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Giulio Tononi

Italian neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and professor (born 1960)

Field	Value
name	Giulio Tononi
image	Giulio Tononi at NIH PioneerAwardg 2005.jpg
birth_date	1960
birth_place	Trento, Italy
fields	Psychology, neuroscience
workplaces	University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Pisa
University of California at San Diego
alma_mater	Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies
notable_students	Erik Hoel
known_for	Sleep research, integrated information theory, consciousness studies
awards	NIH Director's Pioneer award (2005)
signature

University of Pisa University of California at San Diego

Giulio Tononi () is a neuroscientist and psychiatrist who holds the David P. White Chair in Sleep Medicine, as well as a Distinguished Chair in Consciousness Science, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is best known for his Integrated Information Theory (IIT), a mathematical theory of consciousness, which he proposed in 2004.

Biography

Tononi was born in Trento, Italy, and obtained an M.D. in psychiatry and a Ph.D. in neurobiology at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy.

He is an authority on sleep, and in particular the genetics and etiology of sleep. Tononi and collaborators have pioneered several complementary approaches to study sleep:

genomics
proteomics
fruit fly models
rodent models employing multiunit / local field potential recordings in behaving animals
in vivo voltammetry and microscopy
high-density EEG recordings and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in humans
large-scale computer models of sleep and wakefulness This research has led to a comprehensive hypothesis on the function of sleep (proposed with sleep researcher Chiara Cirelli), the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis. According to the hypothesis, wakefulness leads to a net increase in synaptic strength, and sleep is necessary to reestablish synaptic homeostasis. The hypothesis has implications for understanding the effects of sleep deprivation and for developing novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to sleep disorders and neuropsychiatric disorders.

Tononi is a leader in the field of consciousness studies, and has co-authored a book on the subject with Nobel prize winner Gerald Edelman.

Tononi also developed the integrated information theory (IIT): a theory of what consciousness is, how it can be measured, how it is correlated with brain states, and why it fades when we fall into dreamless sleep and returns when we dream. The theory is being tested with neuroimaging, Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and computer models. His work has been described as "the only really promising fundamental theory of consciousness" by collaborator Christof Koch.

Works

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References

(2014-05-08). "From the Phenomenology to the Mechanisms of Consciousness: Integrated Information Theory 3.0". PLOS Comput Biol.
(22 January 2015). "Integrated information theory". Scholarpedia.
(June 2004). "Hard lessons, sound sleep". New Scientist.
Henry Fountain. (January 2008). "Study Gives Key Role to Sleep in Helping Brain Learn Anew". New York Times.
"Giulio Tononi". Machines Like Us.
Carl Zimmer. (September 20, 2010). "Sizing Up Consciousness by Its Bits". New York Times.
Gerald Edelman. (June 2000). "Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination". Allen Lane.
Steven Poole. (June 2000). "Mind games: Gerald Edelman and Giulio Tononi dodge the question of free will in Consciousness". Guardian Unlimited.
(2008). "Consciousness as Integrated Information: A Provisional Manifesto". The Biological Bulletin.

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sleep-researchers american-psychiatrists american-consciousness-researchers-and-theorists living-people sant'anna-school-of-advanced-studies-alumni 1960-births university-of-wisconsin–madison-faculty

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