Author: Philipp Wicke

In this course, we will discuss three aspects of cognition that are essentially involved in
human interaction, namely being a self, being an agent and understanding another agent
and finally trusting the other agent in interaction. To develop these intertwined topics, we
always first have a look at typical human cognitive abilities and standard human-human
interaction and then shift to the challenges of cognitive abilities in AI systems, especially in
the context of human-AI system interactions. The course is essentially interdisciplinary.
Although it has a focus on philosophical theory formation, it strongly involves relevant
evidence from psychology, neuroscience and AI. The aim to work out clear challenges in
understanding human and AI cognition such that we can develop demands for future AI
systems to make them acceptable for human-AI system interactions.

Lecture 1: What does in involve to be a self? Does it make sense to attribute being a self to
an AI system?
Lecture 2: When is a cognitive system an agent, what does it involve in humans to have a
sense of agency and what does it involve to attribute agency to AI systems?
Lecture 3: How can we characterize trustworthiness and trust by comparing humans and AI
systems?

References:
Dennett, Daniel C. (1992) The Self as a Center of Narrative Gravity. In: F. Kessel, P. Cole
and D. Johnson (eds.) Self and Consciousness: Multiple Perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ:
Erlbaum. https://web-archive.southampton.ac.uk/cogprints.org/266/1/selfctr.htm
Thomas Metzinger (2011). The no-self alternative. In Shaun Gallagher, The Oxford handbook
of the self. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2011). https://academic.oup.com/edited-
volume/38581/chapter/334605528?login=true
Newen A (2018) The Embodied Self, the Pattern Theory of Self, and the Predictive Mind.
Front. Psychol. 9:2270. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02270
Haggard, P. Sense of agency in the human brain. Nat Rev Neurosci 18, 196–207 (2017).
https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.14
Synofzik M, Vosgerau G, Newen A. Beyond the comparator model: a multifactorial two-step
account of agency. Conscious Cogn. 2008 Mar;17(1):219-39. doi:
10.1016/j.concog.2007.03.010. Epub 2007 May 4. PMID: 17482480.
Machery, Edouard, Kneer, Markus, Willemsen, Pascale and Newen, Albert (2023). Beyond
the Courtroom: Agency and the Perception of Free Will (February 20, 2023). In Samuel
Murray & Paul Henne (eds.), Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Action (forthcoming),
Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4365146 or
http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4365146 file:///C:/Users/alber/Downloads/ssrn-4365146-4.pdf
Afroogh, S., Akbari, A., Malone, E. et al. Trust in AI: progress, challenges, and future
directions. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11, 1568 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-
04044-8
Newen, C., Müller, E. & Newen, A. Trust and Uncertainties: Characterizing Trustworthy AI
Systems Within a Multidimensional Theory of Trust. Topoi (2025).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-025-10287-0

Lecturer

Albert Newen is full professor for philosophy at the Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB). He is
specialized in philosophy of mind including theories of self and understanding others.
Furthermore, he is the director of the interdisciplinary Center for Mind and Cognition at RUB
since 2011. He was president of the German Society for Cognitive Science (2018-2020) and
he is the speaker of an interdisciplinary DFG-Research Training Group working on “Situated
Cognition”. This is e.g. documented in the Oxford Handbook of 4E cognition edited by him
and colleagues (L. de Bruin, S. Gallagher).

Lecturer: Lilian Weber
Fields: Cognitive Computational Neuroscience, Cognitive Modelling

Content

We will learn how to build, simulate and test Bayesian models of how humans learn and make clever decisions in changing environments. Each session will start with a short lecture and then move into a practical tutorial using notebooks and actual datasets.

