September 2, 2020
In this episode, Wendy speaks with anthropologist and neuroscientist Andreas Roepstorff. Andreas has been a pioneer in integrating these two approaches, examining how social context impacts the mind and brain. Their conversation covers a range of topics, including:
- navigating academic training in two disciplines, and how he bridges the different perspectives of neuroscience and anthropology;
- how being a research subject changed his view of subjective experience;
- intersubjectivity, and his work to bring together first- and third-person perspectives;
- research on fire-walking;
- meditation and microphenomenology;
- studying playfulness;
- predictive models of mind;
- the power of mindfulness to help with rumination;
- and the importance of exploring how two minds can process and respond differently to the same experience.
Andreas Roepstorff is Professor in Cognition, Communication and Culture at Aarhus University in Denmark, and is also the director of the Interacting Minds Centre. Trained in biology and social anthropology, his research explores human collaboration and interaction, using a multitude of approaches and methods. He also studies the workings of the brain, particularly at the levels of consciousness, cognition, and communication. He has been associated with the Mind & Life community for over a decade, and is on the board of Mind & Life Europe.
Resources
Websites: Faculty page & Interacting Minds Centre
Twitter: @aroepstorff
Research on microphenomenology: Studying the experience of meditation through Micro-phenomenology (2019)
Research on firewalking: Synchronized arousal between performers and related spectators in a fire-walking ritual (2011)
Art-science collaboration
Research on COVID19
View or download a transcript of this episode