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Francesco Ellia

@ellia.bsky.social
1.6K followers 220 following 258 posts

#Philosophy and #neuroscience, structural approaches to #consciousness 🧠 Researcher at Zen University and Brain Information Communication Research at ATR; Canon Fellow at Ritsumeikan 🇯🇵. www.researchgate.net/profile/France…

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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I didn't post much in the past months, but I have some pleasant updates! 1) I joined ZEN University as a postdoc. 2) I became a PI (second period) in Qualia Structure! 3) I obtained an early-career scientist grant (WAKATE); 4) I started a Canon Fellowship at Ritsumeikan University!
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Consciousness - tlab @qualiastructure.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
[new preprint! to be a chapter for Qualia Structure Book] "The View from Among: a Relational Epistemology for Structural Approaches" @ResearchGate: www.researchgate.net/publication/... by @ellia.bsky.social and me. Structural alternative (1st person plural) against 1st or 3rd-person perspective
researchgate.net
(PDF) The View from Among: a Relational Epistemology for Structural Approaches
PDF | Consciousness science remains caught between a first-person approach that cannot independently corroborate its data and a third-person approach... | Find, read and cite all the research you need...
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
New preprint! I'm working on the foundation of the epistemology for Structural Approaches in Consciousness Science. www.researchgate.net/publication/...
researchgate.net
(PDF) The View from Among: a Relational Epistemology for Structural Approaches
PDF | Consciousness science remains caught between a first-person approach that cannot independently corroborate its data and a third-person approach... | Find, read and cite all the research you need...
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Consciousness - tlab @qualiastructure.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
[j-club] Birch: The Edge of Sentience Chapter 16 (Presented by Francesco... youtu.be/UScZgmzkK0k?... via @YouTube LLMs and the Gaming Problem (Francesco) - Birch’s two projects distinguished: - Practical/ethical: why sentience _candidates_ matter morally more than resolving
youtu.be
[j-club] Birch: The Edge of Sentience Chapter 16 (Presented by Francesco Ellia)
YouTube video by Neural basis of Consciousness & Qualia Structure
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
New open-access paper out in Trends in Cognitive Sciences: Explanation, scope, and perspective: sources of schismogenesis in consciousness science Francesco Ellia & Naotsugu Tsuchiya A thread 1/n🧵 www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
cell.com
Explanation, scope, and perspective: sources of schismogenesis in consciousness science
Contemporary consciousness science faces an impasse: competing theoretical frameworks—structuralist versus functionalist, universal versus local, intrinsic versus extrinsic—appear to be inducing philo...
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Looks very cool!
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
New preprint by @niccolonegro.bsky.social !
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Naotsugu Tsuchiya @naotsuchiya.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
We are very excited to share this new preprint @yutogashi.bsky.social @oizumim.bsky.social with the excellent video providing the idea! The paper explains how this approach actually goes into more details in revealing subtle individual difference and complex structures of color qualia.
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Coleen Murphy @ctmurphy1.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Every time I upload a paper to #bioRxiv, I wonder why it can't be this easy at every journal 🧪
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
wonderful!
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
This paper and lecture by @wgpm.bsky.social address a long standing question about #IIT: if #consciousness is intrinsic, how does it relate to its #environment? From our @qualiastructure.bsky.social Qualia Structure & IIT Summer School 2025!
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Zhang Chuyin @zhangchuyin.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
If your stimulus set is so large that each participant can only use a part of it, do you know random selection is not a good way to distribute the stimuli? We introduced a methodology to collect data efficiently. @naotsuchiya.bsky.social @qualiastructure.bsky.social doi.org/10.13140/RG....
doi.org
(PDF) A dynamic stimulus distribution methodology for efficient large-scale pairwise relational data collection
PDF | On Dec 3, 2025, Z Chuyin and others published A dynamic stimulus distribution methodology for efficient large-scale pairwise relational data collection | Find, read and cite all the research you...
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Zhang Chuyin @zhangchuyin.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Be mindful of the subjectivity of conscious experience! Our poster "Free descriptions reduce friction between report and visual experience" at 2025 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference @ellia.bsky.social @naotsuchiya.bsky.social @qualiastructure.bsky.social doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
doi.org
Free descriptions reduce friction between report and visual experience
Poster presentation at 2025 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
I disagree, it’s an hypothesis that you cannot test and that it’s not embedded in an explanatory framework..
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Consciousness - tlab @qualiastructure.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
[Qstr-IIT summer school 2025] Day 1 Matteo Grasso: Introduction to Integrated Information Theory youtu.be/cwPGZ1CacVU?... Highly accessible!
youtu.be
[Qstr-IIT summer school 2025] Day 1 Matteo Grasso: Introduction to Integrated Information Theory
YouTube video by Neural basis of Consciousness & Qualia Structure
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Consciousness - tlab @qualiastructure.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
[Qstr-IIT summer school 2025] Day 1: Christof Koch: Introduction to Consciousness and Brain youtu.be/rfYX8YVK7HQ?... via @YouTube
youtu.be
[Qstr-IIT summer school 2025] Day 1: Christof Koch: Introduction to the consciousness research
YouTube video by Neural basis of Consciousness & Qualia Structure
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
I will check this reference out! My understanding is that you can always push functions a bit further till the point you have a description of the substrate. Then either it collapse in identity theory or become a substrate relevant framework, such as the one proposed by @anilseth.bsky.social.
