Neurosciences and the Human Person
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Time to Lay the Libet Experiment to Rest: Commentary on Papanicolaou (2017)
Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice © 2017 American Psychological Association 2017, Vol. 4, No. 3, 324–329 2326-5523/17/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cns0000124 COMMENTARY Time to Lay the Libet Experiment to Rest: Commentary on Papanicolaou (2017) John F. Kihlstrom University of California, Berkeley For more than 30 years, “the Libet experiment” has inspired and dominated philosoph- ical and scientific discussions of free will and determinism. Unfortunately, this famous experiment has been compromised by a serious confounding variable (i.e., there has been no control for watching the clock), and the method of data collection ignored conscious mental activity that occurred prior to the decision to act. Because Libet’s results appear to be wholly an artifact of his method, his experiment should be discounted in future discussions of the problem of free will. Keywords: agency, consciousness, free will, Libet experiment, readiness potential For more than 30 years, an experiment by In his experiment, Libet and his colleagues Benjamin Libet, a psychophysiologist interested asked subjects to perform a simple spontaneous in psychoanalytic theory, has inspired and dom- motor activity, flicking a finger or flexing a inated discussions of free will and conscious wrist, while watching a fast-moving clock, and agency. Starting with Libet, Wright, and Glea- to note the time at which they decided to make son (1982), Libet capitalized on an electroen- the movement (Libet, 1985; Libet, Gleason, cephalographic (EEG) signature known as the Wright, & Pearl, 1983; Libet et al., 1982). Ex- readiness potential (RP, or Bereitschaftspoten- amining the EEG data, they observed that the tial in the original German; Kornhuber & RP began approximately 350 ms before subjects Deecke, 1965, 1990), a negative shift in voltage decided to make the movement—which, in turn, which occurs prior to voluntary muscle move- occurred about 200 ms before the movement ments—somewhat in the manner of an event- began. -
Cholinergic Cells and Pathways
2 Cholinergic Cells and Pathways A. History of Methodological Feldberg was struck with the uneven distribu- Development Needed to tion of ACh, sites of ACh release and synthesis, Defi ne the Cholinergic and activities of ChEs in the CNS; these fi ndings Neuron, Explain led him to postulate that “the central nervous system is built of cholinergic and noncholinergic Acetylcholine Release, neurones,” distributed in an alternative fashion and Establish Central (Feldberg, 1945). This was the fi rst step toward Cholinergic Pathways the notion of a transmitter, including ACh CNS pathways; in fact, Feldberg (1945) was perhaps 1. What Led to Establishing the fi rst investigator to employ the term “central Cholinergic Pathways? pathway” to denote “transmission . through the mediation of acetylcholine across a number a. Sir Henry Dale and Sir William of . central . synapses.” The evidence in Feldberg and the Existence of question was obtained via the use of several Cholinergic Pathways extraction methods and bioassays for extracted ACh, although occasionally chemical identifi ca- The central presence of cholinergic trans- tion was attempted (Stedman and Stedman, 1937). mission was fi rst hypothesized by Sir Henry Also, collecting released ACh whether from the Dale (1937). The Stedmans, Paul Mann, John cerebrospinal fl uid or via perfusion of appropriate Quastel, and Maurice Tennenbaum, Dale’s spinal or brain sites was helpful with formulating associate William (now Sir William) Feldberg, Feldberg’s notion (Feldberg, 1945; Bulbring and and his coworkers, including Martha Vogt and Burn, 1941). Catherine Hebb, and Josiah Burn and Edith A digression is warranted. Although Zenon Bulbring provided additional evidence for Dale’s Bacq had already employed chemical identifi ca- hypothesis; this evidence included the demon- tion of endogenous ACh in 1935, his method was stration of the central nervous system (CNS) pre- complex and impracticable. -
Tilburg University Christian Faith, Free Will and Neuroscience Sarot, M
Tilburg University Christian Faith, Free Will and Neuroscience Sarot, M. Published in: Embodied Religion Publication date: 2013 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in Tilburg University Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): Sarot, M. (2013). Christian Faith, Free Will and Neuroscience. In P. H. A. I. Jonkers, & M. Sarot (Eds.), Embodied Religion (pp. 105-120). (Ars Disputandi Supplement Series; No. 6). Igitur. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 25. sep. 2021 6 Christian Faith, Free Will and Neuroscience MARCEL SAROT Tilburg University ABSTRACT In this contribution I explain what the libertarian conception of free will is, and why it is of moral and religious importance. Consequently, I defend this conception of free will against secular and religious charges. After that, I present and evaluate neuroscientific experi- ments on free will, especially Benjamin Libet’s experiments. -
Mathematicians Fleeing from Nazi Germany
Mathematicians Fleeing from Nazi Germany Mathematicians Fleeing from Nazi Germany Individual Fates and Global Impact Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze princeton university press princeton and oxford Copyright 2009 © by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Siegmund-Schultze, R. (Reinhard) Mathematicians fleeing from Nazi Germany: individual fates and global impact / Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-691-12593-0 (cloth) — ISBN 978-0-691-14041-4 (pbk.) 1. Mathematicians—Germany—History—20th century. 2. Mathematicians— United States—History—20th century. 3. Mathematicians—Germany—Biography. 4. Mathematicians—United States—Biography. 5. World War, 1939–1945— Refuges—Germany. 6. Germany—Emigration and immigration—History—1933–1945. 7. Germans—United States—History—20th century. 8. Immigrants—United States—History—20th century. 9. Mathematics—Germany—History—20th century. 10. Mathematics—United States—History—20th century. I. Title. QA27.G4S53 2008 510.09'04—dc22 2008048855 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Sabon Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ press.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America 10 987654321 Contents List of Figures and Tables xiii Preface xvii Chapter 1 The Terms “German-Speaking Mathematician,” “Forced,” and“Voluntary Emigration” 1 Chapter 2 The Notion of “Mathematician” Plus Quantitative Figures on Persecution 13 Chapter 3 Early Emigration 30 3.1. The Push-Factor 32 3.2. The Pull-Factor 36 3.D. -
Will There Be a Neurolaw Revolution?
