in compassion practice. This view also allows for a clear distinction between compassion, empathy, and sympathy. Following Dennett’s conception of “real pattern,” compassion can be said to have a pragmatic reality. After summarizing this view I’ll address a question (raised by both computer scientists and Buddhist scholars) about the possibility of creating a compassionate AI system. Can there be such a thing as artificial compassion? 00:00 Introduction of Dr. Gallagher by Dietrich Stout, CMBC Director  01:53 Lecture by Shaun Gallagher  59:31 Q&A session If you would like to become an AFFILIATE of the Center, please let us know.Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get updates on our latest videos.Follow along with us on Instagram |  Facebook 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.

Deepu Murty | Associate Professor, Chair of the Committee for an Inclusive Community Psychology | University of Oregon "Understanding, Remembering, and Communicating Threatening Events" Threat alters how we represent information. Under threat, individuals tend to prioritize central details at the expense of surrounding contextual information—a shift that reflects and drives changes in medial temporal lobe (MTL) and cortical network dynamics. This talk will explore how threat reshapes the neural architecture supporting event comprehension, which has downstream consequences on how this information is stored in long-term memory. Moreover, we will show how these shifts in brain networks change how threatening experiences are communicated to others. By examining the interplay between emotion, memory, and social dynamics, we highlight mechanisms through which threat can distort shared understanding and social transmission of information. These findings have broad implications for domains ranging from eyewitness testimony to psychotherapy, which both rely on the accurate communication of threatening events.   If you would like to become an AFFILIATE of the Center, please let us know.Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get updates on our latest videos.Follow along with us on Instagram |  Facebook 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.

David Sloan Wilson | Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology / Biological Sciences Binghamton University | State University of New York "Mind, Brain and Culture from a Generalized Darwinian Perspective" Generalized Darwinism refers to any process combining the three ingredients of variation, selection, and replication (VSR). It is both old and new: Old, because all the insights associated with Darwinism during its first few decades were in ignorance of the proximate mechanisms of VSR. New, because with the advent of Mendelian genetics, the entire study of evolution became focused on genes, to the exclusion of other VSR processes. A return to generalized Darwinism didn’t commence until the closing decades of the 20th century and is now in full swing, with profound implications for our understanding of mind, brain, and culture.    Link to ProSocial World website: https://www.prosocial.world/ If you would like to become an AFFILIATE of the Center, please let us know.Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get updates on our latest videos.Follow along with us on Instagram |  Facebook 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.

Apurva Ratan Murty | Assistant Professor, Psychology | Georgia Institute of Technology Jared Medina | Associate Professor, Psychology | Emory University "To Predict or To Explain" What is even the point of our science? Is it to build models that predict what brains and minds will do even if we don’t fully understand how, or is it to explain the inner workings of the mind and brain, even if our models fall short of accurate predictions or practical mental health benefits. In this debate-styled meeting, Jared Medina will argue for explanation as the soul of science. Without causal, interpretable, mechanistic accounts, we’re just playing with high-tech models and curve-fitting. For him the goal of our science is about generating understanding in human interpretable terms. On the opposing side, Apurva Ratan Murty will champion prediction as the only reliable test of scientific understanding. If your theory can’t predict new data, it has limited value. Models that generalize, however messy or uninterpretable, are the real engines of discovery and measure of progress. This brings us to the core of the conflict. Is prediction sufficient for explanation, or even preferable? Can we trust models we do not understand, or does demand for interpretability needlessly limit our predictive power? Should we be architects of models as tools to describe, anticipate, and control brain behavior, or storytellers who illuminate the architecture of the mind? Join us as we debate these foundational questions and consider what our field should value most and how these seemingly opposing frameworks co-exist. If you would like to become an AFFILIATE of the Center, please let us know.Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get updates on our latest videos.Follow along with us on Instagram |  Facebook 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.