scholarly journals Is the N170 face specific? Controversy, context, and theory

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian D. Earp ◽  
Jim A.C. Everett
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Standard View ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Human Functioning ◽  
Characteristic Signal ◽  
Normal Human ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Theoretical Standpoint

In cognitive science, there is an ongoing debate about the architecture of the mind: does it consist of a number of mental organs each managing a different function in isolation, or is it more of general processor, adaptable to a wide range of tasks? One corner of this debate has centered on face processing. This is because face-perception is crucial to normal human functioning and some evidence shows that faces may be processed by the brain in a privileged way compared to other types of stimuli. For example, in EEG brain recordings, the N170 is a characteristic signal that occurs after a participant is exposed to an image of a face, but it is much less pronounced when other stimuli are shown. More than 15 years of research on the N170 face effect have yielded the standard view that the N170 is at the very least face-sensitive, and possibly even face-specific, that is, indexing modular processes tied exclusively to facial geometries. The specificity claim is clearly stronger, and hence subject to significant controversy; while the more conservative sensitivity claim had been regarded (until recently) as effectively settled. Nevertheless, Thierry and colleagues, in a contentious 2007 article, sought to undermine even this conservative consensus: they argued that the apparent face-responsiveness of the N170 in prior research was due to systematic flaws in experimental design. Fiery debate has followed. In this review, we put the debate in its historical and philosophical context, and try to spell out some of the theoretical and logical assumptions that underlie the claims of the competing camps. We then show that the best available evidence counts, at least partially, against the Thierry et al. construal of the N170. Accordingly, it would be premature to abandon the conservative account of the N170, according to which it is – minimally – responsive to faces. We conclude by returning to the more controversial claim about face-specificity, and try to clarify what such a view would entail from a theoretical standpoint.

Towards the Synergy of Cognitive Informatics, Neural Informatics, Brain Informatics, and Cognitive Computing

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingxu Wang
Keyword(s):  
Intelligent Systems ◽  
Reference Model ◽  
External Information ◽  
Cognitive Computing ◽  
Cognitive Informatics ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Cognitive Knowledge ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

The contemporary wonder of sciences and engineering recently refocused on the starting point: how the brain processes internal and external information autonomously rather than imperatively as those of conventional computers? This paper explores the interplay and synergy of cognitive informatics, neural informatics, abstract intelligence, denotational mathematics, brain informatics, and computational intelligence. A key notion recognized in recent studies in cognitive informatics is that the root and profound objective in natural, abstract, and artificial intelligence, and in cognitive informatics and cognitive computing, is to seek suitable mathematical means for their special needs. A layered reference model of the brain and a set of cognitive processes of the mind are systematically developed towards the exploration of the theoretical framework of cognitive informatics. A wide range of applications of cognitive informatics and denotational mathematics are recognized in the development of highly intelligent systems such as cognitive computers, cognitive knowledge search engines, autonomous learning machines, and cognitive robots.

Immunoelectron microscope detection of C-type natriuretic peptide in normal human atrial tissue

1993 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 388-389
Author(s):  
Chi-Ming Wei ◽  
Margaret Hukee ◽  
Christopher G.A. McGregor ◽  
John C. Burnett
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Natriuretic Peptide ◽  
Vascular Tone ◽  
Cardiac Tissue ◽  
Ring Structure ◽  
Terminal Amino Acid ◽  
Amino Acid Peptide ◽  
Normal Human ◽  
Terminal Amino ◽  
The Brain

C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) is a newly identified peptide that is structurally related to atrial (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP). CNP exists as a 22-amino acid peptide and like ANP and BNP has a 17-amino acid ring formed by a disulfide bond. Unlike these two previously identified cardiac peptides, CNP lacks the COOH-terminal amino acid extension from the ring structure. ANP, BNP and CNP decrease cardiac preload, but unlike ANP and BNP, CNP is not natriuretic. While ANP and BNP have been localized to the heart, recent investigations have failed to detect CNP mRNA in the myocardium although small concentrations of CNP are detectable in the porcine myocardium. While originally localized to the brain, recent investigations have localized CNP to endothelial cells consistent with a paracrine role for CNP in the control of vascular tone. While CNP has been detected in cardiac tissue by radioimmunoassay, no studies have demonstrated CNP localization in normal human heart by immunoelectron microscopy.

Lighting Up the Brain to Illuminate the Mind

2004 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 713-716
Author(s):  
Ellen S. Berscheid
Keyword(s):  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

How Does the Brain Make the Mind? We Do Not Know.

PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (32) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Was
Keyword(s):  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

Big Heads title page

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
vernon thornton
Keyword(s):  
Title Page ◽  
Language Of Thought ◽  
Correct Version ◽  
Evolutionary Context ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

A description of of the mind and its relationship to the brain, set in an evolutionary context. Introduction of a correct version of 'language-of-thought' called 'thinkish'.

