Science Café – Progress in the Cognitive Neurobiology of the Human Imagination: From Australopithecus to AI

• In-Person event
• 1049 Bank St , Ottawa , ON , K1S 3W9

• Contact
• Jessie Cartwright, jessie.cartwright@carleton.ca

How does the human brain imagine something that is not there—and how did this capacity develop? This talk explores progress in understanding the cognitive neurobiology of imagination, from clues associated with early hominins to contemporary artificial intelligence. Drawing on archaeology, psychology, and neuroscience, it examines how memory, sensory representations, and cognitive control contribute to generating new possibilities. We will consider what ancient objects can reveal about early minds, how language and cultural tools extend imagination, and why imagining involves more than vivid mental pictures. Familiar examples and brief audience activities will illustrate differences between remembering, representing, and creativity. Finally, comparisons with AI will help clarify which generative operations machines can perform and which questions about conscious experience remain unanswered. The talk presents imagination as a biological and cultural capacity whose origins, mechanisms, and boundaries are still being investigated.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Amedeo D’Angiulli, Professor, Dept of Neuroscience, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Visiting International Professor, Dept of Psychology, International Telematic University Uninettuno, Rome, Italy.

Dr. D’Angiulli is Professor of Developmental Social and Cognitive Neuroscience at the Department of Neuroscience, and Director of the Neuroscience of Imagination, Cognition and Emotion Research (NICER) Lab at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. He has received numerous awards and funding from National and Provincial agencies in Canada and internationally, such as Killam fellowship, Canada Research Chair (Tier II) and the IBRO-UNESCO fellowship in learning sciences, and Neurodevelopmental Health Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. He is an International Visiting professor at The Telematic International Uninettuno University, Rome, Italy and has been returning visiting professor at University of Sassari. He has over two hundred research publications of different kinds and serves/ed in the boards of several journals as associate editor and/or reviewer, or editor in chief.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352154624000482

https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wcs.70030

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02762366251337039

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/12/11/1495

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