Understanding as Living

2019 ◽  
pp. 7-53
Author(s):  
James W. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Experience ◽  
Laboratory Research ◽  
Interactive System ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Network Studies ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Religious Understanding

Drawing upon clinical psychoanalysis and laboratory research, this chapter develops an “embodied-relational” epistemology. The chapter reviews major research findings on the ways embodiment influences the cognitive processes by which we understand ourselves and the world. It also reviews current neuro-network studies whose findings imply the brain can be understood as a single, interactive system and not simply a collection of relatively autonomous domains. The emphasis here is on the brain’s complexity, integration, and a certain degree of openness. Sensory experience is understood as an active, not passive process, involving an intimate interconnection between self and world. The role of proprioception, as well as the five basic senses, is analyzed. The implications of such research findings for human understanding, and especially religious understanding, are elaborated.

The role of tryptophan in hepatic encephalopathy

1993 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 71-75
Author(s):  
C. Aaldijk ◽  
W.W. Van Den Broek ◽  
R.C. Van Der Mast
Keyword(s):  
Hepatic Encephalopathy ◽  
Clinical Picture ◽  
Serotonergic System ◽  
Pathogenetic Mechanisms ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Glutamine Synthesis ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Tryptophan Uptake

SummaryIn this review the most important hypotheses for the occurrence of the clinical picture of hepatic encephalopathy are discussed. As possible pathogenetic mechanisms are raised: dysfunction of the serotonergic system due to an increased tryptophan uptake in the brain, an elevated intracerebral ammoniac concentration and glutamine synthesis, and a heightened intracerebral GABA-activity.The dysregulation of the serotonergic system as a consequence of the increased intracerebral tryptophan uptake is described as one of the most important pathogenetic mechanisms. The elevated intracerebral ammoniac concentration and the elevated intracerebral glutamine synthesis play in this a facilitating role. The similarity in symptomatology of the clinical picture of HE and the serotonergic syndrome support this hypothesis. Due to contradictory research findings the role of the GABA-ergic system and the occurrence of HE remains unclear.

COVID-19 Beyond the Lungs

2022 ◽  
pp. 109-126
Author(s):  
Omar El Hiba ◽  
Hicham Chatoui ◽  
Nadia Zouhairi ◽  
Lahoucine Bahi ◽  
Lhoussaine Ammouta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Case Reports ◽  
The World ◽  
Acute Pneumonia ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Cardinal Feature ◽  
Shed Light

Since December 2019, the world has been shaken by the spread of a highly pathogen virus, causing severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-Cov2), which emerged in Wuhan, China. SARS-Cov2 is known to cause acute pneumonia: the cardinal feature of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Clinical features of the disease include respiratory distress, loss of spontaneous breathing, and sometimes neurologic signs such as headache and nausea and anosmia, leading to suppose a possible involvement of the nervous system as a potential target of SARS-CoV2. The chapter will shed light on the recent clinical and experimental data sustaining the involvement of the nervous system in the pathophysiology of COVID-19, based on several case reports and experimental data reporting the possible transmission of SARS-CoV2 throughout the peripheral nerves to the brain cardiorespiratory centers. Thus, understanding the role of the nervous system in the course of clinical symptoms of COVID-19 is important in determining the appropriate therapeutic approach to combat the disease.

scholarly journals Inflammation and Cognition in Depression: A Narrative Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (24) ◽  
pp. 5859
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Wachowska ◽  
Piotr Gałecki
Keyword(s):  
Inflammatory Markers ◽  
Health Condition ◽  
Narrative Review ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Mediating Factors ◽  
Hormonal Imbalance ◽  
The World ◽  
Depressive Patients ◽  
The Brain

The authors aim to present a narrative review of research on the inflammatory aetiology of depression. Depression is a psychiatric disorder, constituting the most common reason of disability due to a health condition. It has been estimated that at least one in six people suffer from depression at some point of their lives. The aetiology of depression, although researched extensively all around the world, still remains unclear. Authors discuss the possible role of inflammation in depression, the neurodevelopmental theory of depression as well as associations between cognition and depression. Possible associations between memory dysfunction among depressive patients and inflammatory markers are included. The associations between the immune system, depression and cognition are observed. Possible mediating factors between these areas include personality traits, hormonal imbalance and functioning of the brain areas. The question as to what mediating factors are involved is still open to research.

