GESDA Anticipation Workshop - The Future of Cognitive Enhancement

16:00 - 16:05(5mins)

Welcome and house rules

Marion Mercier

Jaimie Henderson

Understanding the fundamental mechanisms of cognition – how the brain perceives, remembers, decides, and learns – remains one of the central challenges in neuroscience. Recent breakthroughs in large-scale neural recording, targeted circuit perturbation, and biologically informed models are revealing the dynamic and distributed nature of cognitive processes. Researchers are beginning to unify insights across species and scales – from synaptic plasticity to network-level population dynamics – and moving beyond isolated brain regions toward integrated, systems-level frameworks. What are the remaining bottlenecks in uncovering the computational “algorithms” of thought? How can insights across spatial and temporal scales be unified to construct predictive, generalisable models of cognition? This discussion will explore anticipated advances over the next 5, 10, and 25 years—and how these may reshape our understanding, and augmentation, of human cognition.

Marcel van Gerven

Andreas Tolias

Transforming raw neural activity into interpretable representations of thought, intention, and behaviour is a cornerstone of next-generation neuroscience and neurotechnology. With advances in large-scale electrophysiology, implantable recording devices, high-resolution imaging, and adaptive decoding algorithms, researchers are beginning to capture and model the dynamics of cognition and internal brain states in real time. As datasets grow in complexity, new challenges emerge: how to extract generalisable rules across tasks and individuals, how to track latent variables in complex environments, and how to integrate decoding with closed-loop modulation. This session will explore how breakthroughs in both data acquisition and computational modelling over the next 5, 10 and 25 years could redefine our interpretation and understanding of neural activity and unlock new avenues for modulation and enhancement of cognitive function.

Maryam Shanechi

Kenneth Harris

Precise, targeted modulation of neural circuits is emerging as a powerful approach to influence attention, learning, memory, and affective states. Techniques ranging from deep-brain stimulation and transcranial electrical and magnetic stimulation to optogenetics and chemogenetics are revealing how specific patterns of stimulation can shape behaviour and cognition. Yet the future of neuromodulation lies not only in stimulation techniques, but in adaptive, feedback-driven systems that can respond to neural and behavioural states in real time. This session will explore what advances are needed – in circuit-level understanding, closed-loop control, materials, and algorithms – to move from disruption or correction to enhancement, and how neuromodulation may become a key enabler of dynamic, individualized control of cognitive processes.

Stéphanie Lacour

Mu-ming Poo

One of the most transformative prospects in cognitive enhancement is the integration of artificial cognitive systems with biological brains. Advances in AI – particularly in foundation models, adaptive agents, and generative tools – offer the potential to extend memory, decision-making, and learning beyond the biological substrate. As brain-computer interfaces mature, and as models become more context-aware and biologically informed, new hybrid cognitive architectures may emerge. What will it take to build systems that co-adapt with users, augment endogenous function, or operate as tightly coupled cognitive partners? This session will examine the path ahead for integrating AI with neural systems, and how this convergence might reshape the landscape of cognition and augmentation over the next 25 years.

Matthew MacDougall

Nataliya Kos'myna

One of the most transformative prospects in cognitive enhancement is the integration of artificial cognitive systems with biological brains. Advances in AI – particularly in foundation models, adaptive agents, and generative tools – offer the potential to extend memory, decision-making, and learning beyond the biological substrate. As brain-computer interfaces mature, and as models become more context-aware and biologically informed, new hybrid cognitive architectures may emerge. What will it take to build systems that co-adapt with users, augment endogenous function, or operate as tightly coupled cognitive partners? This session will examine the path ahead for integrating AI with neural systems, and how this convergence might reshape the landscape of cognition and augmentation over the next 25 years.

Jaimie Henderson

GESDA Anticipation Workshop - The Future of Cognitive Enhancement