Session 1: Predictive coding as approximately Bayes-optimal inference: computation, algorithm, implementation
Session 2: The generalised hierarchical Gaussian filter (gHGF): learning and inference in changing environments
Session 3: The interoceptive basis of reinforcement learning: extending RL to incorporate inference on internal states

Alternative Session 3: The gHGF as a deep neural network: why and when predictive coding architectures outperform classical ANNs

Literature

• Baskakovs, A., Estebe, S., Enevoldsen, K., Nielbo, K., Mathys, C., & Legrand, N. (2026). Closed-form predictive coding via hierarchical Gaussian filters (arXiv:2605.20293). arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.20293
• Bogacz, R. (2017). A tutorial on the free-energy framework for modelling perception and learning. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 76, 198–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmp.2015.11.003
• Dulberg, Z., Dubey, R., Berwian, I. M., & Cohen, J. D. (2023). Having multiple selves helps learning agents explore and adapt in complex changing worlds. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(28), e2221180120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2221180120
• Mathys, C. (2011). A Bayesian foundation for individual learning under uncertainty. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00039
• Rao, R. P. N., & Ballard, D. H. (1999). Predictive Coding in the visual cortex: A functional interpretation of some extra-classical receptive-field effects. Nature Neuroscience, 2(1), 79–87.
• Song, Y., Millidge, B., Salvatori, T., Lukasiewicz, T., Xu, Z., & Bogacz, R. (2024). Inferring neural activity before plasticity as a foundation for learning beyond backpropagation. Nature Neuroscience, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-023-01514-1
• Weber, L. A., Waade, P. T., Legrand, N., Møller, A. H., Stephan, K. E., & Mathys, C. (2026). The generalized Hierarchical Gaussian Filter. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.110174.1
• Weber, L. A., Yee, D. M., Small, D. M., & Petzschner, F. H. (2025). The interoceptive origin of reinforcement learning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 29(9), 840–854. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2025.05.008

Lecturer

Lilian is a professor for cognitive modelling at the Institute for Cognitive Science at Osnabrück University in Germany. After studying psychology and physics, she did a PhD in Translational Neuromodelling at ETH Zurich, followed by postdoctoral years at the University of Oxford. She is interested in how we flexibly adapt our cognitive strategies to changes in our internal and external circumstances. To study the neuro-cognitive mechanisms underlying this flexibility, she uses a combination of modelling (Baysian inference and RL), measuring (behaviour and EEG) and interfering with brain function (via pharmacology and transcranial focussed ultrasound neuromodulation).

Affiliation: Institut für Kognitionswissenschaften, Universität Osnabrück
Homepage: mic-lab.de

Lecturer: Johanna Gunawan
Fields: Technology policy, UX, consumer protections

Content

Computer scientists push the boundaries of knowledge and science with their research and developments, but quickly turning this into societal or policy impact is not always straightforward. In addition, the law is often perceived as moving too slowly to keep up with the fast pace of technological progress, or perhaps over-constricting innovation with new compliance requirements. In the age of AI raising questions on how both technical and legal disciplines should be taught, or where human value can be found, or what we societally consider to be our boundaries regarding AI use, the function of law and policy to protect us and our values comes into focus.

This talk shares the speaker’s experience conducting interdisciplinary research in human-computer interaction, and reflections on leveraging collaborations and cross-disciplinary learning into impact; both for one’s scholarly or educational pathways and on technology regulation and policy. This talk will discuss the often-operational challenges in the relationship between technology innovation or study and regulation writ large, pull from scholarship in dark patterns as a case study, then explore how academia can strengthen ties with law and policy for real-world impact. Finally, this talk shares resources for IK participants to reflect on and explore their potential for policy engagement and impact in their own field(s).

Literature

• 2019. Proceedings of the Symposium on Computer Science and Law. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA.
• Ahuja, J., Gunawan, J., Bielova, N., & Santos, C.T. (2026). Dark Patterns and the EU Digital Services Act: Mapping Autonomy Violations and Design Factors. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI \’26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 1279, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791
• 479
• Gunawan, J., Gray, C.M., Santos, C., & Bielova, N. (2025). Leveraging interdisciplinary methods for evidence collection in enforcement: Dark patterns as a case study. Internet Policy Review, 14(4). https://doi.org/10.14763/2025.4.2047
• Lazar, J., Fiesler, C., Wentz, B., & Kushalnagar, R. (2026). Human–Computer Interaction and U.S. Law. Cambridge University Press; 2026.
• Tech Justice Law and Georgetown’s Knight-Georgetown Institute and Communication, Culture & Technology program (2026). Tech-Related Actions and Litigation Tracker. https://techjusticelaw.org/resources/tracker/
• Yang, Q., Wong, R. Y., Gilbert, T., Hagan, M.D., Jackson, S., Junginger, S., & Zimmerman, J. (2023). Designing Technology and Policy Simultaneously: Towards A Research Agenda and New Practice. In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA \’23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 343, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544549.3573827

