Giulio Tononi, M.D., Ph.D.
ADVISORY BOARD
Giulio Tononi received his medical degree in Psychiatry from the University of Pisa, Italy. After serving as a medical officer in the Army, he obtained a Ph.D. in neuroscience as a fellow of the Scuola Superiore, based on his work on sleep regulation. From 1990 to 2000, he held positions at The Neurosciences Institute, first in New York and then in San Diego. He is currently Professor of Psychiatry, Distinguished Professor in Consciousness Science, the David P. White Chair in Sleep Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Sleep and Consciousness.
Prof. Tononi’s scientific work on consciousness has centered on the development of the integrated information theory (IIT), a comprehensive theory of what consciousness is, its neural substrate, what determines its quantity and quality, and how it can be measured independent of report. Thus, IIT accounts of why certain parts of the brain are critical for consciousness, and why consciousness vanishes during deep slow wave sleep and seizures despite continuing neural activity. The theory has led to the development of measures of information integration to assess the quantity of consciousness in healthy humans and, by extrapolation, in unresponsive patients.
The theory can also provide a principled account of the quality of specific experiences—why space feels extended, time flowing, and objects as binding general concepts with particular features. A central focus of current work is to further explore how concepts of self, thought, will, and agency affect our experiences. One of the main implications of IIT is that consciousness is always definite—each of us lives in their own universe—one that is vast and wonderful, but also private and idiosyncratic. An essential goal for the science of consciousness is thus to investigate the border and composition of each individual consciousness and to devise ways to expand that border and change that composition. This will help us understand the intrinsic limitations of how we perceive and think of ourselves, of others, and of the world around us. Prof. Tononi’s consciousness research is currently funded by Tiny Blue Foundation.
Prof. Tononi is the author of over three hundred scientific peer-reviewed publications and the author of several books on consciousness, including A Universe of Consciousness (with G.M. Edelman), PHI: A Voyage from the Brain to the Soul, and Sizing up Consciousness (with Marcello Massimini).