scholarly journals Sleep Paralysis, “The Ghostly Bedroom Intruder” and Out-of-Body Experiences: The Role of Mirror Neurons

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baland Jalal ◽  
Vilayanur S. Ramachandran
Keyword(s):  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Sleep Paralysis ◽  
Body Experiences

The Role of Theories of Embodied Cognition in Research and Modeling of Emotions

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 124-138
Author(s):  
Alexandra V. Shiller
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Unknown Quantity ◽  
Emotional Processes ◽  
Strong Artificial Intelligence ◽  
European Philosophy ◽  
Postmodern Philosophy

The article analyzes the role of theories of embodied cognition for the development of emotion research. The role and position of emotions changed as philosophy developed. In classical and modern European philosophy, the idea of the “primacy of reason” prevailed over emotions and physicality, emotions and affective life were described as low-ranking phenomena regarding cognitive processes or were completely eliminated as an unknown quantity. In postmodern philosophy, attention focuses on physicality and sensuality, which are rated higher than rational principle, mind and intelligence. Within the framework of this approach, there is a recently emerged theory of embodied cognition, which allows to take a fresh look at the place of emotions in the architecture of mental processes – thinking, perception, memory, imagination, speech. The article describes and analyzes a number of empirical studies showing the impossibility of excluding emotional processes and the significance of their research for understanding the architecture of embodied cognition. However, the features of the architecture of embodied cognition remain unclear, and some of the discoveries of recent years (mirror neurons or neurons of simulation) rather raise new questions and require further research. The rigorously described and clear architecture of the embodied cognition can grow the theoretical basis that will allow to advance the studies of learning processes, language understanding, psychotherapy techniques, social attitudes and stereotypes, highlight the riddle of consciousness and create new theories of consciousness or even create an anthropomorphic artificial intelligence that is close to “strong artificial intelligence.”

scholarly journals The mirror mechanism: recent findings and perspectives

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1644) ◽  
pp. 20130420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Rizzolatti ◽  
Leonardo Fogassi
Keyword(s):  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Human Studies ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Basic Properties ◽  
Motor Intention ◽  
Similar Motor ◽  
Motor Acts

Mirror neurons are a specific type of visuomotor neuron that discharge both when a monkey executes a motor act and when it observes a similar motor act performed by another individual. In this article, we review first the basic properties of these neurons. We then describe visual features recently investigated which indicate that, besides encoding the goal of motor acts, mirror neurons are modulated by location in space of the observed motor acts, by the perspective from which the others’ motor acts are seen, and by the value associated with the object on which others’ motor acts are performed. In the last part of this article, we discuss the role of the mirror mechanism in planning actions and in understanding the intention underlying the others’ motor acts. We also review some human studies suggesting that motor intention in humans may rely, as in the monkey, on the mirror mechanism.

Neural Basis of Rhythm Perception

2018 ◽  
pp. 164-186
Author(s):  
Christina M. Vanden Bosch der Nederlanden ◽  
J. Eric T. Taylor ◽  
Jessica A. Grahn
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Auditory Information ◽  
Language Outcomes ◽  
Rhythm Perception ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Oscillatory Dynamics ◽  
Motor Excitability ◽  
Neural Underpinnings

To understand and enjoy music, it is important to be able to hear the beat and move your body to the rhythm. However, impaired rhythm processing has a broader impact on perception and cognition beyond music-specific tasks. We also experience rhythms in our everyday interactions, through the lip and jaw movements of watching someone speak, the syllabic structure of words on the radio, and in the movements of our limbs when we walk. Impairments in the ability to perceive and produce rhythms are related to poor language outcomes, such as dyslexia, and they can provide an index of a primary symptom in movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease. The chapter summarizes a growing body of literature examining the neural underpinnings of rhythm perception and production. It highlights the importance of auditory-motor relationships in finding and producing a beat in music by reviewing evidence from a number of methodologies. These approaches illustrate how rhythmic auditory information capitalizes on auditory-motor interactions to influence motor excitability, and how beat perception emerges as a function of nonlinear oscillatory dynamics of the brain. Together these studies highlight the important role of rhythm in human development, evolutionary comparisons, multi-modal perception, mirror neurons, language processing, and music.

Narcolepsy: Differential Diagnosis or Etiology in Some Cases of Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia?

