scholarly journals Symmetrization, Mirroring and External Reality: An ‘Inner’ Perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Rosapia Lauro Grotto
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Clinical Evidence ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
External Reality ◽  
Psychoanalytic Literature ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Neuro Imaging ◽  
The Mind

In the last two decades, mirroring systems have been detected in the monkey and in the human brain. The mirroring mechanisms have been considered as the neural basis for social cognition and interpersonal reactivity, and they have been assumed to support imitation, sharing of emotional states and empathy. Here I would like to compare ‘mirroring phenomena’ to ‘symmetrization phenomena’. In psychoanalytic literature, the construct of symmetrization has been proposed in the context of the Bi-Logic theory by Matte Blanco in 1975, on the basis of clinical evidence obtained in the psychoanalytical setting and following a theoretical analysis derived from the Freudian distinction between Primary and Secondary Processes. I will consider two different types of behaviours, empathic social interactions and the creation of transitional objects and spaces as defined by Winnicott in order to argue that symmetrization, in Matte Blanco’s terms, cannot be reduced to mirroring. I will then sketch a hypothesis on the interplay between the symmetric aspects of the mind and external reality in the development of higher relational functions of humans, also taking playing, arts and creativity into account. Finally I will describe the paradigmatic shift in neuro-imaging studies that was introduced with the discovery of the ‘Default Mode Network’ and its potential relevance in the research on the symmetric and asymmetric aspects of the human mind.

scholarly journals Mental models accurately predict emotion transitions

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (23) ◽  
pp. 5982-5987 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A. Thornton ◽  
Diana I. Tamir
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Mental Models ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
High Accuracy ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
State Representation ◽  
Emotion Dynamics ◽  
Accuracy Study

Successful social interactions depend on people’s ability to predict others’ future actions and emotions. People possess many mechanisms for perceiving others’ current emotional states, but how might they use this information to predict others’ future states? We hypothesized that people might capitalize on an overlooked aspect of affective experience: current emotions predict future emotions. By attending to regularities in emotion transitions, perceivers might develop accurate mental models of others’ emotional dynamics. People could then use these mental models of emotion transitions to predict others’ future emotions from currently observable emotions. To test this hypothesis, studies 1–3 used data from three extant experience-sampling datasets to establish the actual rates of emotional transitions. We then collected three parallel datasets in which participants rated the transition likelihoods between the same set of emotions. Participants’ ratings of emotion transitions predicted others’ experienced transitional likelihoods with high accuracy. Study 4 demonstrated that four conceptual dimensions of mental state representation—valence, social impact, rationality, and human mind—inform participants’ mental models. Study 5 used 2 million emotion reports on the Experience Project to replicate both of these findings: again people reported accurate models of emotion transitions, and these models were informed by the same four conceptual dimensions. Importantly, neither these conceptual dimensions nor holistic similarity could fully explain participants’ accuracy, suggesting that their mental models contain accurate information about emotion dynamics above and beyond what might be predicted by static emotion knowledge alone.

scholarly journals The Mind-Brain Relationship as a Mathematical Problem

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giorgio A. Ascoli
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Mathematical Problem ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Neural Connectivity ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Patterns ◽  
Scientific Phenomena ◽  
The Mind

This paper aims to frame certain fundamental aspects of the human mind (content and meaning of mental states) and foundational elements of brain computation (spatial and temporal patterns of neural activity) so as to enable at least in principle their integration within one and the same quantitative representation. Through the history of science, similar approaches have been instrumental to bridge other seemingly mysterious scientific phenomena, such as thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, optics and electromagnetism, or chemistry and quantum physics, among several other examples. Identifying the relevant levels of analysis is important to define proper mathematical formalisms for describing the brain and the mind, such that they could be mapped onto each other in order to explain their equivalence. Based on these premises, we overview the potential of neural connectivity to provide highly informative constraints on brain computational process. Moreover, we outline approaches for representing cognitive and emotional states geometrically with semantic maps. Next, we summarize leading theoretical framework that might serve as an explanatory bridge between neural connectivity and mental space. Furthermore, we discuss the implications of this framework for human communication and our view of reality. We conclude by analyzing the practical requirements to manage the necessary data for solving the mind-brain problem from this perspective.

