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.

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.

scholarly journals Veidrodžio terapijos reikšmė motorinei bei sensorinei funkcijai, skausminiam sindromui bei asocijuotos galvos smegenų žievės reorganizacijai po persirgto insulto

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 189-194
Author(s):  
Monika Žilionytė ◽  
Jurgita Savickaitė ◽  
Andrius Kederys ◽  
Lina Varžaitytė
Keyword(s):  
Visual Feedback ◽  
Upper Limb ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Recovery Of Function ◽  
Phantom Limb Pain ◽  
Phantom Limb ◽  
Mirror Therapy ◽  
Limb Pain ◽  
Mirror Visual Feedback ◽  
Mirror Movement

Tyrimo tikslas – apžvelgti patikimais įrodymais pagrįstą literatūrą apie veidrodinės terapijos (VT) efektyvumą pacientams, persirgusiems galvos smegenų insultu. Tyrimo medžiaga ir metodai. Atliekant sisteminę apžvalgą, mokslinių straipsnių paieška vykdyta duomenų bazėse: PubMed, BioMedCentral, Tylor&Francis, CohraneLibrary, ScienceDirect. Mokslinių straipsnių paieška atlikta pagal kiekvienai duomenų bazei pritaikytą specialią paieškos strategiją. Paieškai buvo panaudoti šie raktažodžiai: „mirror therapy“, „rehabilitation“, „stroke“, „upper limb“, „recovery of function“, „mirror movement“, „phantom limb pain „, „mirror visual feedback“, „mirror neurons system“. Į sisteminę apžvalgą įtraukti anglų kalba 2008–2016 metais publikuoti atsitiktinių imčių kontroliuojami arba kontroliuojami prieš ir po tyrimai, kuriuose buvo vertinama VT įtaka paralyžiuotos galūnės motorinei ir sensorinei funkcijai, skausmo intensyvumui bei asocijuotos galvos smegenų žievės reorganizacijai. Tyrimo rezultatai. Į sisteminę apžvalgą įtraukta 11 tyrimų. Tyrimuose buvo suformuotos dvi grupės: tiriamųjų, kuriems buvo taikyta standartinė bei VT, ir kontrolinė grupė, kuriai buvo taikoma tik standartinė terapija. Daugelyje tyrimų VT taikyta vieną mėnesį. Rezultatai buvo vertinami prieš taikytą terapiją ir po jos. Apžvelgus visus šiuos 11 straipsnių stebime, kad tose tiriamųjų grupėse, kuriose naudojama VT, ženkliai pagerėja pacientų paralyžiuotos galūnės motorinė funkcija, padidėja vikrumas, sumažėja skausmas. Išvados. VT didina smegenų aktyvumą ipsilateralinėje motorinėje žievėje, somatosensorinėje zonoje, skatina asocijuotos žievės reorganizaciją, taip pat ji padeda pasiekti geresnių rezultatų pacientams, patyrusiems nedominuojančio pusrutulio insultą, sumažina persirgus insultu atsiradusį skausmą bei padidina po insulto sumažėjusį galūnių vikrumą. VT yra veiksminga ne tik gydant ūmiu ir poūmiu insultu, tačiau ir lėtiniu galvos smegenų insultu sergančius pacientus.

scholarly journals Consciousness: The last 50 years (and the next)

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 239821281881601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anil K. Seth
Keyword(s):  
Neurological Disorders ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Neuronal Mechanisms ◽  
Brain Sciences ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Global States

The mind and brain sciences began with consciousness as a central concern. But for much of the 20th century, ideological and methodological concerns relegated its empirical study to the margins. Since the 1990s, studying consciousness has regained a legitimacy and momentum befitting its status as the primary feature of our mental lives. Nowadays, consciousness science encompasses a rich interdisciplinary mixture drawing together philosophical, theoretical, computational, experimental, and clinical perspectives, with neuroscience its central discipline. Researchers have learned a great deal about the neural mechanisms underlying global states of consciousness, distinctions between conscious and unconscious perception, and self-consciousness. Further progress will depend on specifying closer explanatory mappings between (first-person subjective) phenomenological descriptions and (third-person objective) descriptions of (embodied and embedded) neuronal mechanisms. Such progress will help reframe our understanding of our place in nature and accelerate clinical approaches to a wide range of psychiatric and neurological disorders.

Integrating Mind and Brain Science

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Brain Science ◽  
The Core ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Brain Sciences ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Primary Strategy

There is growing appreciation that understanding the complex relationship between neuroscience and psychological science is of fundamental importance to achieving progress across these scientific domains. One primary strategy for addressing this issue centers around understanding the nature of explanation in these different domains. This chapter provides a field guide to some of the core topics that have shaped and continue to influence the debate about explanation and integration across the mind and brain sciences. In addition to surveying the overall intellectual terrain, it also introduces the main proposals defended in the individual chapters included in the volume and highlights important similarities and differences between them.

Of Means and Ends: Mind and Brain Science in the Twentieth Century

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Stephen T. Casper
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Brain Science ◽  
American Science ◽  
Means And Ends ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
Brain Sciences ◽  
Epistemic Culture ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Recent Tendency

What role does context play in the mind and brain sciences? This introductory article, “Of Means and Ends,” explores that question through its focus on the ways scientists and physicians engaged with and constructed technology in the mind and brain sciences in the twentieth century. This topical issue addresses how scientists, physicians, and psychologists came to see the ends of technology as important in-and-of themselves. In so doing, the authors of these essays offer an interpretation of historian Paul Forman's revisionist and highly contextualist chronology of the twentieth century, which presents the comparatively recent tendency to aggrandize the ends of technology as evidence of a major, epochal transformation in the epistemic culture of twentieth-century American science. This collection of papers suggests that it was in the vanguard of such fields as psychology, psychiatry, and neurophysiology in North America and Europe that the ends and applications of technology became important in-and-of themselves.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora Goldschmidt ◽  
Barbara Graziosi
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
The Body ◽  
Specific Site ◽  
Entire Volume ◽  
The Third ◽  
Religious Significance ◽  
Classical Poetry ◽  
Life Of The Mind ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Made In

The Introduction sheds light on the reception of classical poetry by focusing on the materiality of the poets’ bodies and their tombs. It outlines four sets of issues, or commonplaces, that govern the organization of the entire volume. The first concerns the opposition between literature and material culture, the life of the mind vs the apprehensions of the body—which fails to acknowledge that poetry emerges from and is attended to by the mortal body. The second concerns the religious significance of the tomb and its location in a mythical landscape which is shaped, in part, by poetry. The third investigates the literary graveyard as a place where poets’ bodies and poetic corpora are collected. Finally, the alleged ‘tomb of Virgil’ provides a specific site where the major claims made in this volume can be most easily be tested.

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.

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