Speaker Bio
Prof. Ernst Pöppel
Co-Director, Neurocognitive Image Laboratory (NIL), Shanghai International Studies University
Ernst Pöppel has studied psychology and biology and received his doctoral degree in Innsbruck (Austria). He earned two habilitation degrees, one in sensory physiology and one in psychology.
He conducted research on time perception and visual processing at Max Planck Institutes (Germany) and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, USA), where he discovered blindsight. He became a full professor at the Medical Faculty of Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) Munich, where he founded the Institute of Medical Psychology (IMP), an internationally renowned interdisciplinary research center. He has supervised more than 200 doctoral candidates.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (Germany) and other international academies. He has published about 400 scientific articles focusing on visual perception, temporal processing, biological aesthetics, and theoretical foundations, as well as several books for the general public.
Date & Time: Friday, May 15th, 2026, 14:00
Venue: Lecture Hall 136, Teaching Building No. 5, Songjiang Campus
Format: Invited Lecture followed by Academic Discussion
Lecture Title
Time Windows: How the Brain Makes Cognition Possible
Lecture Abstract
We take for granted that we see, hear, talk, move – but what are the necessary mechanisms of the brain to create what is taken for granted? The answer is time windows implemented in neural systems. Two such time windows of different duration are fundamental for cognitive processes and behavioral control. One time window is located in the temporal domain of some 30 to 40 milliseconds. Here elementary processing units create the building blocks for consciousness. When they are lost (like in anesthesia), conscious activity comes to an end. Another time window is located in the domain of approximately 3 seconds. This time window can be observed in speech, visual and auditory perception, intentional movements, brain activities, and also with aesthetic appreciations. These different time windows are presemantic, and they represent logistic functions of the brain; they show our evolutionary heritage reflecting anthropological universals; thus, they indicate a unifying principle for all humans.
