Physiognomy

2019 ◽  
pp. 49-70
Author(s):  
Stanley Finger
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
New Science ◽  
Major Break ◽  
Physical Features ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Brain Parts

Gall considered his new science a part of physiognomy, the idea that physical features are revealing of character. This idea, accepted by Hippocrates and promoted by the Aristotelians, can also be found in Galen’s influential writings from the second century AD, as well as in later books with pictures of men having features like cows and lions and personalities to match. Lavater’s well-illustrated physiognomy books from the 1770s were still very popular when Gall developed his doctrine. But unlike his predecessors, who he depreciated, Gall focused entirely on the head, and related cranial features to distinct higher brain parts, which he associated with different functions. In brief, his physiognomy, with its emphasis on the brain and its functions, represented a major break with past formulations and was presented as revolutionary.

The Power of the Context

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerome Kagan
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Sense Of Agency ◽  
Psychological Processes ◽  
Narrow Tube ◽  
Parahippocampal Cortex ◽  
Narrow Space ◽  
Bodily State ◽  
Physical Features ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Magnetic Scanner

This chapter discusses contextual constraints on brain profiles. The laboratories that measure brain activity contain uncommon combinations of physical features and incentives that prime some brain sites and suppress others. Despite these possibilities, neuroscientists continue to speculate about the implications of the brain patterns they record as if the context has a minimal influence on their observations. This position is difficult to defend given the fact that the parahippocampal cortex binds objects and events to the context in which they appear. Adults lying supine and still in the narrow tube of a magnetic scanner in an unfamiliar room are in an unusual psychological and bodily state. The compromised sense of agency, awareness of being evaluated, confinement in a narrow space, and the demand to suppress all movement affect brain and psychological processes.

Text, Images, and Video Analytics for Fog Computing

2018 ◽  
pp. 390-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Jayanthiladevi ◽  
S. Murugan ◽  
K. Manivel
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Fog Computing ◽  
Unstructured Data ◽  
Video Analytics ◽  
Color Vector ◽  
Physical Features ◽  
Vector Images ◽  
Text Images ◽  
The Brain

Today, images and image sequences (videos) make up about 80% of all corporate and public unstructured big data. As growth of unstructured data increases, analytical systems must assimilate and interpret images and videos as well as they interpret structured data such as text and numbers. An image is a set of signals sensed by the human eye and processed by the visual cortex in the brain creating a vivid experience of a scene that is instantly associated with concepts and objects previously perceived and recorded in one's memory. To a computer, images are either a raster image or a vector image. Simply put, raster images are a sequence of pixels with discreet numerical values for color; vector images are a set of color-annotated polygons. To perform analytics on images or videos, the geometric encoding must be transformed into constructs depicting physical features, objects and movement represented by the image or video. This chapter explores text, images, and video analytics in fog computing.

Light as a Life Tool

2020 ◽  
pp. 58-81
Author(s):  
John Parrington
Keyword(s):  
Fluorescent Protein ◽  
Green It ◽  
Live Animal ◽  
New Science ◽  
Gene Coding ◽  
A Cell ◽  
Electron Microscopes ◽  
First Time ◽  
Protein Channels ◽  
The Brain

Visual light, and radiation of other frequencies, are highly important for scientific research. The first light microscopes made it possible for the first time to see that organisms from plants to humans are composed of cells. Electron microscopes have allowed scientists to study the structural components of cells in great detail, and even determine the shapes of individual proteins. Many lifeforms also use light to attract a mate or prey, or deter an attacker. Following the identification of the gene coding for the fluorescent protein that makes certain jellyfish glow green it has become possible to use this to genetically label proteins in a living cell, or even a live animal. This means that now the location of proteins in a cell can be determined exactly. A major recent step forward in neuroscience came with the discovery of protein channels in algae that conduct ions in response to light. By creating transgenic mice that have these proteins in their brain neurons, it is now possible to modulate the activity of these neurons by shining light into the brain though microscopic fibre optic cables. This new science of optogenetics allows neurons to be switched on or off experimentally. The optogenetic approach has been used to uncover the neural circuits involved in memory, pain and pleasure. In the future this technique might be used to treat physical pain or depression in people. Controversially, it might be also be misused, to supress memories, or even create completely false ones in people’s heads.

7. Into the 21st century

2018 ◽  
pp. 112-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Burns
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
New Science ◽  
The Core ◽  
New Treatment ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Manage Mental

‘Into the 21st century’ explains how there is an increased focus on how our body, and not just the brain, influences our mental health. Rapidly advancing computer technology, including artificial intelligence and virtual reality, is beginning to provide new treatment possibilities, not just support and simplify the old ones. The development of sophisticated imaging has supercharged the area of neurosciences and the increased understanding of genetics and the new science of epigenetics provide psychiatry with greater tools to identify and manage mental illnesses. A paradox with our increasingly technological and scientific advances is that the core dilemmas of psychiatry appear not to be diminishing. Psychiatry will survive the 21st century, but certainly it is changing.

Changes in the brain

2020 ◽  
pp. 92-102
Author(s):  
Oliver Quarrell
Keyword(s):  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Huntington's Disease ◽  
Huntington’S Disease ◽  
Corpus Striatum ◽  
Physical Features ◽  
The Brain

This chapter explains the change which can be seen in the structure of the brain of someone with Huntington’s disease (HD). There is a recognized pattern of damage which occurs. Several areas of the brain are affected but the brunt of the damage occurs in the basal ganglia especially the caudate and putamen nuclei, these are sometimes called the corpus striatum. There are complex connections between the areas of the brain: in the case of HD the direct and indirect pathways are important for understanding some of the physical features and why drugs which block the dopamine 2 receptors are used to treat chorea.

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