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Consciousness and Cognition
Fragments of Mind and Brain
1st Edition - February 6, 2007
Editors: Henri Cohen, Brigitte Stemmer
Language: English
Hardback ISBN:9780123737342
9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 3 7 3 7 3 4 - 2
eBook ISBN:9780080471198
9 7 8 - 0 - 0 8 - 0 4 7 1 1 9 - 8
What were the circumstances that led to the development of our cognitive abilities from a primitive hominid to an essentially modern human? The answer to this question is of…Read more
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What were the circumstances that led to the development of our cognitive abilities from a primitive hominid to an essentially modern human? The answer to this question is of profound importance to understanding our present nature. Since the steep path of our cognitive development is the attribute that most distinguishes humans from other mammals, this is also a quest to determine human origins. This collection of outstanding scientific problems and the revelation of the many ways they can be addressed indicates the scope of the field to be explored and reveals some avenues along which research is advancing. Distinguished scientists and researchers who have advanced the discussion of the mind and brain contribute state-of-the-art presentations of their field of expertise. Chapters offer speculative and provocative views on topics such as body, culture, evolution, feelings, genetics, history, humor, knowledge, language, machines, neuroanatomy, pathology, and perception. This book will appeal to researchers and students in cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychology, cognitive science, and philosophy.
Includes a contribution by Noam Chomsky, one of the most cited authors of our time
Cognitive neuroscientists, experimental psychologists, and cognitive scientists.
Introduction
Chapter 1: How Did Modern Human Cognition Evolve?
Publisher Summary
OUR LARGE BRAIN: DOES SIZE MATTER?
TOOLS, DECORATION AND ART
WHERE DID MODERN HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS COME FROM?
CONCLUSION
Chapter 2: Taking Up Arms
Publisher Summary
THINKING BIG
THE QUESTION OF LANGUAGE
LANGUAGE IS A HAND-ME-DOWN!
CONVINCING MYSELF
BOOK FOR SALE
OBJECTIONS
WHEN DID AUTONOMOUS SPEECH EMERGE?
NOT WITH A BANG, BUT WITH A WHIMPER
Chapter 3: Celebrating 300 Million Years of the Mind: A Bird’s-Eye View
Publisher Summary
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘THE MIND’?
FLYING WITHOUT FRONTAL LOBES
WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE, AND HOW CAN THIS BE MEASURED IN BIRDS?
BIRDS, LIKE HUMANS, LEARN FROM CAREFUL OBSERVATION
HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE WITH SO LITTLE NEOCORTICAL TISSUE?
FROM STORIES TO CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTS
TALKING WITH ALEX
BIRD PLAY
IF MY BIRD LOOKS HAPPY, IS SHE REALLY HAPPY?
ANTHROPOMORPHISM
CONCLUSION
Chapter 4: Was Medieval Cell Doctrine More Modern Than We Thought?
Publisher Summary
A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH – THE STANDARD VIEW
NEW VERSION – IT WAS IN THE BRAIN ALL ALONG
EARLY STUDIES OF PATIENTS WITH BRAIN DAMAGE
A LITTLE LATIN TO HELP SORT OUT THE PUZZLE
INFORMATION FLOW – MAKING THE MODEL DYNAMIC
THE BRAIN’S CONTROL OF MOVEMENT
A SUMMARY AND OUTLINE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Chapter 5: Can Evolution Produce Robots?
Publisher Summary
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
HOW DOES ARTIFICIAL EVOLUTION WORK?
HOW ARTIFICIAL NEURONS WORK
HOW TO GET ROBOTS TO BEHAVE
WHAT ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETS CAN DO
A USEFUL APPLICATION: GETTING RID OF TRASH
LEARNING AND EVOLUTION
WHAT IS THE CURRENT STATE OF THINGS?
OF WHAT IMPORTANCE IS EVOLUTIONARY ROBOTICS?
FUTURE VISIONS
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Chapter 6: The Thought-Translation Device
Publisher Summary
USING BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACES (BCIs) TO TRANSLATE THOUGHTS INTO ACTION
COMMUNICATING WITH SLOW CORTICAL POTENTIALS
THE ORIGIN OF SLOW CORTICAL POTENTIALS IN THE HUMAN BRAIN
THE TTD IN A NUTSHELL
SETTING UP AND USING THE TTD
HOW THE LANGUAGE SUPPORT PROGRAM WORKS
THE TRAINING PROCEDURE
THE TRAINING OF PATIENT E.M.
TTD – VISIONS FOR THE FUTURE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Chapter 7: Babes in Arms: Studies in Laterality
Publisher Summary
THE LEFT SIDE RULES
A BIAS REDISCOVERED
PROBLEMS FOR A HANDEDNESS EXPLANATION
IS THE BIAS A MATTER OF POSTURE?
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BABIES AND BOOKS?
TYPES OF HOLDS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS
STATES OF ‘ACTION-APPROACH’
THE ANATOMY OF EMOTION
EMOTIONS, ATTENTION, AND SIDE OF HOLDING
CAN THE ATTENTION HYPOTHESIS ACCOUNT FOR OTHER DETAILS OF THE HOLDING-SIDE BIAS?
