Why Learning?

2020 ◽  
pp. 107-126
Author(s):  
Daeyeol Lee

Once the genes delegate the responsibility of decision-making to the brain, the most important function of the brain is to develop successful decision-making strategies by incorporating new information about the animal’s environment. The complexity of this process increased during evolution, and in mammals, including humans, the brain utilizes multiple learning strategies to produce the most appropriate motor responses. After illustrating this using response and place learning, this chapter reviews the history of research on animal learning, including a potential conflict between different learning strategies. In particular, the author addresses the important role of classical conditioning and instrumental conditioning in learning.

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Arceneaux

AbstractIntuitions guide decision-making, and looking to the evolutionary history of humans illuminates why some behavioral responses are more intuitive than others. Yet a place remains for cognitive processes to second-guess intuitive responses – that is, to be reflective – and individual differences abound in automatic, intuitive processing as well.


1959 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 742-756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinz Eulau ◽  
John C. Wahlke ◽  
William Buchanan ◽  
Leroy C. Ferguson

The problem of representation is central to all discussions of the functions of legislatures or the behavior of legislators. For it is commonly taken for granted that, in democratic political systems, legislatures are both legitimate and authoritative decision-making institutions, and that it is their representative character which makes them authoritative and legitimate. Through the process of representation, presumably, legislatures are empowered to act for the whole body politic and are legitimized. And because, by virtue of representation, they participate in legislation, the represented accept legislative decisions as authoritative. But agreement about the meaning of the term “representation” hardly goes beyond a general consensus regarding the context within which it is appropriately used. The history of political theory is studded with definitions of representation, usually embedded in ideological assumptions and postulates which cannot serve the uses of empirical research without conceptual clarification.


Author(s):  
Hans Liljenström

AbstractWhat is the role of consciousness in volition and decision-making? Are our actions fully determined by brain activity preceding our decisions to act, or can consciousness instead affect the brain activity leading to action? This has been much debated in philosophy, but also in science since the famous experiments by Libet in the 1980s, where the current most common interpretation is that conscious free will is an illusion. It seems that the brain knows, up to several seconds in advance what “you” decide to do. These studies have, however, been criticized, and alternative interpretations of the experiments can be given, some of which are discussed in this paper. In an attempt to elucidate the processes involved in decision-making (DM), as an essential part of volition, we have developed a computational model of relevant brain structures and their neurodynamics. While DM is a complex process, we have particularly focused on the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) for its emotional, and the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) for its cognitive aspects. In this paper, we present a stochastic population model representing the neural information processing of DM. Simulation results seem to confirm the notion that if decisions have to be made fast, emotional processes and aspects dominate, while rational processes are more time consuming and may result in a delayed decision. Finally, some limitations of current science and computational modeling will be discussed, hinting at a future development of science, where consciousness and free will may add to chance and necessity as explanation for what happens in the world.


Author(s):  
Jake Kurczek ◽  
Natalie Vanderveen ◽  
Melissa C. Duff

There is a long history of research linking the various forms of memory to different aspects of language. Clinically, we see this memory-language connection in the prevalence of language and communication deficits in populations that have concomitant impairments in memory and learning. In this article, we provide an overview of how the demands of language use and processing are supported by multiple memory systems in the brain, including working memory, declarative memory and nondeclarative memory, and how disruptions in different forms of memory may affect language. While not an exhaustive review of the literature, special attention is paid to populations who speech-language pathologists (SLPs) routinely serve. The goal of this review is to provide a resource for clinicians working with clients with disorders in memory and learning in helping to understand and anticipate the range of disruptions in language and communication that can arise as a consequence of memory impairment. We also hope this is a catalyst for more research on the contribution of multiple memory systems to language and communication.


Author(s):  
Alexandra Shiller

This article is dedicated to examination of the role of guilt and shame, namely to prevalence one of these emotions in a particular culture as the leading mechanism of social control. The prevalence of guilt or shame as a cultural “dimension” has become one of the first criteria for the division of cultures into Western and Eastern, and was used by the researchers as a basic postulate for cross-cultural r. Over time, the perception of emotions as the criterion for the division of cultures has been revised. The article traces the history of research on emotions in general, namely the emotions of guilt and shame as social emotions, as well as describes guilt and shame as collective and individual experiences. Analysis is conducted on the role of guilt and shame in methodology of research on social emotions, cross-cultural studies. The author outlines certain methodological problems and contradictions, and assesses the current state of scientific research dedicated to social emotions. The conclusion is made that the research on collective sense of guilt and shame is more advanced from the perspective of cross-cultural psychology and philosophy, as well as the overall methodology of science; it allows shifting from the study of the role of individual emotions in interpersonal (conditioned by collective ties), intergroup and intragroup communication towards the integrated study of emotions associated with interaction of the individual and society, i.e. social experiences.