Lecturer

Dr. Johanna Gunawan is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Law at Maastricht University in the Netherlands and holds a PhD in Cybersecurity from Northeastern University. She primarily works on the digital consumer protections problem of “dark patterns” or anti-consumer designs, and how to facilitate their enforcement. Her dark patterns work has been cited by WIRED Magazine, Consumer Reports, the US Federal Trade Commission, the OECD, and UK Competition and Markets Authority. Dr. Gunawan is affiliated with the Maastricht Law & Tech Lab, and frequently teaches on tech-law collaboration and topics to both computer scientists and lawyers.

Affiliation: Maastricht University
Homepage: johannagunawan.com

Lecturer: Brigitte Römmer-Nossek, Elisabeth Zimmermann
Fields: Cognitive Science

Content

This basic course introduces you to central paradigms and concepts of cognitive science. We call our course “Co-Thinking Cognition” because the title is the program: we see cognitive science as a collaborative practice in at least two important ways: 1.) Science is always done in a community of researchers who learn and negotiate the terms and concepts used in a particular field. In an interdisciplinary endeavor like cognitive science, discussing and clarifying the use of terms is even more important and requires time and space. 2.) Many people tend to think of cognition as something that happens in a person’s head. However, we should not forget how we come to learn so-called cognitive abilities, such as language. Learning usually happens through interaction with the world and the people around us.
We will therefore create a space to discuss key concepts in cognitive science, review its history and essential terminology, and reflect on our responsibilities as cognitive scientists at a time when everyone is talking about AI’s influence on our society. Together, we want to address the challenges and deliberate on the contributions we can make.

The course will follow an interactive format, alternating between lecture elements and discussions in small teams, the whole group, and also individual reflection.

Session Outline:
1.) What is “cognition”? What is the history of cognitive science? What are the core paradigms?
2.) Focus on key concepts in cognitive science: what do we mean when we use words like cognition, knowledge, thinking, representation, intelligence, information, computation, coding, etc.?
3.) What are the boundaries of cognition? How do cognitive capabilities develop in interaction with physical and social environments?
4.) Where is cognitive science now? What can cognitive science contribute to the AI debate in our society? What can cognitive science contribute to our picture of the human being? How do we envision an ethical cognitive science?

Literature

• Clark, A. (2001). Mindware. An introduction to the philosophy of cognitive science. New York: Oxford University Press.
• De Jaegher, H., & Di Paolo, E. (2007). Participatory sense-making: An enactive approach to social cognition. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 6(4), 485–507. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-007-9076-9
• Varela, F.J., E. Thompson, and E. Rosch (1991) The embodied mind: cognitive science and human experience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Walter, S. (2014). Kognition. Stuttgart: Reclam Verlag.

Lecturer

Brigitte Römmer-Nossek is head of the team Student Research and Peer Learning at the University of Vienna’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). As a cognitive scientist and higher education third space practitioner, she is concerned with competence acquisition from the perspective of students, teachers and curriculum developers. She is particularly interested in the academic socialisation of students, the role social, physical and digital settings play in this. As a lecturer, she is currently involved in the master’s programme MEi:CogSci as well as in the extension curriculum “Schreibmentoring – Akademische Schreibkompetenz entwickeln, vermitteln und beforschen“ (“Writing Mentoring – Developing, teaching and researching academic writing competence”); she was involved in the curriculum development of both projects. She began her studies in English and Political Science in Vienna and Manchester before studying her self-developed studium irregulare “Brain and Cognitive Sciences”. After a period in non-university research and software development, she moved to the University of Vienna’s CTL in 2004. She is an expert and trainer in academic writing and received her PhD on academic writing as a cognitive developmental process.

