Neuroscientist Nao Tsuchiya is a Professor at the School of Psychological Sciences at Monash. In 2013 he became an ARC Future Fellow.
Nao is currently directing the Qualia Structure project, https://en.qualia-structure.jp/ supported by the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (2023-2028).
The Qualia Structure organizes a yearly summer school. For details. See https://en.qualia-structure.jp/news/detail/5077
His main research interest is to examine the neuronal basis of consciousness. Nao and his team explore philosophical questions using neuroscientific methods – will there be conscious machines or robots, can we tell if other animals experience subjectivity, and broadly, what is consciousness?
Specifically, Dr Tsuchiya focuses on:
- the scope and limit of non-conscious processing
- the relationship between attention and consciousness
- the neuronal correlates of consciousness through analysis of neuronal recordings of animals and humans
- testing a theory of consciousness – in particular an integrated information theory (IIT) of consciousness.
Using a variety of research approaches and interdisciplinary collaborations, Nao has made major contributions to the scientific studies of consciousness. Such an example is the invention of Continuous Flash Suppression (CFS), a technique that opens up the possibilities for investigation of non-conscious neural processing.
He has also contributed to making IIT empirically testable using empirical neuronal data – such development will impact computational neuroscientists interested in consciousness as well as physicists, social neuroscientist and potentially those working on artificial intelligence and robotics.