Author(s):  
Алексей Маркович Любомудров

Статья посвящена тридцатилетней истории изучения религиозных аспектов русской литературы под эгидой Пушкинского Дома. Детально описаны зарождение, цели и состав участников ежегодных конференций «Православие и русская культура», позволивших сказать новое слово об историческом взаимодействии веры и светского творчества. Становление исследований проходило в обстановке противодействия сил, занимавших позиции безоценочного релятивизма и откровенного антихристианства. В работе показано, как стихийно сложившийся в Институте русской литературы центр изучения православных парадигм отечественной словесности в 2008 году получил официальный статус и за годы своего существования подготовил десятки трудов, собраний сочинений классиков, сотни публикаций. Подчеркнута объединяющая и консолидирующая роль пушкинодомцев в академической разработке данной темы. The article is devoted to the thirty-year history of studying the religious aspects of Russian literature at the basis of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House). The origin, goals and participants of the annual conferences «Orthodoxy and Russian Culture», which provided new information about the historical interaction of faith and secular creativity, are described in details. The formation of the research took place in the atmosphere of confrontation between forces whose positions were relativistic and distinctly anti-christian. The work shows how the spontaneously established Center for the study of the Orthodox paradigm of Russian literature received its own official status in 2008. By the moment the Center has prepared hundreds of publications as well as collective works of classics. The unifying and consolidating role of researchers of Pushkin House in the academic development of subject mentioned above is emphasized.


2019 ◽  
pp. 12-31
Author(s):  
Alan J. McComas

This chapter outlines the history of research meetings dealing with consciousness, beginning with that hosted by Herbert Jasper in the Laurentian mountains of Quebec in 1953. It starts, however, with a brief discussion on ancient scientific approaches to medicine, which was jump-started by the Greek physician, Hippocrates. Afterward, the chapter skips forward two millennia to major figures who made breakthroughs in the field of brain science. It also touches on a central debate that reached its climax a little later, as to which part of the brain was responsible for consciousness. The chapter considers whether it was the cerebral cortex, as had been the prevailing assumption, or if it was the brain stem.


Author(s):  
Alain Cribier ◽  
Helene Eltchaninoff

Decision-making for the management of valvular disease (VHD) is rapidly evolving with advances in surgical and interventional techniques. The main causes of VHD has moved from rheumatic to degenerative, more particularly in industrial countries. In this chapter will be briefly discuss the aetiologies, presentation, and natural history of VHD in adults. The medical and surgical options available to date and the threshold for intervention will be then described. The role of a multidisciplinary Heart Valve Team working together with a geriatrician has become crucial to determine the optimal therapeutic option for VHD in older adults. Surgical valve replacement has been for decades the only possible option for the three leading VHDs in developed countries: aortic stenosis (AS), aortic regurgitation (AR) and mitral regurgitation (MR). Mitral stenosis (MS) has almost disappeared in Western countries while its prevalence remains high in the developing world.


1926 ◽  
Vol 63 (11) ◽  
pp. 481-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. B. Bailey

Hall and Molengraaff have recently produced a memoir of outstanding importance dealing with the Vredefort Mountain Land on the border of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State (1925). Their account, which is a model of lucidity, is accompanied by a map and sections, and is copiously illustrated with photographs, mainly of rock slices. It includes a chapter on the History of Research, and another that introduces tectonic comparisons with the Black Hills of Dakota and Wyoming and the Ries Kessel near Nördlingen. The features of the Vredefort district that command most attention in this country are its tectonics and its flinty crush-rocks, or pseudotachylytes, to use Shand's alternative designation. Hall and Molengraaff's memoir supplies much new information on these two subjects, and also in regard to other topics, stratigraphical and petrographical, that are of rather more local interest. In the present notice, only one aspect of the memoir will be discussed, namely the tectonics of the Vredefort Dome.


Neurosurgery ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 74 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. S50-S59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin A. Rubin ◽  
Andrew Brunswick ◽  
Howard Riina ◽  
Douglas Kondziolka

Abstract Arteriovenous malformations of the brain are a considerable source of morbidity and mortality for patients who harbor them. Although our understanding of this disease has improved, it remains in evolution. Advances in our ability to treat these malformations and the modes by which we address them have also improved substantially. However, the variety of patient clinical and disease scenarios often leads us into challenging and complex management algorithms as we balance the risks of treatment against the natural history of the disease. The goal of this article is to provide a focused review of the natural history of cerebral arteriovenous malformations, to examine the role of stereotactic radiosurgery, to discuss the role of endovascular therapy as it relates to stereotactic radiosurgery, and to look toward future advances.


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