The Eisenstein-Vygotsky-Luria Collaboration

Projections ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Vassilieva
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Cultural Psychology ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Functional Architecture ◽  
Cultural Mediation ◽  
Sergei Eisenstein ◽  
Lev Vygotsky ◽  
Russian Film ◽  
The Brain

This article analyzes the unique historical collaboration between the revolutionary Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein (1898–1948), the cultural psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934), and the founder of contemporary neuropsychology, Alexander Luria (1902–1977). Vygotsky’s legacy is associated primarily with the idea that cultural mediation plays a crucial role in the emergence and development of personality and cognition. His collaborator, Luria, laid the foundations of contemporary neuropsychology and demonstrated that cultural mediation also changes the functional architecture of the brain. In my analysis, I demonstrate how the Eisenstein-Vygotsky-Luria collaboration exemplifies a strategy of productive triangulation that harnesses three disciplinary perspectives: those of cultural psychology, neuropsychology, and film theory and practice.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 235-246
Author(s):  
David Trotter
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Signal To Noise ◽  
Sergei Eisenstein ◽  
British Poetry ◽  
Architectural Feature ◽  
Russian Film ◽  
Political Solidarity ◽  
Influential Theory

This chapter offers a brief recapitulation of what has been learnt by approaching British and other literatures of the period 1850 to 1950 from the perspective of the ideas of signal and interface. It concludes that, while the pressure these ideas exerted did indeed remain constant throughout the period, it took an eccentric emphasis on aspects of form to reconfigure the text itself as a manipulation of signal-to-noise ratio. The ‘modernism’ which took shape in works by Lewis, Loy, and Mirrlees was a specialist affair. The chapter concludes with two further case studies. The first has to do with the function of a particular architectural feature—the corridor—in nineteenth-century British poetry and fiction; the second with the hugely influential theory and practice of the Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein, who thought that political solidarity was best expressed by means of what we would now term ‘social media’.

Subjectivity as a sentient perspective and the role of interoception

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena De Preester
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Basic Form ◽  
Bodily States ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Phenomenological Point

This chapter argues that the most basic form of subjectivity is different from and more fundamental than having a self, and forwards a hypothesis about the origin of subjectivity in terms of interoception. None of those topics are new, and a consensus concerning the homeostatic-interoceptive origin of subjectivity is rapidly growing in the domains of the neurosciences and psychology. This chapter critically explores that growing consensus, and it argues that the idea that the brain topographically represents bodily states is unfit for thinking about the coming about of subjectivity. In the first part, four inherent characteristics of subjectivity are discussed from a philosophical phenomenological point of view. The second part explores whether a model of subjectivity in which interoception maintains its crucial role is possible without relying on topographical representations of the in-depth body, and giving due to the inherent characteristics of subjectivity.

scholarly journals Culture Wires the Brain

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 391-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise C. Park ◽  
Chih-Mao Huang
Keyword(s):  
Brain Structure ◽  
Cultural Psychology ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Neural Function ◽  
Limited Evidence ◽  
Neural Structure ◽  
Cultural Experiences ◽  
Brain Structure And Function ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Brain

There is clear evidence that sustained experiences may affect both brain structure and function. Thus, it is quite reasonable to posit that sustained exposure to a set of cultural experiences and behavioral practices will affect neural structure and function. The burgeoning field of cultural psychology has often demonstrated the subtle differences in the way individuals process information—differences that appear to be a product of cultural experiences. We review evidence that the collectivistic and individualistic biases of East Asian and Western cultures, respectively, affect neural structure and function. We conclude that there is limited evidence that cultural experiences affect brain structure and considerably more evidence that neural function is affected by culture, particularly activations in ventral visual cortex—areas associated with perceptual processing.

scholarly journals The Eye, the Brain, the Screen – What Neuroscience Can Teach Film Theory

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Paul Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
The Other ◽  
Perceptual Processing ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Cross Model ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
The Brain