Zombies and Dolls

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcello Massimini ◽  
Giulio Tononi
Keyword(s):  
Body Problem ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Turing Test ◽  
Hard Problem ◽  
Mind Body Problem ◽  
The Hard Problem ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

This chapter uses thought experiments and practical examples to introduce, in a very accessible way, the hard problem of consciousness. Soon, machines may behave like us to pass the Turing test and scientists may succeed in copying and simulating the inner workings of the brain. Will all this take us any closer to solving the mysteries of consciousness? The reader is taken to meet different kind of zombies, the philosophical, the digital, and the inner ones, to understand why many, scientists and philosophers alike, doubt that the mind–body problem will ever be solved.

scholarly journals Bio-Inspired Modality Fusion for Active Speaker Detection

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 3397
Author(s):  
Gustavo Assunção ◽  
Nuno Gonçalves ◽  
Paulo Menezes
Keyword(s):  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Validation Process ◽  
Detection Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Speaker Detection ◽  
The One ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Fusion Ability

Human beings have developed fantastic abilities to integrate information from various sensory sources exploring their inherent complementarity. Perceptual capabilities are therefore heightened, enabling, for instance, the well-known "cocktail party" and McGurk effects, i.e., speech disambiguation from a panoply of sound signals. This fusion ability is also key in refining the perception of sound source location, as in distinguishing whose voice is being heard in a group conversation. Furthermore, neuroscience has successfully identified the superior colliculus region in the brain as the one responsible for this modality fusion, with a handful of biological models having been proposed to approach its underlying neurophysiological process. Deriving inspiration from one of these models, this paper presents a methodology for effectively fusing correlated auditory and visual information for active speaker detection. Such an ability can have a wide range of applications, from teleconferencing systems to social robotics. The detection approach initially routes auditory and visual information through two specialized neural network structures. The resulting embeddings are fused via a novel layer based on the superior colliculus, whose topological structure emulates spatial neuron cross-mapping of unimodal perceptual fields. The validation process employed two publicly available datasets, with achieved results confirming and greatly surpassing initial expectations.

scholarly journals Agency, Responsibility, Selves, and the Mechanical Mind

Philosophies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Fiorella Battaglia
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Technology ◽  
Extended Mind ◽  
Human Machine Interaction ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
Legal Perspective ◽  
Area Of Concern ◽  
Third Person Perspective ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain

Moral issues arise not only when neural technology directly influences and affects people’s lives, but also when the impact of its interventions indirectly conceptualizes the mind in new, and unexpected ways. It is the case that theories of consciousness, theories of subjectivity, and third person perspective on the brain provide rival perspectives addressing the mind. Through a review of these three main approaches to the mind, and particularly as applied to an “extended mind”, the paper identifies a major area of transformation in philosophy of action, which is understood in terms of additional epistemic devices—including a legal perspective of regulating the human–machine interaction and a personality theory of the symbiotic connection between human and machine. I argue this is a new area of concern within philosophy, which will be characterized in terms of self-objectification, which becomes “alienation” following Ernst Kapp’s philosophy of technology. The paper argues that intervening in the brain can affect how we conceptualize the mind and modify its predicaments.

scholarly journals Scaffold Hopping of α-Rubromycin Enables Direct Access to FDA-Approved Cromoglicic Acid as a SARS-CoV-2 MPro Inhibitor

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 541
Author(s):  
Hani A. Alhadrami ◽  
Ahmed M. Sayed ◽  
Heba Al-Khatabi ◽  
Nabil A. Alhakamy ◽  
Mostafa E. Rateb
Keyword(s):  
Binding Free Energy ◽  
Human Fibroblasts ◽  
Critical Time ◽  
Dynamics Simulation ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Energy Calculation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Normal Human ◽  
Novel Scaffold

The COVID-19 pandemic is still active around the globe despite the newly introduced vaccines. Hence, finding effective medications or repurposing available ones could offer great help during this serious situation. During our anti-COVID-19 investigation of microbial natural products (MNPs), we came across α-rubromycin, an antibiotic derived from Streptomyces collinus ATCC19743, which was able to suppress the catalytic activity (IC50 = 5.4 µM and Ki = 3.22 µM) of one of the viral key enzymes (i.e., MPro). However, it showed high cytotoxicity toward normal human fibroblasts (CC50 = 16.7 µM). To reduce the cytotoxicity of this microbial metabolite, we utilized a number of in silico tools (ensemble docking, molecular dynamics simulation, binding free energy calculation) to propose a novel scaffold having the main pharmacophoric features to inhibit MPro with better drug-like properties and reduced/minimal toxicity. Nevertheless, reaching this novel scaffold synthetically is a time-consuming process, particularly at this critical time. Instead, this scaffold was used as a template to explore similar molecules among the FDA-approved medications that share its main pharmacophoric features with the aid of pharmacophore-based virtual screening software. As a result, cromoglicic acid (aka cromolyn) was found to be the best hit, which, upon in vitro MPro testing, was 4.5 times more potent (IC50 = 1.1 µM and Ki = 0.68 µM) than α-rubromycin, with minimal cytotoxicity toward normal human fibroblasts (CC50 > 100 µM). This report highlights the potential of MNPs in providing unprecedented scaffolds with a wide range of therapeutic efficacy. It also revealed the importance of cheminformatics tools in speeding up the drug discovery process, which is extremely important in such a critical situation.

The brain as a mediator of the mind and the world

Cortex ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 45 (7) ◽  
pp. 904-905
Author(s):  
Zhicheng Lin
Keyword(s):  
The World ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain
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