News 

Dr. Mensgen Zhang returned to FAU to deliver a Neuroscience Seminar talk on April 16th, 2024, entitled “The Bumpy Landscape of Brain and Social Coordination Dynamics” dedicated to the memory of the late Dr. Emmanuelle Tognoli. Mengsen Zhang, a former PhD student of Emmanuelle and Prof. Scott Kelso, graduated from FAU's Center for Complex Systems & Brain Sciences in 2018 and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computational Mathematics, Science & Engineering at Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI. (Pictured from left to right: Aliza Sloan, Mengsen Zhang, Keyla Thamsten, Tobias Schwippel, Scott Kelso)

Congratulations to HBBL team member and dually enrolled FAU/FAU High student, Abby Sinu, on winning the student track 2024 FAU Business Pitch Competition with NanoSense, a flagship device that uses compounds in people’s breath to detect possible medical conditions such as lung cancer, tumors and asthma. Read more here.

After graduating from FAU this Spring, HBBL team member Carter Sale will be joining the lab of Dr. Thorsten Kahnt, chief of NIH's Learning and Decision Making Unit at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Congratulations on your new job, Carter! Do us proud!

Twenchi Denoe (left), an international business student, represented HBBL's team of undergraduate researchers at the 14th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. Denoe, along with Eva Pokharel, Carter Sale and Abby Sinu secured an OURI grant to fund an experiment which investigates the role of visual perception on bimanual coordination.

Congrats to Denoe and the rest of the HBBL team!

Aliza Sloan and Scott Kelso explain how an infant’s aha! moment may hold secrets to the origins of agency.

Click here to read the article online or here to download a PDF.

New preprint by originator of The Market Mind Hypothesis (MMH) Patrick Schotanus of the Edinburgh Futures Institute at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland along with Sam Johnson and Scott Kelso. Cognitive economics is an emerging interdisciplinary field that uses the tools of cognitive science to study economic and social decision-making. Here, minds and markets are each seen to be complex adaptive systems, and understanding markets as extended mind is analyzed using the concepts, methods, and tools of Coordination Dynamics (CD).

The Human Brain & Behavior Laboratory (HBBL) located in FAU’s Center for Complex Systems in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science (Valery Forbes, Dean) seeks an excellent candidate to join our team to investigate the roots of biological agency (see recent article in PNAS ).

HBBL explores how sentient agency emerges through self-organizing, coordinative processes that span organisms and environments. The postdoctoral fellow will assist in developing next-generation interactive systems for empirical study, conducting experiments with human infants (involving 3D motion capture, EEG, eye tracking) and analyzing data. The post-holder will have freedom and capacity to develop their own scientific ideas through experimental design and preparing manuscripts and grant applications. This position offers opportunity to participate in HBBL’s active collaborations with world-leading teams in Artificial Intelligence analysis ( Intelligent Systems Research Centre , Ulster University, The Institute for the Augmented Human , University of Bath), in mathematical modeling using Active Inference ( Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging , Univ. College London) and Coordination Dynamics frameworks ( Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes , Aix Marseille University). Qualified candidates will possess advanced technical skills in relevant areas such as coding (Matlab, Python, etc.), machine learning, signal processing, mathematical modeling, EEG analysis, motion capture, and electrical engineering/robotics, as well as creativity, curiosity, and a collaborative spirit.  HBBL is directed by Glenwood and Martha Creech Eminent Scholar in Science J.A. Scott Kelso. Prof. Kelso founded FAU's Center for Complex Systems in 1985 with the goal of bringing scientists from different disciplines together in one place to understand the multiscale structure, function, and dynamics of complex biological systems, including human beings and their activities.

Please forward Letter of Interest to Dr. Aliza Sloan ( asloan2014@fau.edu ) indicating qualifications, CV and names and contact information of 2 Referees as soon as possible. The expected salary will follow the current NIH postdoc salary scale plus benefits. The position will be for 2 years, assuming satisfactory progress in year one, and may be extended further depending on funding. Position start date is May to August 2024.

HBBL enjoyed a stimulating visit with Dr. Tore Kristian Aune, lead of the Sport and Human Movement Science research group at Nord University, Norway. We discussed the history of complexity science & CCSBS, intrinsic dynamics in skill acquisition, and opportunities for future collaboration.