Affiliation: University of Vienna
Homepage: https://ctl.univie.ac.at/ueber-das-ctl/teams-und-mitarbeiterinnen/team-wissenschaftliches-arbeiten-und-peer-learning/

Elisabeth Zimmermann is Managing Editor of the journal “Biological Theory” and Communications Officer at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI), Klosterneuburg, Austria. She studied human biology and cognitive science at the University of Vienna and graduated with an interdisciplinary diploma thesis in cognitive neuroscience and behavioral biology. From 2006 to 2025, she served as the international study program coordinator for the joint degree program MEi:CogSci – Middle European interdisciplinary master’s programme in Cognitive Science, administering it at the local and international levels. She has been teaching cognitive science at the University of Vienna since 2006, as well as at workshops at the University of Ljubljana, the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, and the Interdisciplinary College. Her research interests focus on enactivism, embodied cognition, and phenomenology, particularly the relations of body and mind in dance and other body-mind practices, at both theoretical and practical levels. Her long-term practice of contact improvisation further shaped her interest in improvisation and play as cognitive phenomena involved in a range of developmental and learning processes.

Affiliation: Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI)
Homepage: https://www.kli.ac.at/en/people/kli_team/view/384

Lecturer: Jochen Sprickerhof, Stefan Riegl
Fields: Computer Science

Content

Every day we use various kinds of software: Apps on the phone, programs on the computer or laptop, but also various kinds of online services like email, file exchange, or social media. In many cases it is opaque how such software works and we have to trust that it aligns with our values and does what it promises to do (and not more). However, often we hear news reports about leaked personal data, manipulative algorithms, and power abuse by companies that develop and control the software. We rely on software and are forced to trust what\’s outside our control. Is there anything we can do about that? It turns out, there are software alternatives to virtually all mainstream programs and apps, from Microsoft Office to Adobe Photoshop, Google Maps to Meta’s WhatsApp.

In this Practical Course, the two instructors Jochen Sprickerhof and Stefan Riegl will provide a kickstart into trustworthy and ethical software alternatives. Each of the four session has a different main theme, starts with a brief theoretical introduction, and reserves most of the available time for hands-on supporting you in switching to software alternatives of your choice today. Each session can be visited independently. No prerequisite knowledge is required.

Session overview:

Session 1: How to liberate your computer + hands-on time. Software, trust, and control. Ethical software. Free, libre, and open source software. Personal data and privacy. How to install e.g. LibreOffice, Firefox, Linux.

Session 2: How to liberate your smart phone + hands-on time. Closed software ecosystems. Alternative phone operating systems. How to de-Google your Google phone, how to install and use F-Droid.

Session 3: How to liberate your online presence + hands-on time. Cloud-based services. How to find, judge, and setup alternative online services, e.g. email, chat. Federated social media (Fediverse: Mastodon etc.).

Session 4: Outlook + hands-on time + ask-me-anything. Possible topics of discussion (not hands-on during session) include e.g. self-hosting, Raspberry Pi; and local LLMs (by special guest lecturer Benjamin Paassen).

Literature

• Digital Independence Day, https://di.day/

Lecturer

Jochen Sprickerhof is a long-time IK participant. After studying applied system science at the Osnabrück University, he worked as a research assistant and different robotics startups. Currently he works as a freelancer for open source projects like Debian and F-Droid.

Affiliation: Debian
Homepage: https://jochen.sprickerhof.de/

Stefan Riegl holds a BSc in Cognitive Science from Osnabrück University and a MSc in Artificial Intelligence from Radboud University in Nijmegen. Before studying they completed a formal training as computer specialist and has worked at tiny and large companies. Currently they work on an NLnet-funded open source project for the commons and looking for a PhD position.

Affiliation: Augsburg
Homepage: https://stefanriegl.com/

Lecturer: Dieter Jaeger
Fields: Neuroscience

Content

This course will introduce the structure and function of the central nervous system of mammals from molecules to circuits. It is intended as a crash course for non-neuroscientists to see how we understand and study the brain and its function.

Session 1: The world of molecules in the nervous system – and how they functionally matter
Session 2: The world of single neuron computation through electrical signaling
Session 3: The world of circuits, plasticity, and control of behavior
Session 4: How to model all 3 worlds – separately, or combined?

