Neal E. Miller and His Research1

Biofeedback ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 101-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar E. Coons ◽  
Sarah F. Leibowitz

Abstract Neal Miller's research contributions mainly concerned reward and learning mechanisms: (a) underlying thought processes and behaviors relevant to problem solving in psychotherapy and everyday life, (b) as mediated by the nervous system, and (c) involved in learning control over voluntary (conscious) skeletal muscle and autonomic (normally unconscious) internal-organ response systems for minimizing stress, treating disease, and promoting health. His career shows psychology's evolution from a theory-driven but data-impoverished discipline in the 1930s to one integrating vast bodies of clinical, social, and physiological knowledge.

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Kiverstein ◽  
Matt Sims

AbstractA mark of the cognitive should allow us to specify theoretical principles for demarcating cognitive from non-cognitive causes of behaviour in organisms. Specific criteria are required to settle the question of when in the evolution of life cognition first emerged. An answer to this question should however avoid two pitfalls. It should avoid overintellectualising the minds of other organisms, ascribing to them cognitive capacities for which they have no need given the lives they lead within the niches they inhabit. But equally it should do justice to the remarkable flexibility and adaptiveness that can be observed in the behaviour of microorganisms that do not have a nervous system. We should resist seeking non-cognitive explanations of behaviour simply because an organism fails to exhibit human-like feats of thinking, reasoning and problem-solving. We will show how Karl Friston’s Free-Energy Principle (FEP) can serve as the basis for a mark of the cognitive that avoids the twin pitfalls of overintellectualising or underestimating the cognitive achievements of evolutionarily primitive organisms. The FEP purports to describe principles of organisation that any organism must instantiate if it is to remain well-adapted to its environment. Living systems from plants and microorganisms all the way up to humans act in ways that tend in the long run to minimise free energy. If the FEP provides a mark of the cognitive, as we will argue it does, it mandates that cognition should indeed be ascribed to plants, microorganisms and other organisms that lack a nervous system.


Human Affairs ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacquelyn Kegley

AbstractI argue that Classical American Pragmatists—Royce, James, Dewey, Perice, Addams, Du Bois, and Locke subscribed to this view and practiced philosophy by focusing on experience and directing a critical eye to major problems in living. Thus Royce and Dewey explored the nature of genuine community and its role in developing a flourishing individual life but also a public, democratic life. Royce and James engaged in a phenomenological analysis of human experience including religious experience developing a rich understanding of human psychological, social, and religious development. Dewey, Royce and Perice applied the lessons of the scientific communal experience to problem solving in everyday life. Dewey explored life’s aesthetic dimensions. Addams, Du Bois and Locke applied philosophy to problems of living with discrimination as an immigrant or an African American.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matin Mohaghegh ◽  
Andreas Größler

PurposeAdopting the dynamic capability perspective, this study aims at exploring which problem-solving capabilities result in fundamental solutions with a potentially low likelihood for problems to recur. This can also shed light on why, despite many attempts, process improvement programs often fail to produce such long-term solutions.Design/methodology/approachA case study is carried out to inductively describe and classify problem-solving in companies and to indicate why problem-solving efforts are typically bounded to short-term solutions. The empirical findings are triangulated with findings from the extant literature.FindingsFirst, the authors propose three problem-solving modes with different characteristics and potential impacts on operational performance: intuitive problem-solving, semi-structured problem-solving and systematic problem-solving. Second, by emphasizing dynamic capabilities' micro-foundations and with the focus on learning mechanisms, the authors show that, among these modes, only systematic problem-solving can serve as a dynamic capability with fundamental solutions. Third, based on insights from the case study, the authors address behavioral and organizational impediments that curb dynamic capabilities and limit systematic problem-solving adoption.Originality/valueThis study is an empirically informed attempt to understand systematic problem-solving as a dynamic capability. The authors uncover the micro-foundations and the learning mechanisms through which systematic problem-solving becomes a dynamic capability. By highlighting problem-solving orientation as a hardly investigated dimension of improvement programs, the authors show that a mixture of a static problem-solving approach and a set of impediments at both individual and organizational levels is the major reason of failures of improvement programs over time.