Emotional Reactivity to Visual Content as Revealed by ERP Component Clustering

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 135-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslaw Wyczesany ◽  
Szczepan J. Grzybowski ◽  
Jan Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Occipital Lobe ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Temporoparietal Junction ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. In the study, the neural basis of emotional reactivity was investigated. Reactivity was operationalized as the impact of emotional pictures on the self-reported ongoing affective state. It was used to divide the subjects into high- and low-responders groups. Independent sources of brain activity were identified, localized with the DIPFIT method, and clustered across subjects to analyse the visual evoked potentials to affective pictures. Four of the identified clusters revealed effects of reactivity. The earliest two started about 120 ms from the stimulus onset and were located in the occipital lobe and the right temporoparietal junction. Another two with a latency of 200 ms were found in the orbitofrontal and the right dorsolateral cortices. Additionally, differences in pre-stimulus alpha level over the visual cortex were observed between the groups. The attentional modulation of perceptual processes is proposed as an early source of emotional reactivity, which forms an automatic mechanism of affective control. The role of top-down processes in affective appraisal and, finally, the experience of ongoing emotional states is also discussed.

Aristotle's Formal Identity of Intellect and Object: A Solution to the Problem of Modal Epistemology

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-107
Author(s):  
Robert C. Koons
Keyword(s):  
Human Mind ◽  
Modal Epistemology ◽  
De Anima ◽  
Object A ◽  
Formal Identity ◽  
Identity Thesis ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Mental Objects ◽  
Aristotelian Metaphysics

In De Anima Book III, Aristotle subscribed to a theory of formal identity between the human mind and the extra-mental objects of our understanding. This has been one of the most controversial features of Aristotelian metaphysics of the mind. I offer here a defense of the Formal Identity Thesis, based on specifically epistemological arguments about our knowledge of necessary or essential truths.

Challenges and opportunities for the affective sciences.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew S. Fox ◽  
Regina Lapate ◽  
Alexander J. Shackman ◽  
Richard J Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Core Feature ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Improved Methods ◽  
Health And Well Being

Emotion is a core feature of the human condition, with profound consequences for health, wealth, and wellbeing. Over the past quarter-century, improved methods for manipulating and measuring different features of emotion have yielded steady advances in our scientific understanding emotional states, traits, and disorders. Yet, it is clear that most of the work remains undone. Here, we highlight key challenges facing the field of affective sciences. Addressing these challenges will provide critical opportunities not just for understanding the mind, but also for increasing the impact of the affective sciences on public health and well-being.

scholarly journals Application of Eye Tracking Technology in Aviation, Maritime, and Construction Industries: A Systematic Review

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (13) ◽  
pp. 4289
Author(s):  
Daniel Martinez-Marquez ◽  
Sravan Pingali ◽  
Kriengsak Panuwatwanich ◽  
Rodney A. Stewart ◽  
Sherif Mohamed
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Human Error ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Mental Performance ◽  
Medical Scientist ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Attention Failure ◽  
Demographic Distribution

Most accidents in the aviation, maritime, and construction industries are caused by human error, which can be traced back to impaired mental performance and attention failure. In 1596, Du Laurens, a French anatomist and medical scientist, said that the eyes are the windows of the mind. Eye tracking research dates back almost 150 years and it has been widely used in different fields for several purposes. Overall, eye tracking technologies provide the means to capture in real time a variety of eye movements that reflect different human cognitive, emotional, and physiological states, which can be used to gain a wider understanding of the human mind in different scenarios. This systematic literature review explored the different applications of eye tracking research in three high-risk industries, namely aviation, maritime, and construction. The results of this research uncovered the demographic distribution and applications of eye tracking research, as well as the different technologies that have been integrated to study the visual, cognitive, and attentional aspects of human mental performance. Moreover, different research gaps and potential future research directions were highlighted in relation to the usage of additional technologies to support, validate, and enhance eye tracking research to better understand human mental performance.

