CONTACT-Consciousness in interaction: The role of the natural and social environment in shaping consciousness

CONTACT is a Collaborative Research Project (CRP) running from 2007 to 2009 under the ESF Programme Consciousness in a Natural and Cultural Context. The project is co-funded by the European Science Foundation and by three national funding agencies: the CNR (Italy), the AHRC (United Kingdom), and the NWO (The Netherlands).

Our research is built on the assumption that the brains and bodies of cognitive agents (humans and animals) interact dynamically with both their natural and social environments. The CONTACT project questions the assumption that conscious experience must be explained by the brain by itself, as opposed to the embodied brain in interaction with environments, both natural and social.