Literature

• textbook: Neuroscience, 7th edition, Augustine et al., Oxford University Press; OR Kandel et al, Principles of Neural Science, Sixth edition, McGraw Hill
• Herz, A.V.M., Gollisch, T., Machens, C.K. & Jaeger, D., Modeling single-neuron dynamics and computations: A balance of detail and abstraction. Science 314: 80-85, 2006

Lecturer

Dieter Jaeger received his undergraduate education with a specialization in Biochemistry in Tübingen, Germany. He joined the PhD program in neuroscience at the University of Michigan in 1984 where his dissertation research investigated the function of the basal ganglia in behaving primates. Dr. Jaeger joined the California Institute of Technology as postdoctoral fellow in 1991, and pursued research in computer modeling and electrical recordings of single neurons in the cerebellum. Dr. Jaeger joined the faculty of the Department of Biology at Emory University in 1997 and is currently a full professor. His research is now concerned with corticothalamic interactions and the influence of basal ganglia and cerebellar inputs to thalamus. He combines behavioral mouse experiments with voltage imaging, electrophysiology, and optogenetics.

Affiliation: Emory University
Homepage: https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/jaegerlab/

Lecturer: Krzysztof Dolega
Fields: Epistemology, Social Psychology, Sociology

Content

Do you believe that the moon landing was fabricated by NASA to win the space race? Did the assassination of President John F. Kennedy involve people beyond the lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald? After all, the CIA’s MK-Ultra program, which conducted non-consensual mind-control experiments with psychedelic drugs on unsuspecting subjects, stands as a verified instance of a government conspiracy. What makes the other cases different? Turning to more contemporary issues, are you sure that the U.S. government has not purposefully ignored prior knowledge of the events leading up to September 11th to justify subsequent military actions? How much truth is there to the allegations against pharmaceutical companies suggesting intentional suppression of cures for diseases to maintain profit from ongoing treatments? And finally, did you know that the US army conducted a disinformation campaign in the Philippines in order to undermine the public trust in the Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine?

As these examples illustrate, conspiracy theories and conspiratorial beliefs span a broad spectrum of contents, and one may wonder what combines them as a single object of research. In this course we will investigate the research on and prominent debates around such narratives.

Lecture 1 will focus on the history of the concept and prominent philosophical debates surrounding it.
Lecture 2 will look at the empirical research done on conspiracy theories/beliefs and whether they constitute a separate phenomenon.
Lecture 3 will turn to proposals about how we can respond to and mitigate the spread of such narratives in our society.

Literature

• Pigden, C. (1995). Popper revisited, or what is wrong with conspiracy theories? Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 25(1), 3–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/004839319502500101
• Keeley, B. L. (1999). Of conspiracy theories. The Journal of Philosophy, 96(3), 109–126. https://doi.org/10.2307/2564659
• Levy, N. (2007). Radically socialized knowledge and conspiracy theories. Episteme, 4(2), 181–192. https://doi.org/10.3366/epi.2007.4.2.181
• Sunstein, C. R., & Vermeule, A. (2009). Conspiracy theories: Causes and cures. Journal of Political Philosophy, 17(2), 202–227. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9760.2008.00325.x
• Wood, M. J., Douglas, K. M., & Sutton, R. M. (2012). Dead and alive: Beliefs in contradictory conspiracy theories. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 3(6), 767–773. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550611434786
• Douglas, K. M., Sutton, R. M., & Cichocka, A. (2017). The psychology of conspiracy theories. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26(6), 538–542. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417718261
• van Prooijen, J.-W., & van Vugt, M. (2018). Conspiracy theories: Evolved functions and psychological mechanisms. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(6), 770–788. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691618774270
• Bowes, S. M., Costello, T. H., & Tasimi, A. (2023). The conspiratorial mind: A meta-analytic review of motivational and personological correlates. Psychological Bulletin, 149(5–6), 259–293. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000392

Lecturer

Krzysztof (Krys) Dolega is a philosopher of mind and cognitive science working at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, where he also did his doctoral research under the supervision of Tobias Schlicht and Daniel Dennett. As a postdoc in Bochum’s Situated Cognition Research Group, he worked on the psychology and epistemology of conspiracy theories on a Volkswagen Foundation grant titled “Why do people believe weird things: Bayesian brain, conspiracy theories, and epistemic vices.” He then moved to the Université Libre de Bruxelles as a postdoc on Axel Cleeremans’ ERC-funded EXPERIENCE project, studying the nature and role of valence, value, and reward in conscious experience.