Pictured: Scott Kelso (left), Valery Forbes, Dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science (center) and Tore Kristian Aune (right)

In collaboration with the groups of Damien Coyle, Karl Friston, and Viktor Jirsa, HBBL proposes a new interdisciplinary program of research - "Coordination Dynamics meets Active Inference and Artificial Intelligence (CD + AI²): A multi-pronged approach to understanding the dynamics of brain and the emergence of conscious agency." 

View the poster here.

A Great Feat: Standing on one foot, HBBL member and Reseach Assistant Professor, Dr. Aliza Sloan explains the origins of purposeful action.

This insightful book examines the historical, contemporary, and future dimensions of cities and urbanism, and explores how 21st century life in cities contributes to the ongoing crisis of democracy.

"What’s wrong with democracy, why it is in crisis, goes much deeper than democracy itself. What’s wrong, fundamentally, is that people see their relations with themselves, others and the world as either-or. The result is that they are unable to tolerate dissent and acceptance of opposing views. This is what has to be fixed..."

Read Prof. Kelso's chapter, 'Democracy demands wisdom'.

In this pioneering book, Patrick Schotanus explains that the dominant economics worldview which treats the economy as a machine, the market as an automaton, and its agents as robots leads to flawed thinking and faulty practices. Central to the Market Mind Hypothesis' psychophysical worldview is the fact that consumers, investors, and other participants are conscious beings and that their minds’ extension makes consciousness a reality in markets, exemplified by market mood. The book argues that scholars and students of economics and finance as well as finance practitioners need to investigate―through cognitive economics, in collaboration with cognitive experts―the deep links between markets and minds to better understand both.

Read J.A. Scott Kelso's Intermezzo here.

Living things act with purpose. But where does purpose come from? How do humans make sense of their relation to the world and realize their ability to effect change? These fundamental questions of agency – acting with purpose – have perplexed some of the greatest minds in history.

Using quantitative tools and principles of Coordination Dynamics, HBBL reveals groundbreaking insight into the origins of agency using an unusual and largely untapped source – human babies.

Click here for Press Release.

Read the full article here.

Click here to watch a baby in action!

Led by FAU senior Carter Sale, HBBL's team of teen scientists are hard at work investigating "How Breaking Symmetry by Vision Infuences the Stability of Coordination."

What happens to your coordinative abilities when there is a mismatch between what you see and what you feel?

View Carter's poster here.

"Sheets-Johnstone’s methods, insights and inspiring writings await those who want to know. They are not for the faint-hearted or for those who seek to build careers on established paradigms. But for those who possess as Darwin did the creative power of not yet knowing, the fruits of “making the darkness conscious”, the “familiar strange”, as revealed here by Maxine Sheets-Johnstone and in her other works, are unimaginable. To future students, and to some old warriors, this is a gift.." -J.A.S. Kelso

Read Foreword here.

International Scientific Collaboration involving Universities in England, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Denmark, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the US (FAU)—comprehensively reviews the past, present and future of the theory of metastability and its many applications in the neurosciences. For preprint see: https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202307.1445/v1

Funded by Fundacion Tatiana, the CINET International Workshop aims to promote the interdisciplinary dialogue on synchrony as an essential feature to understand the brain, its relationship with consciousness, and the development of mental life.

(See program here).

Abstract

Agency in the midst of action and inaction. Dynamical analysis of 3 month old infants in the baby~mobile paradigm reveals that agency emerges as a phase transition in a coupled dynamical system that spans the infant and the environment. Patterns of fluctuations prior to and following transitions reveal processes of exploration, discovery and control. Human infants realize they are agents through the joint process of stillness and actions that cause the world to change. These findings present a challenge to previous thinking and current modeling. 

Dually enrolled at FAU High School and FAU, Carter Sale has earned the FAU High Research Scholar of the Year Award for 2023! Since joining HBBL, Carter has investigated the dynamics underlying how 3-4-month old infants transition from spontaneous movement to goal-directed action. Carter presented these findings at local, national and international undergraduate research conferences (scroll down for details). Recently awarded FAU's competitive Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), including $4000 in funds, Carter is gearing up to explore the effects of visual perception on bimanual (hand-to-hand) coordination. Keep up the great work, Carter!

Carter Sale, dually enrolled at FAU High School and FAU, presented new findings on the emergence of agency at St. Thomas University in Miami, FL.

Open to all Florida undergraduate researchers, FURC is one of the nation's largest multi-disciplinary research conferences. 

"It went great," reflected Carter. "A lot of people were interested and took pictures." 

Check out the poster here. 

SOAL at HBBL and the Theoretical Neurobiology team at University College of London's Wellcome Centre for Neuroimaging presented preliminary results of a collaborative effort to model the emergence of agency in human infants at Weizmann Institute's Active Sensing conference.