Will There Be a Neurolaw Revolution? ∗ ADAM J. KOLBER The central debate in the field of neurolaw has focused on two claims. Joshua Greene and Jonathan Cohen argue that we do not have free will and that advances in neuroscience will eventually lead us to stop blaming people for their actions. Stephen Morse, by contrast, argues that we have free will and that the kind of advances Greene and Cohen envision will not and should not affect the law. I argue that neither side has persuasively made the case for or against a revolution in the way the law treats responsibility. There will, however, be a neurolaw revolution of a different sort. It will not necessarily arise from radical changes in our beliefs about criminal responsibility but from a wave of new brain technologies that will change society and the law in many ways, three of which I describe here: First, as new methods of brain imaging improve our ability to measure distress, the law will ease limitations on recoveries for emotional injuries. Second, as neuroimaging gives us better methods of inferring people’s thoughts, we will have more laws to protect thought privacy but less actual thought privacy. Finally, improvements in artificial intelligence will systematically change how law is written and interpreted. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 808 I. A WEAK CASE FOR A RESPONSIBILITY REVOLUTION.......................................... 809 A. THE FREE WILL IMPASSE ......................................................................... 809 B. GREENE AND COHEN’S NORMATIVE CLAIM ............................................. 810 C. GREENE AND COHEN’S PREDICTION ........................................................ 811 D. WHERE THEIR PREDICTION NEEDS STRENGTHENING .............................. 813 II. A WEAK CASE THAT LAW IS INSULATED FROM REVOLUTION .......................... -
Math 126 Lecture 4. Basic Facts in Representation Theory
Math 126 Lecture 4. Basic facts in representation theory. Notice. Definition of a representation of a group. The theory of group representations is the creation of Frobenius: Georg Frobenius lived from 1849 to 1917 Frobenius combined results from the theory of algebraic equations, geometry, and number theory, which led him to the study of abstract groups, the representation theory of groups and the character theory of groups. Find out more at: http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/ Mathematicians/Frobenius.html Matrix form of a representation. Equivalence of two representations. Invariant subspaces. Irreducible representations. One dimensional representations. Representations of cyclic groups. Direct sums. Tensor product. Unitary representations. Averaging over the group. Maschke’s theorem. Heinrich Maschke 1853 - 1908 Schur’s lemma. Issai Schur Biography of Schur. Issai Schur Born: 10 Jan 1875 in Mogilyov, Mogilyov province, Russian Empire (now Belarus) Died: 10 Jan 1941 in Tel Aviv, Palestine (now Israel) Although Issai Schur was born in Mogilyov on the Dnieper, he spoke German without a trace of an accent, and nobody even guessed that it was not his first language. He went to Latvia at the age of 13 and there he attended the Gymnasium in Libau, now called Liepaja. In 1894 Schur entered the University of Berlin to read mathematics and physics. Frobenius was one of his teachers and he was to greatly influence Schur and later to direct his doctoral studies. Frobenius and Burnside had been the two main founders of the theory of representations of groups as groups of matrices. This theory proved a very powerful tool in the study of groups and Schur was to learn the foundations of this subject from Frobenius. -
Biologicau Co~Ntrir~Utio~Rne to the Development Of
,- B BiologicaU Co~ntriR~utio~rneto the Development of Psychology KARL H. PRIBRAM AND DANIEL N. ROBINSON INTRODUCTION This chapter concerns several important influences that biology has had on the development of psychology as a science. Specifically, we attempt to account for an apparent paradox: In the nineteenth century, rapid advances were made in relating biology in general and brain func- tion in particular to the phenomena of mind. Throughout much of the first half of the twentieth century, however, these same relationships were all but ignored and the foundations for a scientific psychology were sought in the environment. The biological aspects of psychology, perhaps more than other special branches of the discipline, resist historical compression. Psychobiology, as we shall call the subject,' is deeply rooted in both philosophy and 4 ' There is still no universally accepted criterion for distinguishing among the terms physiological psychology, psychobiology, neuropsychology, and biopsychology. A grow- ' ing convention would reserve the term neuropsychology to theory about the human ; nervous system based on research involving complex cognitive processes, often in settings in which clinical findings are directly relevant. Physiological psychology strikes many as too restricted, for much current work falls under headings such as biophysics, computer science, or microanatomy that are synonymous with physiology. Thus, psychobiology is used here to refer to the broadest range of correlative studies in which biobehavioral investigations are undertaken and referenced to phenomenal experience. 345 POINTS OF VIEW IN THE Copyright 0 1985 by Academic Press, Inc. MODERN HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY All rights of reprod~lctionin any form resewed. ISBN 0-12-148510-2 346 Karl H. -
