The lecture“Mental Wandering: A Necessary Process for Adapting to the Environment?” will be presented by Thierry Atzeni, associate professor atthe Inter-University Laboratory of Psychology – Personality, Cognition,andSocial Change (LIP-PC2S),School of Letters, Languages, and Humanities,and will take place on Thursday, April 4, 2019, at 6:00 p.m. at La Turbine Sciences in Annecy.
It will also take place on Tuesday , April 9, 2019, at 6:30 p.m. at Archamps Technopole (Domaine de Chosal, Giffre Auditorium – 74160 Archamps).
ABOUT THE CONFERENCE
In July 2004, Patrick Le Lay, then CEO of the TF1 network, stated that “What we sell to Coca-Cola is available human brain time.” Beyond the controversy it sparked, this statement raises, from a scientific perspective, the question of what exactly “available human brain time” means. The concept of availability implicitly refers to the idea that, in order to be receptive to our environment, our “brain” must not be distracted from it. In other words, paying attention to the task at hand is essential for it to be carried out effectively. Yet we all experience on a daily basis a phenomenon widely described and studied in psychology: mind wandering—a phenomenon that seems to be at odds with the notion of availability, and even with that of effectiveness. The mechanisms underlying mind wandering are complex; understanding them is crucial for identifying the implications of making one’
“brain available” at all times.