Etymology and Semantic Spectrum of adhimukti and Related Terms in Buddhist Texts

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-29
Author(s):  
Giacomo Benedetti
Keyword(s):  
External Reality ◽  
Original Meaning ◽  
Meditative Practice ◽  
Stable Representation ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Mental Objects

The action noun adhimukti derives from the verb adhi-muc, not attested in Classical Sanskrit but in P?li. It is regularly used in the passive, with the original meaning ‘to be fastened to’, and then ‘to adhere’. This meaning is not used in a concrete sense, but in a metaphorical one, referred to mind and mental objects, so that adhimukti can be used to express inclination, faith in a doctrine, and also intentional and stable representation of an image or an idea in meditative practice, sometimes with the effect of transformation of external reality. The common feature appears to be adherence or the fixing of the mind on its object.

Probiotics for the Chemoprotective Role Against the Toxic Effect of Cancer Chemotherapy

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aafrin Waziri ◽  
Charu Bharti ◽  
Mohammed Aslam ◽  
Parween Jamil ◽  
Aamir Mirza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Clinical Management ◽  
Clinical Evidence ◽  
Unmet Need ◽  
Chemotherapeutic Agents ◽  
Antitumor Effects ◽  
Anti Cancer ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Growth Promoting ◽  
High Degree

Background: The processes of chemo- and radiation therapy-based clinical management of different types of cancers are associated with toxicity and side effects of chemotherapeutic agents. So, there is always an unmet need to explore agents to reduce such risk factors. Among these, natural products have generated much attention because of their potent antioxidant and antitumor effects. In the past, some breakthrough outcomes established that various bacteria in the human intestinal gut are bearing growth-promoting attributes and suppressing the conversion of pro-carcinogens into carcinogens. Hence, probiotics integrated approaches are nowadays being explored as rationalized therapeutics in the clinical management of cancer. Methods: Here, published literature was explored to review chemoprotective roles of probiotics against toxic and side effects of chemotherapeutics. Results: Apart from excellent anti-cancer abilities, probiotics are bearing and alleviate toxicity and side effects of chemotherapeutics, with a high degree of safety and efficiency. Conclusion: Preclinical and clinical evidence suggested that due to the chemoprotective roles of probiotics against side effects and toxicity of chemotherapeutics, their integration in chemotherapy would be a judicious approach.

scholarly journals Top-down causation and emergence: some comments on mechanisms

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
George F. R. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Causal Power ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Information Control ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Adaptive Selection ◽  
Abstract Entities ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Medical Healthcare

Both bottom-up and top-down causation occur in the hierarchy of structure and causation. A key feature is multiple realizability of higher level functions, and consequent existence of equivalence classes of lower level variables that correspond to the same higher level state. Five essentially different classes of top-down influence can be identified, and their existence demonstrated by many real-world examples. They are: algorithmic top-down causation; top-down causation via non-adaptive information control, top-down causation via adaptive selection, top-down causation via adaptive information control and intelligent top-down causation (the effect of the human mind on the physical world). Through the mind, abstract entities such as mathematical structures have causal power. The causal slack enabling top-down action to take place lies in the structuring of the system so as to attain higher level functions; in the way the nature of lower level elements is changed by context, and in micro-indeterminism combined with adaptive selection. Understanding top-down causation can have important effects on society. Two cases will be mentioned: medical/healthcare issues, and education—in particular, teaching reading and writing. In both cases, an ongoing battle between bottom-up and top-down approaches has important consequences for society.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document