Lifting the screen on Neural organization: Is computational functional modeling necessary?

Arbib et al.'s comprehensive review of neural organization, over-relies on modernist concepts and restricts our understanding of brain and behavior. Reliance on terms like coding, transformation, and representation perpetuates a “black-box approach” to the study of the brain. Recognition is due to the authors for attempting to introduce postmodern concepts such as chaos and self-organization to the study of neural organization. However, confusion occurs in the implementation of “biologically rooted” schema theory in which schemas are viewed as computer programs. The inclusion of an additional functional level between structure and dynamics is unnecessary in a postmodernist perspective of brain and behavior.

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The Brain and Behavior: Casting Light into the “Black-Box”

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.1981.49.2.511 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 49 (2) ◽

pp. 511-518 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Michael Gerner

Keyword(s):

Brain Research ◽

Behavioral Science ◽

Learning Disabled ◽

Black Box ◽

Disabled Children ◽

Formal Operation ◽

Internal States ◽

Brain And Behavior ◽

And Behavior ◽

The Brain

Historically psychology could be criticized for taking a “black-box approach” in that environmental inputs and organism outputs (or observable behavior) were sufficient for some early practitioners to speculate about internal states, motivations, or the formal operation and structure of the box (brain) itself. Recent experiments in neuroanatomy, psychophysiology, and neural-behavioral science are providing a much needed link between the brain and behavior. Current research suggests that synaptic pathways in the brain which are developmentally determined are also predisposed to learning and can be altered by experience. This observation is discussed in relation to learning-disabled children and the opinion advanced that contemporary brain research offers new paradigms for psychology.

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Review of Self-regulation of the Brain and Behavior.

Contemporary Psychology ◽

10.1037/023440 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 30 (12) ◽

pp. 999-999

Author(s):

Gerald S. Wasserman

Keyword(s):

Self Regulation ◽

Brain And Behavior ◽

And Behavior ◽

The Brain

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Song competition changes the brain and behavior of a male songbird

Journal of Experimental Biology ◽

10.1242/jeb.028456 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 212 (15) ◽

pp. 2411-2418 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

K. W. Sockman ◽

K. G. Salvante ◽

D. M. Racke ◽

C. R. Campbell ◽

B. A. Whitman

Keyword(s):

Brain And Behavior ◽

And Behavior ◽

The Brain

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Dynamic patterns: The self-organization of brain and behavior

Computers & Mathematics with Applications ◽

10.1016/s0898-1221(97)90151-6 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 33 (9) ◽

pp. 147

Keyword(s):

The Self ◽

Self Organization ◽

Dynamic Patterns ◽

Brain And Behavior ◽

And Behavior

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The brain and behavior of the fowl

General Pharmacology The Vascular System ◽

10.1016/0306-3623(84)90107-1 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 175

Keyword(s):

Brain And Behavior ◽

And Behavior ◽

The Brain

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Müllerian inhibiting substance contributes to sex-linked biases in the brain and behavior

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.0902253106 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 106 (17) ◽

pp. 7203-7208 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Pei-Yu Wang ◽

Anna Protheroe ◽

Andrew N. Clarkson ◽

Floriane Imhoff ◽

Kyoko Koishi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Motor Neurons ◽

Reproductive Tract ◽

Behavioral Traits ◽

Spinal Motor Neurons ◽

Müllerian Inhibiting Substance ◽

Males And Females ◽

Brain And Behavior ◽

And Behavior ◽

The Brain ◽

Mullerian Inhibiting Substance

Many behavioral traits and most brain disorders are common to males and females but are more evident in one sex than the other. The control of these subtle sex-linked biases is largely unstudied and has been presumed to mirror that of the highly dimorphic reproductive nuclei. Sexual dimorphism in the reproductive tract is a product of Müllerian inhibiting substance (MIS), as well as the sex steroids. Males with a genetic deficiency in MIS signaling are sexually males, leading to the presumption that MIS is not a neural regulator. We challenge this presumption by reporting that most immature neurons in mice express the MIS-specific receptor (MISRII) and that male Mis−/− and Misrii−/− mice exhibit subtle feminization of their spinal motor neurons and of their exploratory behavior. Consequently, MIS may be a broad regulator of the subtle sex-linked biases in the nervous system.

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Sex differences in neural and behavioral signatures of cooperation revealed by fNIRS hyperscanning

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/srep26492 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 57

Author(s):

Joseph M. Baker ◽

Ning Liu ◽

Xu Cui ◽

Pascal Vrticka ◽

Manish Saggar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sex Differences ◽

Temporal Cortex ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Behavioral Signatures ◽

Computer Based ◽

Males And Females ◽

Brain And Behavior ◽

The Right ◽

And Behavior ◽

The Brain

Abstract Researchers from multiple fields have sought to understand how sex moderates human social behavior. While over 50 years of research has revealed differences in cooperation behavior of males and females, the underlying neural correlates of these sex differences have not been explained. A missing and fundamental element of this puzzle is an understanding of how the sex composition of an interacting dyad influences the brain and behavior during cooperation. Using fNIRS-based hyperscanning in 111 same- and mixed-sex dyads, we identified significant behavioral and neural sex-related differences in association with a computer-based cooperation task. Dyads containing at least one male demonstrated significantly higher behavioral performance than female/female dyads. Individual males and females showed significant activation in the right frontopolar and right inferior prefrontal cortices, although this activation was greater in females compared to males. Female/female dyad’s exhibited significant inter-brain coherence within the right temporal cortex, while significant coherence in male/male dyads occurred in the right inferior prefrontal cortex. Significant coherence was not observed in mixed-sex dyads. Finally, for same-sex dyads only, task-related inter-brain coherence was positively correlated with cooperation task performance. Our results highlight multiple important and previously undetected influences of sex on concurrent neural and behavioral signatures of cooperation.

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