The Brains that Pull the Triggers, second Paris conference on syndrome E organized by Itzhak Fried (UCLA / IEA Paris) and Alain Berthoz (Collège de France), May 9-10 2016.

“Arguably the biggest challenge for interdisciplinary dialogue across the fields that consider brain and behavior…a bold and important attempt to bring interdisciplinary approach to one of the biggest questions facing humanity”, Nature, 521:260, 2015 (Editorial on the First Paris Conference on Syndrome E)

Program

9th May 2016

Introduction

09:00 - Gretty Mirdal (Paris IAS), Alain Berthoz (College de France): Introduction and welcome

09:15 - Itzhak Fried (UCLA/IEA Paris): "The Brains that Pull the Triggers: An
Ordinary Guy with a Kalashnikov"

Session 1 - Empathy and Dehumanization

10:15 - Bruneau Emile (MIT): "Intergroup empathy and dehumanizations: consequences, neural basis, intervention"

11:00 - John Decety (Univ. of Chicago): "Empathy and Morality"

11:30 - Alain Berthoz (College de France): "The question of multiple identities"

12:00 - Discussion

Session 2 - Pathology: One of us or one unlike us?

14:15 - Asne Seierstad (Norway): "Breivik and Beyond: “One of us” behind the Trigger"

14:45 - David Cohen (Université Pierre & Marie Curie): "The road to mass killing: a pathological process?"

15:15 - Richard Rechtman (EHESS): "Questioning the predictive value of syndrome-E"

10th May 2016

Session 3 - Valuation and violence

09:00 - Ray Dolan (University College London): "Self and Other Valuation"

09:30 - Matthias Pessiglione (ICM): "What's wrong with the valuation system in a terrorist brain?"

10:00 - Etienne Koechlin (ENS Paris): "Rules and Values"

10:30 - Discussion

Session 4 - Clinical Correlations and Parallels

11:45 - Michel Botbol (CHU Brest): "What can the clinic of “difficult” adolescents tell us about Syndrome E?"

12:15 - Lionel Nachache (ICM): "Is society subject to “epileptic seizures”? Communication within the brain microcosm and communication within the societal macrocosm"

14:00 - Trevor Robbins (Oxford): "The Neuropsychopharmacology of Syndrome E"

14:30 - Discussion

Session 5 - Responsibility and Intervention

15:15 - Haggard Patrick (UCL): "Why I didn't do it... can other people reduce individual responsibility for action?"

15:45 - Ken Paller (Northwestern): "Changing hearts and minds — A perspective from memory research"

16:15 - Xabier Agirre Aranburu (International Criminal Court): "Obedience, Responsibility , Punishment"

16:45 - Discussion

17:30 - Fried Itzhak (UCLA/IEA Paris): Concluding Remarks