Berit Brogaard
Encyclopedia
Berit Oskar Brogaard is a Danish
philosopher specializing in the areas of cognitive neuroscience
, philosophy of mind
, and philosophy of language
. Her recent work concerns synesthesia
, savant syndrome
, blindsight
and perceptual reports. She is Professor of Philosophy, Director of the St. Louis Synesthesia Research Team at University of Missouri, St. Louis
, and the first female president of the Central States Philosophical Association.
with a Bachelor's degree in linguistic and philosophy. She then studied neuroscience
under the direction of Thue Schwartz, M.D.
, D.M.Sci. at University of Copenhagen and the Danish National Hospital.
Upon completion of her degrees in Copenhagen she studied linguistics and philosophy at State University of New York at Buffalo, where she obtained her PhD
. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Consciousness and the Philosophy Program directed by David Chalmers
at Australian National University
from 2007 to 2009, and her first tenure-track position was at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville
, from 2001 to 2005. She was subsequently appointed Associate Professor of Philosophy (2007–2011) at University of Missouri, St. Louis.
In 2009, Brogaard began working as a freelance writer for Hello Magazine and the Lance Armstrong Foundation
. Since then she has written about 300 popular articles on brain intervention and emotional regulation. She has also co-authored a breakup program with counselor and relationship expert Catherine Behan entitled The Breakup Cleanse.
Her academic and popular work has been featured in, among other places, A Report of the President's council on bioethics - Washington D.C. 2004, Danish National Radio, the Modesto Bee, UMSL newsroom, MostMost, and Attract Your Soul Mate Now.
Brogaard is best known for her work on synesthesia
and savant syndrome
. Her team, which consists of colleagues from the St. Louis Synesthesia Research Team, University of Missouri, St. Louis and the Visual Awareness and Cognition Group, Brain Research Unit, Low Temperature Laboratory, Aalto University School of Science, Finland just completed a series of studies of Jason Padgett, who has acquired savant syndrome and acquired synesthesia. Jason Padgett was mugged in 2002. He was hit on his head and developed a form of synesthesia and savant syndrome. Certain objects and mathematical formulas trigger synesthetic mathematical fractals in him. He is the first to hand-draw mathematical fractals, an ability he acquired after the incident.
In a series of functional MRI
studies in Finland
, Brogaard's team found uni-lateral left-side activity in parietal and frontal areas when Padgett was exposed to the mathematical formulas that give rise to synesthetic fractals in him and bi-lateral activation when he was exposed to non-sense formulas or formulas that don't give rise to synesthetic fractals.
They re-tested the results from the Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
using Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
. In the TMS study, Padgett was shown formulas and was asked to rate his synesthetic sensation on a scale 1-10, relative to his "baseline" percept (i.e. without TMS). They applied TMS over the brain areas that were activated in the fMRI scan with the formulas that give rise to synesthetic experiences and found the TMS modulated two central areas.
The results establish for the first time that synesthesia and savant syndrome of a mathematical kind use areas of the brain that normally are used only for the creation of novel visual imagery.
Brogaard is also the first researcher to show that consciousness comes in degrees and that there can be borderline cases of consciousness. Imagine a case where we slowly destroy the primary visual cortex of a subject, one neuron at a time in an arbitrary fashion. Plausibly such an individual would proceed slowly from perceiving her surroundings normally to perceiving them unconsciously. In this process, the brightness of the perceived content would gradually decrease until a point at which it would be unclear whether the perception counted as weakly conscious.
Or consider George Sperling
's classic experiment in which a 3 x 3 array of letters was briefly flashed to the test subjects. Most subjects said that they were aware of all the letters, even though they could report only about half of them. To test whether the subjects were right, Sperling used a tone after the presentation of the stimulus to signal which row the subjects should report (high tone = top row, medium tone = middle row and low tone = the bottom row). The subjects were able to name the letters in the indicated row but they were unable to report any other numbers. The fact that the subjects were able to report any signaled row indicates that they were phenomenally conscious of all the rows but did not have access consciousness to all of them. But suppose we were to flash a 4 x 4 array of letters, then a 5 x 5 array of letters, then 6 x 6 array of letters, and so on, to subjects in an experiment. In that case, it would naturally become harder and harder for them to report the rows as the array became increasingly more complicated. There would, however, be no precise cut-off at which the subjects would go from being weakly conscious to not being weakly conscious of all the rows.
Brogaard is furthermore the first to develop a dynamic two-dimensional semantics that can account for cognitive significance in a dynamic setting.
On her popular website Lovesick Love, Brogaard is offering free therapeutical advice to readers who write in with their questions about breakups, mental disorders and personality disorders.
She is also the American editor of the academic journal Erkenntnis
and the philosophy of language editor for David Chalmers
and David Bourget's PhilPapers. She also serves on the editorial boards of Brain and Mind, Springer Book Series, ed. Gualtiero Piccinini
and The Open Applied Linguistics Journal, and she is a Ph.D. program evaluator for Brian Leiter
's Philosophical Gourmet Report.