CNS Spectrums ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan B. Douglass
Keyword(s):  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Differential Diagnosis ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Human Leukocyte ◽  
Sleep Paralysis ◽  
Leukocyte Antigen ◽  
Psychotic Features ◽  
Hypnagogic Hallucinations ◽  
Rule Out

AbstractDoes narcolepsy, a neurological disease, need to be considered when diagnosing major mental illness? Clinicians have reported cases of narcolepsy with prominent hypnagogic hallucinations that were mistakenly diagnosed as schizophrenia. In some bipolar disorder patients with narcolepsy, the HH resulted in their receiving a more severe diagnosis (ie, bipolar disorder with psychotic features or schizoaffective disorder). The role of narcolepsy in psychiatric patients has remained obscure and problematic, and it may be more prevalent than commonly believed. Classical narcolepsy patients display the clinical “tetrad”—cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations, daytime sleep attacks, and sleep paralysis. Over 85% also display the human leukocyte antigen marker DQB10602 (subset of DQ6). Since 1998, discoveries in neuroanatomy and neurophysiology have greatly advanced the understanding of narcolepsy, which involves a nearly total loss of the recently discovered orexin/hypocretin (hypocretin) neurons of the hypothalamus, likely by an autoimmune mechanism. Hypocretin neurons normally supply excitatory signals to brainstem nuclei producing norepinephrine, serotonin, histamine, and dopamine, with resultant suppression of sleep. They also project to basal forebrain areas and cortex. A literature review regarding the differential diagnosis of narcolepsy, affective disorder, and schizophrenia is presented. Furthermore, it is now possible to rule out classical narcolepsy in difficult psychiatric cases. Surprisingly, psychotic patients with narcolepsy will likely require stimulants to fully recover. Many conventional antipsychotic drugs would worsen their symptoms and make them appear to become a “chronic psychotic,” while in fact they can now be properly diagnosed and treated.

The role of mirror neurons in neurosurgical patients: A few general considerations and rehabilitation perspectives

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 665-671
Author(s):  
Julio Plata Bello ◽  
Cristián Modroño ◽  
José Luis González-Mora
Keyword(s):  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Neurosurgical Patients

The Musical Experience through the Lens of Embodiment

2008 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 21-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Corness
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
The Body ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Listening Experience

The author addresses the impression that digital media is diminishing the engagement of the body in our musical experience. Combining theories from the disciplines of philosophy and psychology, he constructs a framework for examining the experience of listening to music. A link between research in mirror neurons and the act of perception, as described by Merleau-Ponty, is used to demonstrate the role of embodiment in the listening experience. While acknowledging that hearing and viewing a musical performance do not provide the same musical experience, he aims to demonstrate how our embodied existence ensures the body's engagement in any musical experience.

scholarly journals The role of mirror neurons in cognitive and social functioning*

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 30-40
Author(s):  
Marta Fabiańska ◽  
Mateusz Bosiacki ◽  
Donata Simińska
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Mirror Neuron System ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Nerve Cells ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Neuron System ◽  
Evolutionary Point

AbstractMirror neurons were accidentally discovered during research on the activity of nerve cells which was conducted by a team of Italian scientists in Parma. They observed that certain brain cells were activated when an animal performed a given activity but also when it observed a similar activity performed by someone else. The following discovery of mirror neurons in the human brain initiated a wave of experimental research which confirmed that mirror nerve cells are responsible for understanding the mental state of other humans. This process is much more complicated and important from an evolutionary point of view than it might initially seem. The activity of mirror neurons is noticeable in everyday life, during all interactions with other living beings. This is exhibited through mirroring – the reflection of emotional and epistemic mental states of others based on their behavior. We present the activities of mirror neurons and the theoretical framework of research. Finally, we discuss the results of neurological studies which have made it possible to locate and define in detail the role of the mirror neuron system in the human brain.

scholarly journals How to Undo Things with Codes: New Writing Mechanisms and the Un/archivable Dis/appearing text

2014 ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Athina Markopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Major Change ◽  
The Body ◽  
William Gibson ◽  
Body Experiences ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Writing Tools ◽  
Book Of The Dead ◽  
The Relationship

The discourses of criticism are being transformed at the same time that our writing mechanisms are undergoing a major change. Reflecting on the relationship between our writing tools and our perceptions and taking programmability and interactivity as the main characteristics of new writing media, this essay attempts an approach to how that which is new in scriptural techniques, that is to say, programmability and interactivity, are undoing our perception of such notions as the archive and embodiment. The two works which are here commented contain the conditions of unwriting their written trace; the interactor who makes the text appear paradoxically also causes its disappearance by acts of destruction or dispersion. In the case of AGRIPPA (A Book of The Dead), William Gibson reserves for the reader the role of the destructor of the text through an extreme gesture of interaction which destines the work to erasure and calls for the retrieval of a text that contains the conditions of its own death. In the case of Garry Hill‘s Writing Corpora, the body‘s acts are created of, create and are turned against writing, they embody and disperse the writing traces, while the body experiences the shift from inscription to embodiment.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document