Shaping the Brain: Science or Politics?

PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
2019 ◽  
pp. 12-31
Author(s):  
Alan J. McComas

This chapter outlines the history of research meetings dealing with consciousness, beginning with that hosted by Herbert Jasper in the Laurentian mountains of Quebec in 1953. It starts, however, with a brief discussion on ancient scientific approaches to medicine, which was jump-started by the Greek physician, Hippocrates. Afterward, the chapter skips forward two millennia to major figures who made breakthroughs in the field of brain science. It also touches on a central debate that reached its climax a little later, as to which part of the brain was responsible for consciousness. The chapter considers whether it was the cerebral cortex, as had been the prevailing assumption, or if it was the brain stem.


Author(s):  
Yingxu Wang

Eyes as the unique organ possess intensively direct connections to the brain and dynamically perceptual accessibility to the mind. This paper analyzes the cognitive mechanisms of eyes not only as the sensory of vision, but also the browser of internal memory in thinking and perception. The browse function of eyes is created by abstract conditioning of the eye's tracking pathway for accessing internal memories, which enables eye movements to function as the driver of the perceptive thinking engine of the brain. The dual mechanisms of the eyes as both the external sensor of the brain and the internal browser of the mind are explained based on evidences and cognitive experiences in cognitive informatics, neuropsychology, cognitive science, and brain science. The finding on the experiment's internal browsing mechanism of eyes reveals a crucial role of eyes interacting with the brain for accessing internal memory and the cognitive knowledge base in thinking, perception, attention, consciousness, learning, memorization, and inference.


2011 ◽  
pp. 65-82
Author(s):  
John G. Taylor

Attention is analyzed as the superior control system in the brain from an engineering point of view, with support for this from the way attention is presently being understood by brain science. Such an engineering- control framework allows an understanding of how the complex networks observed in the brain during various cognitive tasks can begin to be functionally decomposed. A machine version of such an attention control system is then discussed and extended to allow for goals and their reward values also to be encoded in the attention machine. The manner in which emotion may then begin to be imbued in the machine is briefly discussed and how even some glimpse of consciousness may then arise.


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 590-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
JENNIFER A. CHANDLER

Abstract:This short article proposes a conceptual structure for “neurolaw,” modeled loosely on the bipartite division of the sister field of neuroethics by Adina Roskies into the “ethics of neuroscience” and the “neuroscience of ethics.” As normative fields addressing the implications of scientific discoveries and expanding technological capacities affecting the brain, “neurolaw” and neuroethics have followed parallel paths. Similar foundational questions arise for both about the validity and utility of recognizing them as distinct subfields of law and ethics, respectively. In both, a useful distinction can be drawn between a self-reflexive inquiry (the neuroscience of ethics and law) and an inquiry into the development and use of brain science and technologies (the ethics and law of neuroscience). In both fields, these two forms of inquiry interact in interesting ways. In addition to a proposed conceptual structure for neurolaw, the article also addresses the neurolegal versions of the critiques made against neuroethics, including charges of reductionism, fact/value confusion, and biological essentialism.


Leonardo ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-31
Author(s):  
Kate Mondloch

This essay examines the much-contested “neuroscientific turn” in art history, taking the cues of the best of the turn while rejecting its false starts. The most promising transdisciplinary encounters spanning the brain sciences and the humanities begin from the premise that human experience is embodied, but the “body” itself is interwoven across biological, ecological, phenomenological, social and cultural planes. Certain media artworks critically engaged with neuroscience productively model such an approach. Taking Mariko Mori’s brainwave interface and multimedia installation Wave UFO (1999–2002) as a case study, the author explores how works of art may complicate and augment brain science research as well as its dissemination into other social and cultural arenas.


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