Affiliation: Ruhr-University Bochum
Homepage: krysdolega.xyz

Lecturer: Arno Villringer
Fields: Brain-Body Interactions, Neurological Disorders, Neurophysiology and Functional Neuroimaging Methods

Content

To be announced

Literature

• To be announced

Lecturer

Arno Villringer studied medicine at University of Freiburg where he also received a Doctor of Medicine with work in molecular biology. After a fellowship at the Magnetic Resonance Imaging Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School, he was neurology resident at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, became a board-certified neurologist, and gained his habilitation. In the following 14 years, at Charité, Berlin, he headed a DFG-funded clinical research group, received a professorship and worked at the Department of Neurology, first as a consultant, and later as clinical director at the Benjamin Franklin Campus. Since 2007 he is a Director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences and at the Clinic for Cognitive Neurology at the University Hospital in Leipzig. His research focusses on brain-body interactions as well as neural and behavioral processes underlying the development of risk factors for neurological disorders, particularly stroke and dementia. Expertise lies in neurophysiology and functional neuroimaging methods some of which he pioneered (MR-based brain perfusion imaging, functional optical imaging). Clinically, he attempts to individualize preventive and therapeutic approaches for neurological disorders, particularly stroke. He founded the BMBF-funded national Competence Network Stroke, the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, the Berlin Neuroimaging Center, and was/is PI of two Clusters of Excellence (Neurocure @Charité, LEICEM @University Leipzig), as well as the founder and spokesperson of two graduate schools (Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Germany-wide Max Planck School of Cognition). He was/is also a PI in several DFG-funded integrated research centers on stroke and obesity (IFB), SFB, research groups, and graduate research colleges.

Affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
Homepage: https://www.cbs.mpg.de/employees/villringer.html

Lecturer: Wulf Haubensak
Fields: Circuit neuroscience, Ethology

Content

Lecture 1: The AIA-BS Circuit for Feelings of Self
To explore the neuronal basis of trust, hope, and responsible action, we first set out to identify a reductionist showcase: the ACC/insula–amygdala–brainstem (AIA-BS) circuit as an evolutionarily conserved substrate for affective feeling. This network demonstrates how the brain may generate subjective experience across species, from mice to humans.
We will explore the operational principles that server as basic building blocks for trust, hope, and responsible action.
Operating in “Read Mode,” the AIA-BS integrates visceral feedback tags stimuli as self-relevant through the amygdala, and generates autonomic signatures via the periaqueductal gray (PAG), producing the embodied sensation of “self and others.”
Lecture 2: Hope as Predict Mode—Inference and Expectation in the AIA-BS
Hope emerges from the AIA-BS circuit operating in “Predict Mode,” in which the ACC/insula simulates future bodily states, the amygdala biases processing toward valued outcomes, and ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons fire phasically in response to reward-predictive cues, generating the neural signature of motivated anticipation—that is, hope.
We explore how contingent events build trust and how shifts in violated expectations produce disappointment and broken trust, through prediction-error signaling when anticipated rewards fail to materialize or contracts are breached. The lecture bridges computational frameworks, including predictive coding and active inference, with neurobiological data, showing how dopaminergic signals in the ventral striatum correlate with reward anticipation in mice and humans in translational paradigms.
This mechanistic account reframes hope not as abstract optimism but as a computable brain state grounded in interoceptive prediction and the attribution of agency.
Lecture 3: Empathy as Act Mode—From Shared Feeling to Responsible Action
Empathy emerges when the AIA-BS switches to “Act Mode,” detecting mismatches between another’s suffering and one’s capacity to help, converting this signal into urgency through amygdala activation, and executing prosocial motor programs via outputs from the PAG and nucleus accumbens.
ACC→amygdala→PAG pathways drive observational fear and the social transfer of analgesia in mice, while human fMRI studies confirm homologous ACC–insula–amygdala engagement during empathy for pain and moral decision-making. The lecture emphasizes that responsible action is not a cortical override of instinct but the recruitment of the same ancient care circuitry that generates maternal behavior, now extended to non-kin through cortical expansion and abstract representation.
This framework positions empathy as embodied, action-oriented, and mechanistically tractable rather than purely cognitive or emotional.
Lecture 4: Scaling the AIA-BS—From Individual Circuits to Social Structures
Here, we examine how individual AIA-BS circuits synchronize across brains to support cooperative behavior, while predictive alignment between individuals’ AIA-BS outputs creates the phenomenological experience of trust when others’ actions match our interoceptive expectations.
We contrast rigid, chemically driven hierarchies in mice—where olfactory and vomeronasal inputs rapidly map dominance relationships—with fluid, abstract human social networks enabled by an expanded medial prefrontal cortex, which modulates AIA-BS processing through reputation, norms, institutional cues, and misinformation.
We speculate about comparative genetic and evolutionary mechanisms that may tune AIA-BS–mediated social interactions, like oxytocin’s modulation of amygdala reactivity and insular coupling as a potential molecular basis of interpersonal trust across evolution.