An Emergentist Interpretation of Benjamin Libet
6 MY BRAIN MADE ME NOT DO IT: AN EMERGENTIST INTERPRETATION OF BENJAMIN LIBET Daniel Pallarés-Domínguez 1. INTRODUCTION Since it became a discipline in 2002 (Safire, 2002), neuroethics has been characterised in two ways: “ethics of neuroscience” or “neuroscience of ethics” (Roskies, 2002: 21-22; Cortina, 2010: 131-133; 2011: 44). The former refers to the nature of the ethics applied to review the ethical practices that imply clinically treating the human brain. The latter ‒neu- roscience of ethics‒ implies research into more transcendental philo- sophical notions of the human being ‒free will, personal identity, inten- tion and control, emotion and reason relations‒ but from the brain functions viewpoint. For some researchers, studying the brain by neurosciences allows us to talk about “neuroculture” (Mora, 2007; Frazzeto and Anker, 2009), which may help solve questions such as free will, desicion making, and even responsibility, among other elements inherent to human moral. Others, however, look at it from a more prudent viewpoint, and have indicated today’s challenges that neurosciences find with social sciences –especially ethics, economy, education and politics– in an attempt to achieve true interdisciplinary dialogue (Cortina, 2012; Salles, 2013). In line with this interdisciplinary dialogue tradition in neurosciences, the present work presents a brief review of the challenges that the ad- vances made in the neuroethics field pose to free will. As part of this review, Ramon Llull Journal_07.indd 121 30/05/16 11:56 122 RAMON LLULL JOURNAL OF APPLIED ETHICS 2016. iSSUE 7 pp. 121-141 we centre specifically on the critics of the reductionism neuroscience tradition, which basically takes B. -
Thèse 13.08.16
AU - DELÀ DU PHYSICALISME : LE RESSENTI DE CONSCIENCE. À la recherche d’une nécessaire articulation, attribuée aux corrélats neuronaux de la conscience, entre les processus neuronaux subséquents du cerveau et les ressentis subjectifs de conscience dans l’élaboration, au‐delà du physicalisme, d’une théorie néo‐dualiste de la conscience. 1 Dans les autres occupations, une fois qu’elles ont été menées à bien, avec peine, vient le fruit ; mais en philosophie, le plaisir va du même pas que la connaissance : car ce n’est après avoir appris que l’on jouit du fruit, mais apprendre et jouir vont ensemble. Épicure. Sentences Vaticanes, 27. 2 Tout être vivant est un fossile. Il porte en soi et jusque dans la structure microscopique de ses protéines, les traces sinon les stigmates de son ascendance. Jacques Monod, Le Hasard et la Nécessité. Et encore, Parménide dans son Poème, 4ème fragment, dit faisant allusion à l’espérance : «Mais vois pourtant comme les choses absentes, du fait de l’intellect imposent leur présence» puisque celui qui espère comme celui qui a la foi voit par la pensée les intelligibles et les futurs. Donc, si nous affirmons que quelque chose est juste et que quelque chose est beau, nous disons qu’il en est ainsi de cette chose, en vérité. Et pourtant nous ne voyons jamais par les yeux aucun de ces intelligibles et ne les appréhendons que par l’intellect . Clément d’Alexandrie ( Stromates, V, 15) 3 « L’homme est, à lui-même, le plus prodigieux objet de la nature car il ne peut concevoir ce que c’est que le corps et encore moins ce que c’est qu’esprit et moins qu’aucune chose comment un corps peut être uni avec un esprit. -
The Neural Basis of the Dynamic Unconscious