Click here to view our poster. 

Left to right: Carter Sale, J. A. Scott Kelso,  Aliza Sloan, Massoud Khodadadzadeh and his wife Aynaz Zarif

HBBL happily welcomes Ulster University PhD candidate
Massoud Khodadadzadeh !

This month-long visit is funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Council though a Turing Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Fellowship (EP/V025724/1) and Global Research and Innovation Program (GRIP) grant.

An expert in data science and artificial intelligence as applied to neurotechnology, Massoud is joining HBBL in exploring the application of AI toward understanding the coordinative origins of agency in infants. 

HBBL was delighted to receive a visit from Professors Pier-Giorgio  Zanone and Sylvie Athènes of The Brain and Cognition Research Center (CNRS) in Toulouse and the Université  Paul Sabatier. Pier and Sylvie are former postdoctoral fellows at The Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences. In addition to sharing their broad experience on matters of brain and cognition, including applied aspects such as selecting astronauts for the International Space Station, they provided a detailed and constructive critique of ongoing research in HBBL. Thank you Pier and Sylvie!

HBBL members J. A. Scott Kelso (left) and Aliza Sloan (center) 

with Ryo Fujihira of University of Tokyo (right)

Aliza Sloan (left) with CCS grad Dr. Mengsen Zhang (right) 

Dr. Aliza Sloan and her Co-Advisors Profs. Scott Kelso and Nancy Jones enjoy a moment prior to her 'hooding' at the Summer Commencement Ceremony for the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science on August 9, 2022 (photo courtesy Zach Greathouse). Aliza's doctoral research "Development of Infant Agency" was conducted in the Human Brain & Behavior Laboratory (HBBL) at the Center for Complex Systems & Brain Sciences. She is hoping to continue her work in the newly developed SOAL (Self-Organizing Agency Lab) https://www.ccs.fau.edu/hbblab/SOAL.php which will be devoted to understanding how agency emerges in human beings at both behavioral and neural levels of organization.

What are the roots of intentional action? This program of research investigates how infants begin to make sense of their coordinative relationship with the world and realize their ability to effect change. Detailed measurement and careful probing of infant~environment coordination dynamics will reveal an array of phenotypic paths to conscious agency which depend on intrinsic infant factors, environmental affordances, and interaction parameters.

Visit SOAL (Self-Organizing Agency Lab), a sub-division of HBBL, to learn more!

J.A. Scott Kelso presents a sweeping review of central concepts, methods, and tools of coordination dynamics in 'On the coordination dynamics of (animate) moving bodies'. This latest paper posits ten tenets of the theory for those in the interdisciplinary field of complex systems interested in understanding the coordination of living things. 

Click here to read. 

In situations where infants can control outcomes, could dynamical analysis be used to differentiate between levels of infant awareness? Can we catch a moment of agentive discovery?

Click here for poster. 

Watch a baby in action here!

Established by an Edinburgh-based international and multidisciplinary research group, the Market Mind Hypothesis Symposium applies a novel theory based on the thinking of Adam Smith to push the frontiers of how we understand markets and the minds they embody. Leading academics, investors and policymakers in the fields of economics, investing, and cognitive science gathered at Panmure House, the last and only remaining residence of Smith, to gain insight into improving markets, making investing more sustainable, increasing the effectiveness of public-policy and ultimately benefiting society. 

J.A. Scott Kelso explored the Market Mind Hypothesis within the framework of Coordination Dynamics. What kind of mind is the 'Market Mind'? Might infant minds inform characterization of market dynamics?

Click here for abstract and here for video of invited talks by Karl Friston & J.A. Scott Kelso.

Read more about the symposium here. Click here for agenda and here for symposium materials .

HBBL member (soon-to-be Dr) Aliza Sloan successfully defended her Ph.D. Dissertation on May 12th, 2022, entitled

“Development of Infant Agency“. Congratulations!

Tragically, Dr. Emmanuelle Tognoli passed away in the early hours of Saturday morning, April 23, 2022, after valiantly struggling to overcome a rare cancer which ultimately, and suddenly, took her life. Dr. Tognoli was a Research Professor in the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences and Research Affiliate Professor in the Department of Physics. Her passing is a great loss for both programs. Emmanuelle was a very talented scientist, a respected colleague, and a beloved mentor and role model for her many students. She will be missed dearly by all who knew her.

Click here for our memories of Emmanuelle.