The Brain and Behavior: Casting Light into the “Black-Box”

1981 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 511-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Gerner
Keyword(s):  
Brain Research ◽  
Behavioral Science ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Formal Operation ◽  
Internal States ◽  
Brain And Behavior ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Brain

Historically psychology could be criticized for taking a “black-box approach” in that environmental inputs and organism outputs (or observable behavior) were sufficient for some early practitioners to speculate about internal states, motivations, or the formal operation and structure of the box (brain) itself. Recent experiments in neuroanatomy, psychophysiology, and neural-behavioral science are providing a much needed link between the brain and behavior. Current research suggests that synaptic pathways in the brain which are developmentally determined are also predisposed to learning and can be altered by experience. This observation is discussed in relation to learning-disabled children and the opinion advanced that contemporary brain research offers new paradigms for psychology.

Epilogue: Reading Organisms in the Age of Neuroscience

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Tougaw
Keyword(s):  
Disability Studies ◽  
Brain Research ◽  
Human Organism ◽  
Literary Representations ◽  
Conceptual Understandings ◽  
Brain And Behavior ◽  
Philosophical Debates ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Brain

In the epilogue, Tougaw asks, “What does it mean to read as a human organism?” The epilogue surveys recent accounts in “Neuro-Lit-Crit,” emphasizing fledgling attempts to bridge the humanities and the neurosciences—and the controversies that have arisen in the process. Tougaw concludes with a set of propositions: the brain is a representational organ, and we need sophisticated theories of representation to understand it; the efflorescence of brain research in the last three decades has led to more questions than answers, multiplying the variables and angles necessary for understanding relations between brain and behavior; difference is a motivating force in much literature and therefore both neuro-literature and “Neuro-Lit-Crit” must engage with disability studies and politics; literary representations of neurological difference emphasize complications and disjunctions more than they resolve social, political, or philosophical debates; and the sciences and the humanities are converging in their conceptual understandings of the making of self and relations between biology and culture, even though their very different languages often make it appear as though they are diverging; and, therefore, it’s the responsibility of both scientists and humanists to translate disciplinary languages, with the aim of strengthening both disciplines.

Lifting the screen on Neural organization: Is computational functional modeling necessary?

2000 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 544-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damian Keil ◽  
Keith Davids
Keyword(s):  
Schema Theory ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Functional Modeling ◽  
Comprehensive Review ◽  
Structure And Dynamics ◽  
Neural Organization ◽  
Brain And Behavior ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Brain

Arbib et al.'s comprehensive review of neural organization, over-relies on modernist concepts and restricts our understanding of brain and behavior. Reliance on terms like coding, transformation, and representation perpetuates a “black-box approach” to the study of the brain. Recognition is due to the authors for attempting to introduce postmodern concepts such as chaos and self-organization to the study of neural organization. However, confusion occurs in the implementation of “biologically rooted” schema theory in which schemas are viewed as computer programs. The inclusion of an additional functional level between structure and dynamics is unnecessary in a postmodernist perspective of brain and behavior.

Review of Self-regulation of the Brain and Behavior.

1985 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 999-999
Author(s):  
Gerald S. Wasserman
Keyword(s):  
Self Regulation ◽  
Brain And Behavior ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Brain

scholarly journals Song competition changes the brain and behavior of a male songbird

2009 ◽  
Vol 212 (15) ◽  
pp. 2411-2418 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. W. Sockman ◽  
K. G. Salvante ◽  
D. M. Racke ◽  
C. R. Campbell ◽  
B. A. Whitman
Keyword(s):  
Brain And Behavior ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Brain

scholarly journals Müllerian inhibiting substance contributes to sex-linked biases in the brain and behavior

2009 ◽  
Vol 106 (17) ◽  
pp. 7203-7208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei-Yu Wang ◽  
Anna Protheroe ◽  
Andrew N. Clarkson ◽  
Floriane Imhoff ◽  
Kyoko Koishi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Neurons ◽  
Reproductive Tract ◽  
Behavioral Traits ◽  
Spinal Motor Neurons ◽  
Müllerian Inhibiting Substance ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Brain And Behavior ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Mullerian Inhibiting Substance

Many behavioral traits and most brain disorders are common to males and females but are more evident in one sex than the other. The control of these subtle sex-linked biases is largely unstudied and has been presumed to mirror that of the highly dimorphic reproductive nuclei. Sexual dimorphism in the reproductive tract is a product of Müllerian inhibiting substance (MIS), as well as the sex steroids. Males with a genetic deficiency in MIS signaling are sexually males, leading to the presumption that MIS is not a neural regulator. We challenge this presumption by reporting that most immature neurons in mice express the MIS-specific receptor (MISRII) and that male Mis−/− and Misrii−/− mice exhibit subtle feminization of their spinal motor neurons and of their exploratory behavior. Consequently, MIS may be a broad regulator of the subtle sex-linked biases in the nervous system.

scholarly journals Sex differences in neural and behavioral signatures of cooperation revealed by fNIRS hyperscanning

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Baker ◽  
Ning Liu ◽  
Xu Cui ◽  
Pascal Vrticka ◽  
Manish Saggar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Behavioral Signatures ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Brain And Behavior ◽  
The Right ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Brain

Abstract Researchers from multiple fields have sought to understand how sex moderates human social behavior. While over 50 years of research has revealed differences in cooperation behavior of males and females, the underlying neural correlates of these sex differences have not been explained. A missing and fundamental element of this puzzle is an understanding of how the sex composition of an interacting dyad influences the brain and behavior during cooperation. Using fNIRS-based hyperscanning in 111 same- and mixed-sex dyads, we identified significant behavioral and neural sex-related differences in association with a computer-based cooperation task. Dyads containing at least one male demonstrated significantly higher behavioral performance than female/female dyads. Individual males and females showed significant activation in the right frontopolar and right inferior prefrontal cortices, although this activation was greater in females compared to males. Female/female dyad’s exhibited significant inter-brain coherence within the right temporal cortex, while significant coherence in male/male dyads occurred in the right inferior prefrontal cortex. Significant coherence was not observed in mixed-sex dyads. Finally, for same-sex dyads only, task-related inter-brain coherence was positively correlated with cooperation task performance. Our results highlight multiple important and previously undetected influences of sex on concurrent neural and behavioral signatures of cooperation.

Systemic blockade of LPA1/3 lysophosphatidic acid receptors by ki16425 modulates the effects of ethanol on the brain and behavior

2018 ◽  
Vol 133 ◽  
pp. 189-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Sánchez-Marín ◽  
David Ladrón de Guevara-Miranda ◽  
M. Carmen Mañas-Padilla ◽  
Francisco Alén ◽  
Román D. Moreno-Fernández ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lysophosphatidic Acid ◽  
Brain And Behavior ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Lysophosphatidic Acid Receptors
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