Neuropsychoanalysis, 2011, 13 (1) 5 The Neural Basis of the Dynamic Unconscious Heather A. Berlin (New York) A great deal of complex cognitive processing occurs at the unconscious level and affects how humans behave, think, and feel. Sci- entists are only now beginning to understand how this occurs on the neural level. Understanding the neural basis of consciousness requires an account of the neural mechanisms that underlie both conscious and unconscious thought, and their dynamic interac- tion. For example, how do conscious impulses, thoughts, or desires become unconscious (e.g., repression) or, conversely, how do unconscious impulses, desires, or motives become conscious (e.g., Freudian slips)? Research taking advantage of advances in technologies, like functional magnetic resonance imaging, has led to a revival and re-conceptualization of some of the key concepts of psychoanalytic theory, but steps toward understanding their neural basis have only just commenced. According to psychoanalytic theory, unconscious dynamic processes defensively remove anxiety-provoking thoughts and impulses from consciousness in re- sponse to one’s conflicting attitudes. The processes that keep unwanted thoughts from entering consciousness include repression, suppression, and dissociation. In this literature review, studies from psychology and cognitive neuroscience in both healthy and patient populations that are beginning to elucidate the neural basis of these phenomena are discussed and organized within a con- ceptual framework. Further studies in this emerging field at the intersection of psychoanalytic theory and neuroscience are needed. Keywords: unconscious; psychodynamic; repression; suppression; dissociation; neural “Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself.” 1998a). Early psychodynamic theorists attempted to Ludwig Wittgenstein [1889–1951] explain phenomena observed in the clinic, but lat- er cognitive scientists used computational models of the mind to explain empirical data. -
Giovanni Berlucchi
BK-SFN-NEUROSCIENCE-131211-03_Berlucchi.indd 96 16/04/14 5:21 PM Giovanni Berlucchi BORN: Pavia, Italy May 25, 1935 EDUCATION: Liceo Classico Statale Ugo Foscolo, Pavia, Maturità (1953) Medical School, University of Pavia, MD (1959) California Institute of Technology, Postdoctoral Fellowship (1964–1965) APPOINTMENTS: University of Pennsylvania (1968) University of Siena (1974) University of Pisa (1976) University of Verona (1983) HONORS AND AWARDS: Academia Europaea (1990) Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (1992) Honorary PhD in Psychology, University of Pavia (2007) After working initially on the neurophysiology of the sleep-wake cycle, Giovanni Berlucchi did pioneering electrophysiological investigations on the corpus callosum and its functional contribution to the interhemispheric transfer of visual information and to the representation of the visual field in the cerebral cortex and the superior colliculus. He was among the first to use reaction times for analyzing hemispheric specializations and interactions in intact and split brain humans. His latest research interests include visual spatial attention and the representation of the body in the brain. BK-SFN-NEUROSCIENCE-131211-03_Berlucchi.indd 97 16/04/14 5:21 PM Giovanni Berlucchi Family and Early Years A man’s deepest roots are where he has spent the enchanted days of his childhood, usually where he was born. My deepest roots lie in the ancient Lombard city of Pavia, where I was born 78 years ago, on May 25, 1935, and in that part of the province of Pavia that lies to the south of the Po River and is called the Oltrepò Pavese. The hilly part of the Oltrepò is covered with beautiful vineyards that according to archaeological and historical evidence have been used to produce good wines for millennia. -
Neuroeconomics: How Neuroscience Can Inform Economics
mr05_Article 1 3/28/05 3:25 PM Page 9 Journal of Economic Literature Vol. XLIII (March 2005), pp. 9–64 Neuroeconomics: How Neuroscience Can Inform Economics ∗ COLIN CAMERER, GEORGE LOEWENSTEIN, and DRAZEN PRELEC Who knows what I want to do? Who knows what anyone wants to do? How can you be sure about something like that? Isn’t it all a question of brain chemistry, signals going back and forth, electrical energy in the cortex? How do you know whether something is really what you want to do or just some kind of nerve impulse in the brain. Some minor little activity takes place somewhere in this unimportant place in one of the brain hemispheres and suddenly I want to go to Montana or I don’t want to go to Montana. (White Noise, Don DeLillo) 1. Introduction such as finance, game theory, labor econom- ics, public finance, law, and macroeconomics In the last two decades, following almost a (see Colin Camerer and George Loewenstein century of separation, economics has begun 2004). Behavioral economics has mostly been to import insights from psychology. informed by a branch of psychology called “Behavioral economics” is now a prominent “behavioral decision research,” but other fixture on the intellectual landscape and has cognitive sciences are ripe for harvest. Some spawned applications to topics in economics, important insights will surely come from neu- roscience, either directly or because neuro- ∗ Camerer: California Institute of Technology. science will reshape what is believed about Loewenstein: Carnegie Mellon University. Prelec: psychology which in turn informs economics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.