What is the Mind and Brain?

2012 ◽  
pp. 33-41
Author(s):  
C. Alexander Simpkins ◽  
Annellen M. Simpkins
Keyword(s):  
Mind And Brain ◽  
The Mind

A chronology of Distributed Adaptive Control

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul F. M. J. Verschure
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive Control ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Integration Framework ◽  
The Social ◽  
Distributed Adaptive Control ◽  
Core Components ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
Convergent Validation ◽  
The Mind ◽  
And Behavior

This chapter presents the Distributed Adaptive Control (DAC) theory of the mind and brain of living machines. DAC provides an explanatory framework for biological brains and an integration framework for synthetic ones. DAC builds on several themes presented in the handbook: it integrates different perspectives on mind and brain, exemplifies the synthetic method in understanding living machines, answers well-defined constraints faced by living machines, and provides a route for the convergent validation of anatomy, physiology, and behavior in our explanation of biological living machines. DAC addresses the fundamental question of how a living machine can obtain, retain, and express valid knowledge of its world. We look at the core components of DAC, specific benchmarks derived from the engagement with the physical and the social world (the H4W and the H5W problems) in foraging and human–robot interaction tasks. Lastly we address how DAC targets the UTEM benchmark and the relation with contemporary developments in AI.

Contemporary psychosurgery and a look to the future

2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (6) ◽  
pp. 944-956 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert P. Feldman ◽  
Ronald L. Alterman ◽  
James T. Goodrich
Keyword(s):  
Modern Science ◽  
Psychiatric Disease ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Current State ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
Patient Selection Criteria ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Fine Print

Object. Despite a long and controversial history, psychosurgery has persisted as a modern treatment option for some severe, medically intractable psychiatric disorders. The goal of this study was to review the current state of psychosurgery. Methods. In this review, the definition of psychosurgery, patient selection criteria, and anatomical and physiological rationales for cingulotomy, subcaudate tractotomy, anterior capsulotomy, and limbic leukotomy are discussed. The historical developments, modern procedures, and results of these four contemporary psychosurgical procedures are also reviewed. Examples of recent advances in neuroscience indicating a future role for neurosurgical intervention for psychiatric disease are also mentioned. Conclusions. A thorough understanding of contemporary psychosurgery will help neurosurgeons and other physicians face the ethical, social, and technical challenges that are sure to lie ahead as modern science continues to unlock the secrets of the mind and brain.

Coda

2018 ◽  
pp. 277-280
Author(s):  
Erika Lorraine Milam
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Ongoing Study ◽  
Human History ◽  
The Public ◽  
Brain Sciences ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
The Mind

This concluding chapter reflects on the lessons presented by this volume as a whole and considers the ongoing study into the origins of humanity in the post-1970s era. In the decades after, readers have not lost their passion for epic evolutionary dramas in which the entirety of human history unfolds before their eyes. Yet when students today respond to the question “What makes us human?” they are far more likely to invoke neurological facts than paleontological ones. The public battlefield over violence and cooperation has since shifted to new ground in the mind and brain sciences. Despite the apparent polarization of scientists writing about human nature into culture- and biology-oriented positions, the intellectual landscape defined by scientists working on the interaction between culture and biology has continued to flourish.

Effects of Electromagnetic Radiation of Mobile Phones on the Human Brain

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-120
Author(s):  
Junaid Ahmad Malik
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Electromagnetic Radiation ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Car Accidents ◽  
Brain Barrier Permeability ◽  
Biological Impacts ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
The Mind

With the expanding use of wireless cellular networks, concerns have been communicated about the possible interaction of electromagnetic radiation with the human life, explicitly, the mind and brain. Mobile phones emanate radio frequency waves, a type of non-ionizing radiation, which can be absorbed by tissues nearest to where the telephone is kept. The effects on neuronal electrical activity, energy metabolism, genomic responses, neurotransmitter balance, blood–brain barrier permeability, mental psychological aptitude, sleep, and diverse cerebrum conditions including brain tumors are assessed. Health dangers may likewise develop from use of cellular communication, for instance, car accidents while utilizing the device while driving. These indirect well-being impacts surpass the immediate common troubles and should be looked into in more detail later on. In this chapter, we outline the possible biological impacts of EMF introduction on human brain.

