This from ABC in OZ In the early 90s an Italian team of neuroscientists reported a new class of brain cells in the macaque monkey. These mirror neurons responded just as well during the monkey’s own actions as when the monkey watched someone else performing similar actions. The mirror neuron theory took off and has…
Michael Brooks in the New Statesman. Brainbrain scienceMichael BrooksNeural networkneuronsneuroscience
This from Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Andy ClarkArtificial intelligenceBrainbrain imagingbrain scienceCognitionCognitive neuroscienceCognitive sciencecomplexityconsciousnessdistributed cognitiondistributed knowledgeethnographyExtended MindExternalismhuman brain projectneurosciencescience and technology studies
This from the NYT. Brainbrain scienceCognitionCognitive neuroscienceCognitive sciencecomplexityconsciousnessgary marcusHuman brainmapping the brainNeurophilosophyneurosciencephilosophical psychologyPhilosophy of mind
Paul Bloom in The Atlantic For the most part, I’m on the side of the neuroscientists and social psychologists—no surprise, given that I’m a psychologist myself. Work in fields such as computational cognitive science, behavioral genetics, and social neuroscience has yielded great insights about human nature. I do worry, though, that many of my colleagues…
Evan on neurophenomenology (Evan is UBC’s big gain). brain scienceBuddhismCognitionCognitive neuroscienceCognitive scienceconsciousnessEvan ThompsonmrineurophenomenologyPhilosophy of mindqualiaTranscendental Meditation
A new article in the latest issue of the PNAS entitled “Predicting risky choices from brain activity patterns“ (h/t to Shannon Selin). This study reminds me of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky’s work: Prospect theory concerns the psychophysics of wealth utility: that is, the perceived tradeoffs between potential outcomes and the probability of some outcome occurring. Kahneman…
Here is a handy summary of Vittorio Gallese’s highly influential work. Mirror neurons (MNs) and embodied simulation (ES) Intersubjectivity can be profitably understood if framedwithin a phylogenetic perspective. The discovery of MNs enabled establishing a relation between human intersubjectivity, the inter-individual relations of other animal species and their underpinning neural mechanisms. MNs are motor neurons first…
Michael Graziano in Aeon Magazine I believe that the easy and the hard problems have gotten switched around. The sheer scale and complexity of the brain’s vast computations makes the easy problem monumentally hard to figure out. How the brain attributes the property of awareness to itself is, by contrast, much easier. If nothing else,…
Earlier this year I trailed Joaquín Fuster’s latest book that he so kindly sent me as an uncorrected galley. I’m pleased to report that the book is now finally available. Not surprisingly, Hayek features in this work. If anyone suitably qualified would like to review this book for The Journal of Mind and Behavior or Cognitive Systems Research, please let me know. Pat Churchland has…
manwithoutqualities 