The Role of Institutions in Creating Student-Focused Virtual Learning Spaces with ePortfolio Systems

2012 ◽  
pp. 119-135
Author(s):  
Eva Heinrich ◽  
Yuliya Bozhko
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Lifelong Learning ◽  
Virtual Learning ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Learning Spaces ◽  
Learning Space ◽  
Web 2.0 Tools ◽  
The World ◽  
Research Findings

In this chapter, we explore the currently dominant virtual learning spaces employed in institutions of higher education and contrast them with the virtual social spaces provided by Web 2.0 tools. Guided by the increasing focus on lifelong learning skills in the world of work and in higher education, we identify the gap that exists between institutional and social virtual spaces. We argue for filling this gap by providing access to institutional e-Portfolio systems to students in higher education, giving students an institutionally supported student-focused virtual learning space. By examining the perspectives of stakeholders involved in higher education, we identify challenges inherent in the adoption of institutional e-Portfolio systems and make recommendations for overcoming these based on practical experience and research findings.

scholarly journals Visual stability

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1564) ◽  
pp. 468-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Melcher
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Clinical Neurology ◽  
Visual Stability ◽  
Retinal Motion ◽  
Brain Circuits ◽  
The World ◽  
The Brain

Our vision remains stable even though the movements of our eyes, head and bodies create a motion pattern on the retina. One of the most important, yet basic, feats of the visual system is to correctly determine whether this retinal motion is owing to real movement in the world or rather our own self-movement. This problem has occupied many great thinkers, such as Descartes and Helmholtz, at least since the time of Alhazen. This theme issue brings together leading researchers from animal neurophysiology, clinical neurology, psychophysics and cognitive neuroscience to summarize the state of the art in the study of visual stability. Recently, there has been significant progress in understanding the limits of visual stability in humans and in identifying many of the brain circuits involved in maintaining a stable percept of the world. Clinical studies and new experimental methods, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, now make it possible to test the causal role of different brain regions in creating visual stability and also allow us to measure the consequences when the mechanisms of visual stability break down.

scholarly journals Learning to see in 3D with two eyes: the role of experience, plasticity and neurochemistry

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 12-17
Author(s):  
Betina Ip ◽  
Holly Bridge
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Binocular Vision ◽  
Early Experience ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Computational Power ◽  
The World ◽  
Accurate Performance ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Binocular Depth

Humans, along with other predators, have forward-facing eyes which restrict the area of the world that can be seen when compared to animals with eyes on the side of the head. Why would we sacrifice this panoramic vision? The answer is the very precise ability that having two eyes with overlapping and slightly different viewpoints provides to determine fine differences in depth. While interpreting this type of ‘binocular depth’ appears effortless, the precise calculations necessary for perceiving binocular depth require significant computational power in the cerebral cortex and the fine tuning of neurochemical interactions. This processing occurs in the visual regions of the brain and must be honed through early experience for accurate performance. By considering each stage of binocular processing and the neurochemical interactions required for integrating signals from the two eyes, we can begin to understand how the inherent ability of the brain to learn might help us when binocular vision goes wrong.

scholarly journals What’s the Point of Understanding?

2019 ◽  
pp. 222-256
Author(s):  
Michael Hannon
Keyword(s):  
Social Roles ◽  
Epistemic Luck ◽  
Epistemic Evaluation ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
The Relationship

This final chapter extends the function-first approach to human understanding. It is argued that the concept of understanding serves the practical function of identifying good explainers, which is an important dimension of epistemic evaluation. This hypothesis throws light on a variety of issues, including the role of explanation in understanding, the relationship between understanding and knowledge, epistemic luck, and the value of understanding. This chapter also argues that understanding and knowledge play different social roles: roughly, knowledge is closely tied to answering our need for true beliefs, whereas understanding answers our need for good explanations. Everyday inquiry is typically aimed at true beliefs, which is why knowledge matters, but sometimes we need more than just true beliefs to get by in the world, which is why understanding is valuable.