Why We Should Reject Transhumanists’ Entire Lens on the Mind and Brain

2021 ◽  
pp. 42-84
Author(s):  
Susan B. Levin
Keyword(s):  
Dual Process ◽  
Appraisal Theory ◽  
Basic Emotion ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
Mental Operations ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

“Basic-emotion” and “dual-process” theorists, joined by transhumanists, view the mind as a set of compartments whose functionality is explained by dedicated areas or systems in the brain. The two theoretical approaches reflect core misconceptions and have been supplanted by “appraisal theory.” Beyond capturing well the entwining of reason and emotion in our mental operations, Klaus Scherer’s version of appraisal theory is compatible with mounting evidence of the brain’s complexity. Having developed a scientific line of argument against transhumanists’ lens on the mind and brain, the author turns to Aristotle’s rational essentialism. Wrongly invoked to support transhumanists’ extreme version, Aristotle’s rational essentialism incorporates a necessary role for nonrational faculties and intrapsychic harmony. While transhumanists’ lens on the mind and brain is at odds with contemporary findings, Aristotle’s view of the mind shares important commitments with Scherer’s appraisal theory and is broadly compatible with an emerging picture of the brain’s complexity.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
pp. 279-292
Author(s):  
Thomas Fuchs
Keyword(s):  
Body Problem ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Living Organism ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
Mind Body Problem ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

The ‘Conclusion’ summarizes fundamental concepts and insights of the book. The brain is presented as an organ of mediation, transformation, and resonance. Its functions are integrated by the living organism as a whole, or by the embodied person, respectively: persons have brains, they are not brains. The deadlocks of the mind–body problem result from a short circuit between mind and brain which follows as a consequence from the systematic exclusion of life. A combination of phenomenological, embodied, and enactive approaches seems best suited to overcome this deficit. In contrast to naturalistic reductionism, this leads to a personalistic concept of the human being which has its basis in intercorporeality: it is in the concrete bodily encounter that we primarily recognize each other as embodied subjects or persons.

scholarly journals ‘It’s All Done With Mirrors’: V.S. Ramachandran and the Material Culture of Phantom Limb Research

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 342-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katja Guenther
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Phantom Limb ◽  
Mirror Therapy ◽  
Brain Sciences ◽  
Mirror Box ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
Dualistic Ontology ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Phantom Limbs

This article examines the material culture of neuroscientist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran’s research into phantom limbs. In the 1990s Ramachandran used a ‘mirror box’ to ‘resurrect’ phantom limbs and thus to treat the pain that often accompanied them. The experimental success of his mirror therapy led Ramachandran to see mirrors as a useful model of brain function, a tendency that explains his attraction to work on ‘mirror neurons’. I argue that Ramachandran’s fascination with and repeated appeal to the mirror can be explained by the way it allowed him to confront a perennial problem in the mind and brain sciences, that of the relationship between a supposedly immaterial mind and a material brain. By producing what Ramachandran called a ‘virtual reality’, relating in varied and complex ways to the material world, the mirror reproduced a form of psycho-physical parallelism and dualistic ontology, while conforming to the materialist norms of neuroscience today.

scholarly journals The Dynamic-Processing Model of Working Memory

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 378-387
Author(s):  
Nathan S. Rose
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Dynamic Activity ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
Latent Representations ◽  
Dynamic Processing ◽  
Conventional Models ◽  
The Mind

Recent shifts in the understanding of how the mind and brain retain information in working memory (WM) call for revision to traditional theories. Evidence of dynamic, “activity-silent,” short-term retention processes diverges from conventional models positing that information is always retained in WM by sustained neural activity in buffers. Such evidence comes from machine-learning methods that can decode patterns of brain activity and the simultaneous administration of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to causally manipulate brain activity in specific areas and time points. TMS can “ping” brain areas to both reactivate latent representations retained in WM and affect memory performance. On the basis of these findings, I argue for a supplement to sustained retention mechanisms. Brain-decoding methods also reveal that dynamic levels of representational codes are retained in WM, and these vary according to task context, from perceptual (sensory) codes in posterior areas to abstract, recoded representations distributed across frontoparietal regions. A dynamic-processing model of WM is advanced to account for the overall pattern of results.

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