'Spontaneous action selection' refers to actions taken that are not a response to external stimuli, such as deciding to do something “out of the blue.” We know about some of the neural mechanisms that are generally associated with spontaneous action selection, but not the neural mechanism that results in a specific action being selected. Join us for Chris Rourk's explanation of a neuroscience-based hypothesis on how diverse cortical and sensory neural signaling can result in a decision to make a specific spontaneous action. He will also be discussing the implications of this mechanism for social sciences, and active participation and discussion is encouraged.
Chris Rourk has been a patent attorney in private practice for 30 years and has worked on a wide variety of matters ranging from audio processing technology, computing architectures, and medical technology. He has worked for clients at universities, solo inventors and for corporations large and small. Prior to practicing law, Chris was a research scientist at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Westinghouse. He's published a number of peer-reviewed papers on the way that cells and cellular systems use the recently discovered nanoscale electrical and magnetic properties of ferritin, including in neural signaling.