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Niccolo Negro @niccolonegro.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
www.cambridge.org/core/journal... Happy to share this new paper (open access) on the logic of extrapolations in consciousness science, written with @liadmudrik.bsky.social
cambridge.org
Extrapolating Other Consciousnesses: The Prospects and Limits of Analogical Abduction | Philosophy of Science | Cambridge Core
Extrapolating Other Consciousnesses: The Prospects and Limits of Analogical Abduction
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Anil Seth @anilseth.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
New paper! Toward a unified taxonomy of information dynamics via Integrated Information Decomposition, out now in @pnas.org - led by @frosas.bsky.social, Pedro Mediano, & Adam Barrett, w/ @andrealuppi.bsky.social @robincarhartharris.bsky.social, me, & Dan Bor. www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....
pnas.org
Toward a unified taxonomy of information dynamics via Integrated Information Decomposition
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
This is a core issue that I have with the recent paper on AI and consciousness based on computational functionalist theories. Also the term theory is very inflated nowadays. I am guilty of that myself, but something to think about.
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Another preprint! By @zhangchuyin.bsky.social me and @naotsuchiya.bsky.social !
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
New preprint out! My friend @zhangchuyin.bsky.social is new on Bluesky, he is a brilliant student close to the end of his PhD, please follow him!
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Check out our new preprint on theories of #consciousness!
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
New #preprint out! In this paper @naotsuchiya.bsky.social and I take a look at the current debate on theories of #consciousness from a #meta-theoretical standpoint, and we argue that there is an ongoing process of #schismogenesis in consciousness science. [1/n] www.researchgate.net/publication/...
researchgate.net
(PDF) Intrinsic Universal Structures and Extrinsic Local Functions
PDF | Contemporary consciousness science faces an impasse: competing theoretical frameworks, structuralist vs. functionalist, universal vs. local,... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on...
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wanjawiese.bsky.social @wanjawiese.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
New paper with Azenet Lopez in C&C: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #PhilMind #PhilConsc #Consciousness
sciencedirect.com
Building blocks for theories of consciousness
Consciousness science is brimming with theories attempting to explain what consciousness is and how it can be identified in natural and artificial sys…
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
Congratulations!
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
The spirit of Judo is enshrined in its two mottos, that roughly translates into “the maximum effective use of energy” and “mutual benefit” (but please correct me if you know a better translation). According to its founder, Kano Jigoro, Judo means following these principles in every aspect of life.
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Joel Snyder @auditoryjoel.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
I wrote a commentary (mostly) disagreeing with the thought-provoking @smfleming.bsky.social & @matthiasmichel.bsky.social BBS paper about consciousness arising during the transition of animals from sea to land. #consciousness #neuroscience #evolution
osf.io
OSF
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Dr Heather Browning (Veit) @zoophilosophy.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Our new book chapter is out, looking at self-awareness/personhood in nonhuman animals, and how it may relate to questions of suffering link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
link.springer.com
Self-Awareness and Personhood in Non-Human Animals
Beyond simple consciousness or sentience, some non-human animals may possess more sophisticated cognitive abilities linked to capacities for self-awareness or even personhood, capacities that may infl...
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Andrew Iwaniuk @evoneuro.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
If you are interested in bird behaviour or animal brains, our book has you covered. Available next week, you can order direct from @mitpress.bsky.social (mitpress.mit.edu/978026255273...) or wherever books are sold. #birds #neuroskyence 🪶🧠🧪🇨🇦 See more on it here: www.ulethbridge.ca/unews/articl...
ulethbridge.ca
Comparative neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Iwaniuk revels in unlocking the what, how and why of bird behaviour | UNews
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Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
I'm going to be no fun and suppress the impulse to make fun of that, because it actually raises an interesting point. Can the emergent macroscopic 'whole' reach down and control the otherwise random quantum goings-on within it?
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Vismay Agrawal @vismayagrawal.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Does meditation just happen to address multiple types of suffering, or does its broad effectiveness hint at something deeper about the mechanisms of suffering or well-being itself? We address this in our new preprint! @rubenlaukkonen.bsky.social osf.io/preprints/ps...
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
This looks good!