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
philosopher specializing in the areas of cognitive neuroscience
Cognitive neuroscience
Cognitive neuroscience is an academic field concerned with the scientific study of biological substrates underlying cognition, with a specific focus on the neural substrates of mental processes. It addresses the questions of how psychological/cognitive functions are produced by the brain...
, philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain. The mind-body problem, i.e...
, and philosophy of language
Philosophy of language
Philosophy of language is the reasoned inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language. As a topic, the philosophy of language for analytic philosophers is concerned with four central problems: the nature of meaning, language use, language cognition, and the relationship between language...
. Her recent work concerns synesthesia
Synesthesia
Synesthesia , from the ancient Greek , "together," and , "sensation," is a neurologically based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway...
, savant syndrome
Savant syndrome
Savant syndrome , sometimes referred to as savantism, is a rare condition in which people with developmental disorders have one or more areas of expertise, ability, or brilliance that are in contrast with the individual's overall limitations...
, blindsight
Blindsight
Blindsight is a phenomenon in which people who are perceptually blind in a certain area of their visual field demonstrate some response to visual stimuli...
and perceptual reports. She is Professor of Philosophy, Director of the St. Louis Synesthesia Research Team at University of Missouri, St. Louis
University of Missouri–St. Louis
The University of Missouri–St. Louis is one of four universities in the University of Missouri System. Established in 1963, it is the newest university in the UM System. , it is the largest university by enrollment in the St. Louis area with 16,548 students...
, and the first female president of the Central States Philosophical Association.
Background
Brogaard was born and raised in Copenhagen, and since 2011 she has been Professor of Philosophy and Director of the St. Louis Synesthesia Research Team at University of Missouri, St. Louis. From an early age, she excelled at physics, mathematics, and biology, eventually completing her undergraduate education at the University of CopenhagenUniversity of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
with a Bachelor's degree in linguistic and philosophy. She then studied neuroscience
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...
under the direction of Thue Schwartz, M.D.
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
, D.M.Sci. at University of Copenhagen and the Danish National Hospital.
Upon completion of her degrees in Copenhagen she studied linguistics and philosophy at State University of New York at Buffalo, where she obtained her PhD
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Consciousness and the Philosophy Program directed by David Chalmers
David Chalmers
David John Chalmers is an Australian philosopher specializing in the area of philosophy of mind and philosophy of language, whose recent work concerns verbal disputes. He is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Consciousness at the Australian National University...
at Australian National University
Australian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
from 2007 to 2009, and her first tenure-track position was at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, commonly abbreviated SIUE, is a four-year coed public university in Edwardsville, Illinois about from St. Louis, Missouri. SIUE was established in 1957 as an extension of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and is the younger of the two largest...
, from 2001 to 2005. She was subsequently appointed Associate Professor of Philosophy (2007–2011) at University of Missouri, St. Louis.
In 2009, Brogaard began working as a freelance writer for Hello Magazine and the Lance Armstrong Foundation
Lance Armstrong Foundation
The Lance Armstrong Foundation is a United States 501 nonprofit organization that provides support for people affected by cancer, founded in 1997 by cancer survivor and champion cyclist Lance Armstrong. The LAF states that its mission is 'to inspire and empower' cancer sufferers and their families...
. Since then she has written about 300 popular articles on brain intervention and emotional regulation. She has also co-authored a breakup program with counselor and relationship expert Catherine Behan entitled The Breakup Cleanse.
Her academic and popular work has been featured in, among other places, A Report of the President's council on bioethics - Washington D.C. 2004, Danish National Radio, the Modesto Bee, UMSL newsroom, MostMost, and Attract Your Soul Mate Now.
Cognitive Neuroscience
In the area of cognitive neuroscienceCognitive neuroscience
Cognitive neuroscience is an academic field concerned with the scientific study of biological substrates underlying cognition, with a specific focus on the neural substrates of mental processes. It addresses the questions of how psychological/cognitive functions are produced by the brain...
Brogaard is best known for her work on synesthesia
Synesthesia
Synesthesia , from the ancient Greek , "together," and , "sensation," is a neurologically based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway...
and savant syndrome
Savant syndrome
Savant syndrome , sometimes referred to as savantism, is a rare condition in which people with developmental disorders have one or more areas of expertise, ability, or brilliance that are in contrast with the individual's overall limitations...
. Her team, which consists of colleagues from the St. Louis Synesthesia Research Team, University of Missouri, St. Louis and the Visual Awareness and Cognition Group, Brain Research Unit, Low Temperature Laboratory, Aalto University School of Science, Finland just completed a series of studies of Jason Padgett, who has acquired savant syndrome and acquired synesthesia. Jason Padgett was mugged in 2002. He was hit on his head and developed a form of synesthesia and savant syndrome. Certain objects and mathematical formulas trigger synesthetic mathematical fractals in him. He is the first to hand-draw mathematical fractals, an ability he acquired after the incident.
In a series of functional MRI
Magnetic resonance imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging , nuclear magnetic resonance imaging , or magnetic resonance tomography is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to visualize detailed internal structures...
studies in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, Brogaard's team found uni-lateral left-side activity in parietal and frontal areas when Padgett was exposed to the mathematical formulas that give rise to synesthetic fractals in him and bi-lateral activation when he was exposed to non-sense formulas or formulas that don't give rise to synesthetic fractals.
