Doc. Dr. Danko Nikolic

I am a scientist investigating the brain and mind. I am associated with Max Planck Institute for Brain Research and Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies. My interest is in how the physical world of neuronal activity produces the mental world of perception and cognition. Understanding the mechanisms by which the brain produces the mind is the main motivation for my studies.

My work so far led to a number of discoveries concerning the dynamics of cortical neurons and the relationship between cortical activity and visual perception, and is published in leading scientific journals. We now know that there is not one, but multiple ways a subjective increase in perceived brightness can be produced by cortical neurons. Also, we now know that a synchronized population of cortical neurons organizes its dynamics into small-world networks, and that the action potentials of the same population of neurons form short-lasting firing sequences. They are are completed typically within <15 milliseconds.

In addition, with my collaborators, I made a number of other discoveries concerning visual cognition and synesthesia/ideasthesia. We discovered that visual long-term memory is created within visual working memory. Also, we found evidence that synesthesia is primarily a semantic phenemenon. This lead me to coin the term ideasthesia.

The ultimate goal of my studies is twofold. First, I would like to achieve conceptual understanding of how the dynamics of physical processes creates biological consciousness. Among other problems, this requires solving the hard problem of consciousness. Second, I would like to use this theoretical knowledge to create artificial systems that are biologically-like intelligent and adaptive. This would have implications for our information-processing technologies.

If you do not see why would it be interesting to studying the brain, maybe you can find motivation in the following text: Why brain?