Singapore, 4 January 2013 - ASIA TODAY - Some of the world’s leading experts in the fields of music, child cognition, human cognitive capabilities, neurobiology and consumer research will share their insights at the CogSci Connects Conference today.
Mr Heng Swee Keat, Singapore’s Minister for Education, is the conference’s Guest-of-Honour and will address the conference delegates comprising 400 international scholars, graduate students, teachers, government officials
A Glimpse of “How the Brain Works”
The conference provides an introduction to cognitive science, an emerging multi-disciplinary field and its influence on “thinking” in the 21st century.
Says Professor Tan Eng Chye, NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost, “Over the years, the interdisciplinary nature of Cognitive Sciences has enhanced the way researchers collaborate across the different fields of engineering, the sciences, as well as the arts and social sciences.
CogSci Connects helps to create the bridge across the various disciplines, and gives us all the opportunity to learn more from the experts across many interconnected fields.”
Overseas speakers from Yale, Harvard, Duke, Johns Hopkins Universities and from Singapore, the National University of Singapore and Yale University Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), will speak on their cutting-edge research. Topics include
• Music: how music affects both intelligence and emotions, and the different ways in which our brains and bodies respond to musical creativity,
• Early Child Development: How bilingual children have increased focus and attention spans, how social media has a major role in the way we develop and interact with others and the roles of family and schools in molding us into the individuals whom we are;
• Vision and Perception: How visual illusions are used in films like The Lord of the Rings to colour our perception;
• Cognitive Science Applications: How this emerging field is providing new insights to the decision making process of consumers and e-commerce, and to develop video games help children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); and
• The future of Cognitive Sciences in Asia and the host of opportunities the area of study offers.
Says Professor Dale Purves, Programme Director, Neuroscience & Behavioral Disorders Programme, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore, “Much of the excitement comes from the types of questions that cognitive neuroscientists are asking - What is attention? Why do we remember some events but not others? What the mindset of others in social interactions? How do our brains represent goals when faced with a complex decision? Why are we enamored with music? Cognitive neuroscience promises to answer these questions during the twenty-first century. Accordingly, it is a field that today’s students need to learn about, and that a vibrant country like Singapore needs to support”. Professor Purves is also the Chairman of the Faculty Advisory Committee of the conference.
Asia’s First Student-Led Conference on Cognitive Sciences
The event is organised by a diverse group of students, aged 17 to 27 years old, from Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), NUS High School of Mathematics and Science, Anderson Junior College and NUS with the support of the Department of Physiology, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.
The first of its kind in Asia, this student-organised event was the brainchild of Ms Tara Venkatesan, a Year 5 student at ACS (Independent) and a member of the NUS Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music’s Young Artist Programme.
Says Ms Tara Venkatesan, “My six-week stint two years ago as a research intern at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States brought home to me both the creativity and the challenges that cutting edge brain research embodies. Every morning, I would go to the Boston Children’s Museum with my fellow interns to figure out why one-year-olds cannot recognise that hitting on our experimental block makes an airplane spin while three-year-olds can! Is it an inherent or acquired skill? Listening to professors studying pigeons who recognise pitch in music and amputee patients who still feel their limbs motivated me to be part of organising this conference. This event has evolved into a microcosm of the entire cognitive science field - something that we students couldn’t have even imagined or dared to hope.”
The CogSci Connects conference runs from 4 – 5 January 2013. For more information about the conference, please visit www.cogsciconnects.com.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Ms Celine Soo
Manager, Corporate Communications, ACS (Independent)
Contact: 9760 9288 / celinesoossl@acsindep.edu.sg