They re-tested the results from the Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI is a type of specialized MRI scan used to measure the hemodynamic response related to neural activity in the brain or spinal cord of humans or other animals. It is one of the most recently developed forms of neuroimaging...
using Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
Transcranial magnetic stimulation
Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a noninvasive method to cause depolarization or hyperpolarization in the neurons of the brain...
. In the TMS study, Padgett was shown formulas and was asked to rate his synesthetic sensation on a scale 1-10, relative to his "baseline" percept (i.e. without TMS). They applied TMS over the brain areas that were activated in the fMRI scan with the formulas that give rise to synesthetic experiences and found the TMS modulated two central areas.
The results establish for the first time that synesthesia and savant syndrome of a mathematical kind use areas of the brain that normally are used only for the creation of novel visual imagery.
Philosophy of Mind
In the area of philosophy of mind, Brogaard is the first to provide a thorough analysis of perceptual words such as 'look', 'sound', 'feel', 'taste', 'smell', 'seem', 'appear', 'see' and 'hear'. She argues that perceptual reports containing these words reflect the content of perception.Brogaard is also the first researcher to show that consciousness comes in degrees and that there can be borderline cases of consciousness. Imagine a case where we slowly destroy the primary visual cortex of a subject, one neuron at a time in an arbitrary fashion. Plausibly such an individual would proceed slowly from perceiving her surroundings normally to perceiving them unconsciously. In this process, the brightness of the perceived content would gradually decrease until a point at which it would be unclear whether the perception counted as weakly conscious.
Or consider George Sperling
George Sperling
George Sperling is an American cognitive psychologist. He is a Distinguished Professor of both Cognitive Science and Neurobiology & Behavior at the University of California, Irvine. Sperling documented the existence of iconic memory...
's classic experiment in which a 3 x 3 array of letters was briefly flashed to the test subjects. Most subjects said that they were aware of all the letters, even though they could report only about half of them. To test whether the subjects were right, Sperling used a tone after the presentation of the stimulus to signal which row the subjects should report (high tone = top row, medium tone = middle row and low tone = the bottom row). The subjects were able to name the letters in the indicated row but they were unable to report any other numbers. The fact that the subjects were able to report any signaled row indicates that they were phenomenally conscious of all the rows but did not have access consciousness to all of them. But suppose we were to flash a 4 x 4 array of letters, then a 5 x 5 array of letters, then 6 x 6 array of letters, and so on, to subjects in an experiment. In that case, it would naturally become harder and harder for them to report the rows as the array became increasingly more complicated. There would, however, be no precise cut-off at which the subjects would go from being weakly conscious to not being weakly conscious of all the rows.
Philosophy of Language
Brogaard is also an important contributor to the philosophy of language. Brogaard's book, Transient Truths, forthcoming with Oxford University Press, provides the first book-length exposition and defense of temporalism: The view that contents can change their truth-values along with changes in the world. Brogaard argues that temporal contents are contents and propositions in the full sense. This project involves a thorough analysis of how we talk about and retain mental states over time, an examination of how the phenomenology of mental states bear on the content of mental states, an analysis of how we pass on information in temporally extended conversations, and a revival of a Priorian tense logic. The view suggests a broader view according to which some types of representation have a determinate truth-value only relative to features about the subject who does the representing. If this view is right, successful semantic representation requires an eye on our own position in the world.Brogaard is furthermore the first to develop a dynamic two-dimensional semantics that can account for cognitive significance in a dynamic setting.
Miscellaneous
Brogaard is the first female president of the Central States Philosophical Association.On her popular website Lovesick Love, Brogaard is offering free therapeutical advice to readers who write in with their questions about breakups, mental disorders and personality disorders.
She is also the American editor of the academic journal Erkenntnis
Erkenntnis
Erkenntnis is a journal of philosophy that publishes papers in analytic philosophy. Its name is derived from the German word for knowledge recognition. The journal was founded by Hans Reichenbach and Rudolf Carnap in 1930. The journal was "refounded" by Wilhelm K. Essler, Carl G...
and the philosophy of language editor for David Chalmers
David Chalmers
David John Chalmers is an Australian philosopher specializing in the area of philosophy of mind and philosophy of language, whose recent work concerns verbal disputes. He is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Consciousness at the Australian National University...
and David Bourget's PhilPapers. She also serves on the editorial boards of Brain and Mind, Springer Book Series, ed. Gualtiero Piccinini
Gualtiero Piccinini
Gualtiero Piccinini is a philosopher working primarily on the nature of mind and computation as well as on how to integrate psychology and neuroscience. He is an associate professor in the Philosophy and Psychology Departments and the Center for Neurodynamics at the University of Missouri, St...
and The Open Applied Linguistics Journal, and she is a Ph.D. program evaluator for Brian Leiter
Brian Leiter
Brian Leiter is an American philosopher and legal scholar who is currently John Wilson Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, and founder and Director of Chicago's new Center for Law, Philosophy, and Human Values and the editor of the Philosophical Gourmet Report. He taught from...
's Philosophical Gourmet Report.