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Consciousness - tlab @qualiastructure.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
#psy3280 Student presentation by Ashreye Chopra on Lugo et al. (2015). Beyond the gaze: Communicating in chronic locked-in syndrome. Brain Injury. youtu.be/KYd2TpkSpG0
youtu.be
Paper Presentation on Beyond the gaze: Communicating in Chronic Locked in Syndrome by Lugo et al
YouTube video by Neural basis of Consciousness & Qualia Structure
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Very good point! We started from similar premises in our 2021 paper academic.oup.com/nc/article/2... And a similar claim was made more recently by Trachtenberg and colleagues journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... Philosophy of psychiatry and neuroscience of consciousness have a lot in common!
academic.oup.com
Consciousness and the fallacy of misplaced objectivity
Abstract. Objective correlates—behavioral, functional, and neural—provide essential tools for the scientific study of consciousness. But reliance on these
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
This looks genuinely amazing. My streak of bad luck with conferences in 2025 continues because I won’t be in Kyoto at that time 😭
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Nature Reviews Neuroscience @natrevneuro.nature.com · 22/07/2025
Top-down and bottom-up neuroscience: overcoming the clash of research cultures — a Comment article by Fernando E. Rosas, Andrea I. Luppi, Pedro A. M. Mediano, Morten L. Kringelbach, Luiz Pessoa & Federico Turkheimer #neuroscience #neuroskyence www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Top-down and bottom-up neuroscience: overcoming the clash of research cultures - Nature Reviews Neuroscience
As scientists, we want solid answers, but we also want to answer questions that matter. Yet, the brain’s complexity forces trade-offs between these desiderata, bringing about two distinct research app...
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Tim Bayne @timbayne.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Very pleased that my commentary on Jonathan Birch's fantastic "The Edge of Sentience" has finally appeared. @birchlse.bsky.social and I agree on many things, but there was enough distance between our views to make this a productive exchange.
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Mark Rubin @markrubin.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
29 scholars reflect on their participation in adversarial collaborations: “Rather than producing a clear 'winner,' the most common outcome was a deeper understanding of the problem space through the integration of opposing perspectives” Open Access: doi.org/10.1007/s111... #MetaSci #Methodology 🧪
There is much enthusiasm, in principle, for adversarial collaborations (ACs), a scientific conflict resolution technique that encourages investigators with clashing models to collaborate in designing studies that test competing predictions. Adversarial collaborations offer the promise of breaking deadlocked debates, resolving disputes, and providing a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of a research domain. In practice, however, adversarial collaborations are more the exception than the rule, and there is almost no evidence on how scholars who have ventured into ACs assess the experience. To understand these perspectives, we surveyed and interviewed 29 scholars who participated in 13 AC projects. The data revealed that interpersonal conflicts were generally minor, that these projects required more upfront effort than typical collaborations, but benefited from high-quality results and more thoughtful post-publication debates. Rather than producing a clear “winner,” the most common outcome was a deeper understanding of the problem space through the integration of opposing perspectives. Although the generalizability of these findings is limited by a sample consisting only of scholars who completed an AC, they nonetheless highlight the value of ACs as a tool for advancing scientific inquiry and offer practical guidance for scholars and journals exploring this approach.
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
Awesome!
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
I’m very sad to say that I had to cancel my flight to ASSC. Life is ironic: I had to overcome several challenges to attend this conference but when everything was ready, I experienced a severe heatstroke from which I haven’t recovered yet. Genuinely one of the worst experiences in my life.
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Really great!
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Anil Seth @anilseth.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
What makes you ... you? My conversation with the brilliant @chrisduffy.bsky.social, on How to Be a Better Human, out now on @ted.com podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
podcasts.apple.com
What makes you… you? (w/ Anil Seth)
Podcast Episode · How to Be a Better Human · 06/30/2025 · 36m
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Jaan Aru @jaanaru.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
If you're interested in consciousness, please check this accepted chapter where I try to confront two major assumptions 1) the NCC is probably some type of pattern of spiking 2) we're close to figuring out the computations underlying consciousness arxiv.org/abs/2506.21485 #consci #assc28 🧵👇
arxiv.org
The assumptions that restrain us from understanding consciousness
The science of consciousness has been successful over the last decades. Yet, it seems that some of the key questions remain unanswered. Perhaps, as a science of consciousness, we cannot move forward u...
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Thomas Metzinger @metzinger.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
researchgate.net
Active Inference, Computational Phenomenology, and Advanced Meditation: Toward the Formalization of the Experience of Meditation
Download Citation | Active Inference, Computational Phenomenology, and Advanced Meditation: Toward the Formalization of the Experience of Meditation | Computational phenomenology has emerged as a powe...
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
I always thought that star wars episode III was the most important movie of the century. Twenty years later I can say I was right.
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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
So sad I missed this! I would really love to connect with Japan Association for Philosophy of Science! And Sendai is truly beautiful!
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Athena Demertzi @ademertzi.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
🥳 The 2024 Impact Factor & CiteScores are now released. We're pleased to inform you that Neuroscience of Consciousness #NCONSC achieved an Impact Factor of  4.3 (2023 IF 4.1). We are very excited and thankful for our prolific community of consciousness science! #consci @thomasandrillon.bsky.social
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Dr Heather Browning (Veit) @zoophilosophy.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Great summary by @faunalytics.bsky.social of our recent paper on welfare risks for cephalopods and decapods faunalytics.org/seafood-anim...
faunalytics.org
Seafood Animals Are Probably Sentient — Now What? - Faunalytics
Evidence indicates that octopuses, squids, lobsters, crabs, and shrimps experience pain and suffering. The seafood industry needs to change.
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