In connection with this year's Brain Awareness Week, which runs from March 16 to 22, 2026, the Department of Neuroscience is organizing an event for the general public entitled "Neuroscience and altered states of consciousness" on Saturday March 21, 2026 from 2 to 4.30pm in the Émile Duclaux lecture hall.

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The lecture will offer an overview of current knowledge on consciousness and altered states of consciousness through various examples such as sleep, anesthesia and coma.

What approaches are being adopted by neuroscientists to explore these altered states of consciousness? Are we really unconscious when asleep or under anesthesia? What changes are observed at molecular, cellular and tissue level and in terms of our behavior? Neuroscientists and clinicians are constantly working to elucidate what happens to the brain when its function is altered.
 

During the event, neuroscientists and clinicians will attempt to answer these questions through their scientific presentations:

• Claire Sergent, Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience at Université Paris Cité and the CNRS, co-coordinator of the Master's in Cognitive Science run by Université Paris Cité, Université Paris Sciences Lettres and EHESS
   
• Thomas Andrillon, Inserm neuroscientist at the Paris Brain Institute
   
• Tarek Sharshar, a scientist in the Perception and Action Unit at the Institut Pasteur and a professor in the Intensive Care Unit at Raymond Poincaré Hospital.
   

Following the presentations, a round table will be held to discuss these topics.
 

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