“I don’t believe that linguistics and psychoanalysis offer a great deal to the cinema. On the contrary, the biology of the brain – molecular biology – does.” Gilles DeleuzeModels of the brain are inextricably linked to the surrounding cultural episteme: whether it is viewed as a complex clockwork device, a computer, a self-regulating network or even a cinema screen, our understanding of neurophysiology has always relied on discourses and images taken from other fields. In turn, however, our knowledge of cerebral processes (such as sight for instance) has always, inevitably, affected the way that we approach artworks, literary texts and cultural artefacts.Based on this, this paper looks at how recent neuroscientific research on vision and cognition can help us better understand the processes inherent in film theory. Focussing mainly on the recently discovered concept of the mirror neuron but also citing synaesthesia and limbic perceptual processing, I suggest that neuroscience can provide us with a fertile new ground for thinking about areas such as spectatorship and the facilitation of emotional affect, it can also offer us alternatives to monolithic ideas like the Gaze and the patriarchal nature of visual pleasure.Prompted perhaps by a shift in scopic thinking, some recent neuroscientific research has even mirrored film and cultural theory by foregrounding notions such embodiment, cross-model perception and mimesis, adding to the dialogic relationship that exists between these two disciplines. This paper then is not only concerned with how different fields communicate but with how each can provide models, metaphors and frameworks for the other.

Abstract 421: The Subfornical Organ (SFO) Mediates CSF Na+ -induced Pressor Response via Activation of AT1 Receptors

Hypertension ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 60 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Missale A Tiruneh ◽  
Bing S Huang ◽  
Frans H Leenen
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Major Part ◽  
Wistar Rats ◽  
Pressor Response ◽  
Electrolytic Lesion ◽  
Induced Responses ◽  
Ang Ii ◽  
At1 Receptors ◽  
Pressor Responses ◽  
The Brain

In salt-sensitive rats on high salt or rats with icv infusion of Na + , the increase in CSF [Na + ] leads to activation of the brain renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and thereby to sympatho-excitation and hypertension. We tested whether the SFO and AT 1 receptors in the SFO play a crucial role in mediating the Na + -induced responses. In conscious Wistar rats, intra-SFO infusion of Na + -rich aCSF increased BP in a dose-related manner, whereas mannitol with the same osmolarity had no effects. Intra-SFO infusion of the AT 1 receptor blocker candesartan (cand.,10 μg) abolished pressor responses to intra-SFO infusion of Ang II (80 ng) or Na + -rich aCSF (0.45-0.6 M NaCl), and prevented 50% of the BP increase induced by icv infusion of Na + -rich aCSF (0.3 M NaCl, 4 μl/min for 6 min). In another set of Wistar rats, electrolytic lesion of the SFO prevented 50-65% of BP increases induced by icv infusion of Na + -rich aCSF or Ang II (5 ng/min). These data suggest that the SFO neurons are Na + -sensitive and via AT 1 receptors mediate a major part of the pressor response to CSF Na + . Data=means±SE (n=5-7). *p<.05 vs vehicle or sham lesion.

Mental and behavioural disorders

2020 ◽  
pp. 333-365
Author(s):  
Fabrizio Benedetti
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Placebo Effect ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Drugs Of Abuse ◽  
Placebo Treatment ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Psychotherapeutic Interventions ◽  
Psychotherapeutic Outcome ◽  
The Brain

In this chapter some mental disorders are described. For example, in depression, fluoxetine treatment and a placebo treatment affect similar brain regions. In anxiety, patients’ expectations play a crucial role, as covert (unexpected) administration of anti-anxiety drugs is less effective than overt (expected) administration. The disruption of prefrontal executive control in Alzheimer’s disease decreases the magnitude of placebo responses. In addition, expectations appear to be particularly important when associated with the effects of drugs of abuse. Placebo effects appear to be powerful in psychotherapy as well, and the brain areas involved in the psychotherapeutic outcome are different from those involved in the placebo effect. As clinical trials for psychotherapeutic interventions represent a major problem, new recommendations are presented.

Russian Film Comedy

2020 ◽  
pp. 187-210
Author(s):  
William V. Costanzo
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Sergei Eisenstein ◽  
Russian Film ◽  
Repressive Regime ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Film Comedy

Soviet and Russian cinemas offer unique opportunities to investigate the role of humor as an escape from oppression and an instrument for change. This chapter follows the nation’s filmmakers from the idealistic days of revolution (Lev Kuleshov, Sergei Eisenstein, Aleksandr Medvedkin), through Stalin’s repressive regime (Grigory Aleksandrov and Ivan Pyrev) and the chills and thaws of the Cold War (Eldar Ryazanov, Leonid Gaidai, Tengiz Abuladze). It introduces lesser-known talents who made films before (Yevgeny Bauer, Boris Barnet) and after (Yuri Mamin, Kira Muratova, Valery Todorovskiy) the Soviet era. In their own ways, each of these directors contributed to a comic cinema that builds on the ironic sensibility of Chekhov, the satiric caricatures of Gogol, and the archetypes of Russia’s native folklore.

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