Chapter 8: Why a Creative Brain? Evolutionary Setups for Off-Line Planning of Coherent Stages
Publisher Summary
CREATIVITY IS AN EVOLUTIONARY NEWCOMER
CREATIVITY FOR LANGUAGE INSTEAD?
WHEN AN ADVANCE PLAN IS NEEDED
INNOVATION DURING GET-SET
THE DARWINIAN PROCESS
SPEEDING UP THE DARWINIAN PROCESS
NEW USES FOR OLD THINGS
LONG SENTENCES AND COHERENCE
CREATING NEW LEVELS OF ORGANIZATION
Chapter 9: Creativity: Method or Magic?
Publisher Summary
WHAT IS NOT CREATIVE?
CREATIVE TRAIT OR CREATIVE STATE?
UNDERLYING MECHANISMS
CONCLUSIONS
Chapter 10: The Cross-Cultural Brain
Publisher Summary
ALEXITHYMIA
THE LATERALITY HYPOTHESIS OF ALEXITHYMIA
A ‘FLASHY’ WAY TO DO EXPERIMENTS
THE EXPERIMENTS
AN INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN OUR ONLINE EXPERIMENTS
Chapter 11: Where’s the Missing Body? A Puzzle for Cognitive Science
Publisher Summary
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
Chapter 12: Whose Free Will is it Anyway? or, The Illusion of Determinism
Publisher Summary
IS FREE WILL MORE THAN A FEELING?
NEUROSCIENCE, NEURAL REDUCTIONISM, AND DETERMINISM
THE IMPLICATIONS OF REDUCTIONISM AND DETERMINISM FOR SOCIETY AND PSYCHOLOGY
PSYCHOLOGY AND MATERIALISM OF THE MIND
MODERN NEUROSCIENCE AND NON-DETERMINISM: RADICAL CHANGES OF THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY
THE CRUX OF THE FREE-WILL DEBATE: IS BRAIN ACTIVITY PREDICTABLE?
FUTURE PERSPECTIVES
Chapter 13: Affective Neuroscience and the Ancestral Sources of Human Feelings
Publisher Summary
SOME PERSONAL LESSONS AND LESSNS ABOUT THE EVOLVED NATURE OF EMOTIONS
ARCHAEOLOGY OF MIND: THE AFFECTIVE SOURCES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
FIVE DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN AFFECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS AND COGNITIVE CONSCIOUSNESS
THE EMOTIONAL UNDERPINNINGS OF HUMAN NATURE – TOWARD A NEUROEVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOBIOLOGY
LEARNING IN EMOTIONAL SYSTEMS AND MORE ON THE PERVASIVE EMOTION-COGNITION INTERACTIONS
DEVELOPMENT OF NEW PSYCHIATRIC MEDICATIONS
MIND VIEWS: EMOTIONAL STATES AND COGNITIVE INFORMATION PROCESSING
IN SUM
Chapter 14: The Funny Meat Behind Our Eyes
Publisher Summary
HUMOR AND LAUGHTER FOR FUN AND (MAYBE) HEALTH
HUMOR AND LAUGHTER FROM A BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
THE FUNCTIONAL COGNITIVE ANATOMY OF A JOKE
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Chapter 15: Practicing Safe Stress: A Selective Overview of the Neuroscience Research
Publisher Summary
STRESS AND STRESSORS
ACUTE STRESS AND MEMORY
CHRONIC STRESS, BRAIN STRUCTURE, AND FUNCTION
STRESS AND MENTAL HEALTH
HOW STRESS SCULPTS THE DEVELOPING BRAIN
GENDER, STRESS, AND THE BRAIN
COPING WITH STRESS
Chapter 16: Petrol Sniffing, the Brain, and Aboriginal Culture: Between Sorcery and Neuroscience
Publisher Summary
PETROL SNIFFING
ABORIGINAL CULTURE
NEUROSCIENCE
BOTH WAYS
CONCLUSION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Chapter 17: Chatting with Noam Chomsky
Publisher Summary
Index
No. of pages: 288
Language: English
Edition: 1
Published: February 6, 2007
Imprint: Academic Press
Hardback ISBN: 9780123737342
eBook ISBN: 9780080471198
HC
Henri Cohen
Dr. Henri Cohen’s research interests focus on speech and language development and neurological disorders, learning and emotion in Parkinson’s disease, complexity and learning, skill acquisition and interference, and origin of language. He is Professor of Psychology (ret.) at Université du Québec à Montréal, and visiting scholar, at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad de la Frontera, Chile. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, and edited two books (with Elsevier) on cognition and consciousness, and on categorization, and a book on the origins of language (Benjamins). He is the current editor of Brain and Cognition (Elsevier), and past editor of Journal of Neurolinguistics (Elsevier).
Affiliations and expertise
Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Dept of Psychology, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Canada