1990 ◽  
Vol 258 (5) ◽  
pp. E894-E897 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. C. Tombaugh ◽  
R. M. Sapolsky

Glucocorticoids enhance the neurotoxic potential of several insults to the rat hippocampus that involve overactivation of glutamatergic synapses. These hormones also stimulate the synthesis of glutamine synthetase (GS) in peripheral tissue. Because this enzyme helps regulate glutamate metabolism in the central nervous system, glucocorticoid induction of GS in the brain may underlie the observed synergy. We have measured GS activity in the hippocampus and skeletal muscle (plantaris) of adult rats after bilateral adrenalectomy (ADX), corticosterone (Cort) replacement, or stress. No significant changes in GS were observed in hippocampal tissue, whereas muscle GS was significantly elevated after Cort treatment or stress and was reduced after ADX. These results suggest that Cort-induced shifts in GS activity probably do not explain Cort neurotoxicity, although the stress-induced rise in muscle GS may be relevant to certain types of myopathy.


2001 ◽  
Vol 82 (5) ◽  
pp. 321-325
Author(s):  
G. I. Poletaev

The mechanism of nerve-to-muscle transmission, as well as the trophic influence of the nervous system on effector organs, have always been in the focus of attention of scientists of the Kazan physiological school. Suffice it to recall the famous physiologist A.F. Samoilov, who in 1924 for the first time established the chemical nature of neuromuscular transmission.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-82
Author(s):  
A.Wilda Indra Nanna ◽  
Enditiyas Pratiwi

Pre-service teachers in primary education often have difficulty in solving mathematical problems, specifically fractions that are presented with a picture. In solving problems, some thought processes are needed by the teacher to reduce students' cognitive barriers. Therefore, this study aimed to reveal the cognitive barriers experienced by students in solving fraction problems. The cognitive barriers referred to in this study are ways of thinking about structures or mathematical objects that are appropriate in one situation and not appropriate in another situation. This study employed a descriptive-qualitative method. Furthermore, participants were followed up with in-depth semi-structured interviews to find out the cognitive barriers that occurred in solving fraction problems. This study discovers that the participants, in solving fraction problems, experienced all indicators of cognitive barrier and two cognitive obstacles are found as new findings that tend to involve mathematical calculations and violates the rules in dividing images into equal parts in the problem-solving procedure. 


2001 ◽  
Vol 125 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-266
Author(s):  
Satish Krishnamurthy ◽  
Stephen Kent Powers ◽  
Javad Towfighi

Abstract Primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNETs) of the central nervous system are uncommon embryonal neoplasms, rarely occurring in adults. Differentiation into specific mesenchymal tissues, such as cartilage, bone, skeletal muscle, smooth muscle, or adipose tissue, is rare. We report a case of a 51-year-old woman with a PNET of cerebrum that showed extensive mature adipose tissue differentiation. This is the second case, to our knowledge, of PNET of cerebrum with adipose tissue elements that has been described.


Author(s):  
T.C. Steven Keller ◽  
Christophe Lechauve ◽  
Alexander S Keller ◽  
Steven Brooks ◽  
Mitchell J Weiss ◽  
...  

Globin proteins exist in every cell type of the vasculature, from erythrocytes to endothelial cells, vascular smooth muscle cells, and peripheral nerve cells. Many globin subtypes are also expressed in muscle tissues (including cardiac and skeletal muscle), in other organ-specific cell types, and in cells of the central nervous system. The ability of each of these globins to interact with molecular oxygen (O2) and nitric oxide (NO) is preserved across these contexts. Endothelial α-globin is an example of extra-erythrocytic globin expression. Other globins, including myoglobin, cytoglobin, and neuroglobin are observed in other vascular tissues. Myoglobin is observed primarily in skeletal muscle and smooth muscle cells surrounding the aorta or other large arteries. Cytoglobin is found in vascular smooth muscle but can also be expressed in non-vascular cell types, especially in oxidative stress conditions after ischemic insult. Neuroglobin was first observed in neuronal cells, and its expression appears to be restricted mainly to the central and peripheral nervous systems. Brain and central nervous system neurons expressing neuroglobin are positioned close to many arteries within the brain parenchyma and can control smooth muscle contraction and, thus, tissue perfusion and vascular reactivity. Overall, reactions between NO and globin heme-iron contribute to vascular homeostasis by regulating vasodilatory NO signals and scaveging reactive species in cells of the mammalian vascular system. Here, we discuss how globin proteins affect vascular physiology with a focus on NO biology, and offer perspectives for future study of these functions.


Author(s):  
Helena Campos ◽  
Bárbara Morgado ◽  
Paula Catarino

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