Literature

• Adolphs, Ralph. “The Social Brain: Neural Basis of Social Knowledge.” Annual Review of Psychology 60, no. 1 (2009): 693–716. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163514.
• Baumgartner, Thomas, Markus Heinrichs, Aline Vonlanthen, Urs Fischbacher, and Ernst Fehr. “Oxytocin Shapes the Neural Circuitry of Trust and Trust Adaptation in Humans.” Neuron 58, no. 4 (2008): 639–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2008.04.009.
• Bekoff, Marc. Social Play Behaviour: Cooperation, Fairness, Trust, and the Evolution of Morality. n.d.
• Canessa, Nicola, Matteo Motterlini, Cinzia Di Dio, et al. “Understanding Others’ Regret: A fMRI Study.” PLoS ONE 4, no. 10 (2009): e7402. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0007402.
• Cohen, Michael S., and Jean Decety. “Social Feedback Mechanisms & Misinformation: A Neuroscience-Based Argument for Algorithm Regulation.” Behavioral Science & Policy 12, no. 1 (2026): 21–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/23794607251403323.
• Dunbar, R. I. M., and Susanne Shultz. “Evolution in the Social Brain.” Science 317, no. 5843 (2007): 1344–47. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1145463.
• European Commission. Joint Research Centre. Trustworthy Public Communication: How Public Communicators Can Strengthen Our Democracies. Publications Office, 2024. https://doi.org/10.2760/695605.
• Ferretti, Valentina, Federica Maltese, Gabriella Contarini, et al. “Oxytocin Signaling in the Central Amygdala Modulates Emotion Discrimination in Mice.” Current Biology 29, no. 12 (2019): 1938-1953.e6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.070.
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Lecturer

Wulf Haubensak is Professor and Head of the Department of Neuronal Cell Biology at the Center for Brain Research, Medical University of Vienna, where he leads research in affective neuroscience. He also serves as an Adjunct Investigator at the Institute of Molecular Pathology and is a member of the steering committee of the FWF Cluster for Neuronal Circuit in Health and Disease. His research combines viral genetics, optogenetics, electrophysiology, advanced imaging, fMRI, behavioral neuroscience, and brain data science to investigate how cortico-limbic circuits generate emotional memories and affective responses. His group also studies how genetic and environmental factors shape affective traits, psychiatric conditions, and evolution. He received his diploma in biochemistry from the University of Bochum and his PhD in neurobiology from the University of Heidelberg. Before establishing his research group in Vienna, he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology and Genetics and the California Institute of Technology. He received support from HFSP, the Max Planck Society, the Young Academy of the ÖAW, ERC, FWF, and Boehringer Ingelheim.

Affiliation: Medical University of Vienna
Homepage: https://hirnforschung.meduniwien.ac.at/unsere-abteilungen/abteilung-fuerneuronale-zellbiologie