Suicide, Serotonin, and the Brain

Crisis ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. van Heeringen
Keyword(s):  
Suicidal Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Inhibition ◽  
Biological Psychiatry ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Serotonergic Function ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Serotonergic Dysfunction

Summary: The involvement of impaired serotonergic functioning in the development of suicidal behavior is one of the best documented findings in biological psychiatry. It is, however, less clear in which way this dysfunction contributes to the occurrence of suicidal behavior. Correlational studies have demonstrated associations between peripheral measures of serotonergic function and characteristics such as impulsivity, disinhibition, anxiety, and/or behavioral inhibition. Postmortem and neuroimaging studies have provided insight in the localization of serotonergic dysfunction in the central nervous system. Nevertheless, results in this area of research have also been contradictory. Following a short overview of recent research findings on serotonin and suicidal behavior, this paper focuses on the involvement of the prefrontal cortex of the brain in the development of suicidal behavior and on the role of serotonin in its executive functions. Based on these considerations, suggestions for future research are discussed.

Ontology III: From the World to Consciousness

2018 ◽  
pp. 315-348
Author(s):  
Georg Northoff
Keyword(s):  
Main Argument ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Spatiotemporal Scale ◽  
The World ◽  
World Brain ◽  
The Brain

Summary I so far focused mainly on the brain and how it is related to consciousness. This let me suppose that the brain, through its relation to the world, i.e., the world-brain relation, is necessary connected to consciousness (chapter 10). While this highlighted the central importance of the brain for the existence and reality of consciousness, the world itself and its ontological role were rather neglected so far – that shall be the focus in this chapter. My main argument is that the world is indispensable for consciousness and mental features in general: without world, there could no world-brain relation, which, in turn, renders impossible consciousness. I will discuss the role of the world for consciousness in terms of three arguments, the “argument of calibration”, the “argument of structure”, and the “argument of location”. First, as discussed in the “argument of calibration”, the world serves as “spatiotemporal frame”; this makes it possible for world-brain relation to serve as “spatiotemporal baseline” and “space of possible experience” for calibrating the possible objects or events for consciousness. That, as I argue, is central for yielding specifically the phenomenal features of consciousness. Secondly, as discussed in the “argument of structure”, the world itself can ontologically be characterized by “spatiotemporal nestedness”: the brain and its smaller spatiotemporal scale are contained and nested within the larger spatiotemporal scale of the world. Such “spatiotemporal nestedness” is an ontological feature of the world which is necessary for and makes possible, i.e., predisposes, consciousness. Finally, as discussed in the “argument of location”, the world allows for “complex location” of both brain and consciousness as part of and within the world as distinguished from both “simple location” and “non-location”. In sum, inclusion of the world in our ontology is indispensable if one wants to understand the existence and reality of mental features which, if reduced or limited to either brain or mind, remain unclear. I conclude that we need to include both world and brain including their relation, i.e., world-brain relation, in our ontology of consciousness – this amounts to what I describe as world-brain problem. Otherwise, when considering either brain or world alone as in “brain problem” and “world-problem” as I say, one leaves a gap between world and brain which makes it impossible to account for the existence and reality of mental features like consciousness.

Pattern Thinking

2020 ◽  
pp. 127-145
Author(s):  
Tanusree Dutta ◽  
Soumya Sarkar
Keyword(s):  
Impulse Buying ◽  
Sales Promotions ◽  
Firing Patterns ◽  
Neural Connections ◽  
Consumer Experiences ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Brains ◽  
The Brain ◽  
The Way

Consumers experience retail environments through the encounters they have. Out of these, the oft-repeated ones become part of the way they experience the world, which lay down and solidify neural connections and firing patterns leading to sight, hearing, feeling, and doing. This ‘doing' shapes consumer experiences. The foundation for such experiences is the fact that human brains are geared towards recognizing patterns and interruptions in patterns. To their benefit, retailers use information about the brain identifying patterns of experience and anomalies in those patterns. This knowledge makes sales promotions so fundamental for engaging buyers. Their visit to their favorite store is interrupted by a sudden discount or an alluring offer, which retailers are forever carrying out to seduce buyers. This chapter explores the neuroscience theories that equip the retailers to send out signals to entice buyers and covers applications of such theories in real retail encounters, including the role of dopamine and the brain, impulse buying, and the thrill of hunting deals.

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