Brain and cognitive sciences

Comúnmente se asume que la descreencia en Dios es el resultado, inequívoco y exclusivo, del análisis lógico-racional, en contraposición a la creencia en Dios, que se asume como asociada a las emociones, el aprendizaje, la imitación sociocultural, y la intuición. Como muchas asunciones inmediatas, que no han sido contrastadas científicamente, esto es un error. En este artículo se exponen recientes investigaciones sobre la composición cognitiva de la descreencia en Dios, que convergen en mostrar que (de manera muy similar a la creencia en Dios), la irreligiosidad, el agnosticismo, y el ateísmo, también dependen de la imitación sociocultural y las emociones, que éstas pueden ser más relevantes que la iluminación lógico-racional, y que, incluso, la propia creencia en Dios y el pensamiento mágico, pueden esconderse inconscientemente en una persona que verbalmente se autodeclara atea.

The present study investigated effects of cognitive aging on conflict resolution (the ability to suppress prepotent and distracting, irrelevant information) and conflict adaptation (the adjustment of conflict resolution based on previously experienced conflict level). In addition, it aimed at investigating whether Cognitive Reserve (CR) and intelligence play a compensatory role against age-related deficits in both factors. A color-word Stroop task with no feature repetitions (i.e., neither the word nor the color was repeated in two subsequent trials) was administered to 23 older adults with no dimentia (65-79 years old) and 22 younger controls (18-34 years old), in addition to measures of intelligence and CR. Older adults' performance was characterized by general slowing. However, response slowing inversely correlated with intelligence, education, and a cognitive-reserve index. The Stroop effect (i.e., response-time (RT) difference between incongruent and congruent conditions) was larger in older adults than in younger controls, and in the older group only, it negatively correlated with verbal IQ. With this feature-repetitions-free Stroop task, we confirmed the presence of some conflict adaptation effects, which, however, were spared by aging. Altogether, these findings show that older adults can cope better with age-related impairment in verbal interference resolution, if they have enough intelligence resources in a related (verbal) domain, whereas CR plays a role in general performance speed only. We therefore suggest that general and specific accounts of cognitive aging may apply to different processing stages, which are influenced by partially different compensatory factors.

[AMAZON LINK BELOW TO BOOK ITSELF -- TOC and book intro in downloadable .pdf] 

"It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it." --John Steinbeck Scientific research confirms what people have always known: answers, ideas, and inspiration do come to us in dreams. Harvard psychologist and world-renowned dream specialist Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., offers this rich collection of examples of how the world's most creative practitioners in art, music, film, science, literature and other fields have used the revelations of their dream life to inform their work. Dr. Barrett offers insights showing us how to encourage lucid, meaningful dreaming, and how to apply the meanings of our dreams to solving problems--from the everyday to the extraordinary. This is the stuff dreams are made of. In the visual arts, Jasper Johns couldn't find his unique artistic vision until he dreamed it in the form of a large American flag. Salvador Dali and his colleagues built the startling new genre of surrealism out of dreams. Kubla Kahn dreamed the design for his stately pleasure dome; thousands of years later, Lucy Davis, chief architect at a major firm, continues the tradition of dreaming designs into life in her extraordinary buildings. Film is a fertile avenue for dreams: "Twice I have transferred dreams to film exactly as I had dreamed them," confides director Ingmar Bergman, as have Federico Fellini, Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Robert Altman, and John Sayles. From Mary Shelley's terrible nightmare, which became Frankenstein, to Stephen King's haunting dream as a little boy, which led to his first bestseller, countless writers have consulted the Committee. Musicians from Beethoven to Billy Joel and Paul McCartney have whistled the Committee's tunes. In science, physiologist Otto Loewi dreamed the medical experiment that earned him the Nobel Prize. In sports, Marion Jones dreamed she'd broken a world record, then brought the dream to life. Gandhi translated his dream of resistance into a movement that changed the world. Since Freud, we take it for granted that our dreams reflect our past. In The Committee of Sleep, Barrett reveals how dreams can also tell us about our future potential--and how to reach it.

This is the framing document for the presentation “English as Therapy” delivered September 27 to the 2015 NeuroELT Brain Days International Conference, Kyoto, Japan. This presentation introduces CNE (Cognitive Neuroeducation), a new learning-based, noninvasive, nonpharmacological modality for intervention in cognitive and behavioral disorder with the promise of full recovery therefrom. CNE is unique in that it is the only modality in the fields of learning and mental health that is strictly tied to how the brain actually works within a tightly constructed, exhaustively comprehensive model of the mind as formed exclusively from rigorous hermeneutic and phenomenological analysis.

Humans – through the biological determinants of evolutionary selection – have developed a uniquely social brain. In the human social brain, learning is the principal mechanism that shapes all behavior, and language is the medium through which learning takes place and cognition is formed. Cognition is the understanding of ourselves, others and the world around us. But the processes of cognitive development – that is, how we learn, what we learn, how we understand the world around us, and, consequently, how we are molded to behave – can be blocked or can become distorted.

In this presentation we explore the processes in the human social brain by which learning is realized and cognition and behavior are shaped, and the principles of CNE that can be applied, both in the classroom and in a remedial setting, to stimulate these processes in engendering positive learning realization and self-affirming, socially adaptable behavior.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of mental training on football coaches’ mental toughness and problem-solving skills. In this research, mixed method was preferred as a research design. In the quantitative part of the study quasi-experimental method was used and 8-weeks of mental training protocol was applied to 30 football coaches. During the pre-test and posttest data were collected by scales and wearable technology was also used to collect psychometric data. In the qualitative part of the research, from the experimental group, 11 football coaches’ thoughts about the effects of the 8-weeks mental training period were received. At the end of 8-weeks mental training period, there were statistically significant differences between the pretest and posttest. There were developments on football coaches’ mental toughness and problem-solving skills. In the psychometric data, focus, relaxation, coherence were increased. Moreover, the quantitative and qualitative results are supporting each other. The participants also stated that they felt the improvement on their vocational and social life after 8 weeks of mental training.

Deborah W. Denno, Empirical Use of Neuroscientific Evidence in Criminal Justice, in THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BEHAVIOURAL NEUROSCIENCE (2nd ed.). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier _ (Sergio Della Salla, ed. 2021) (forthcoming)

The growing influx of neuroscientific evidence in various criminal justice systems has prompted several excellent assessments of the nature and degree of its impact in courtrooms in the United States and other countries.  However, there have been few efforts to conduct a comparative analysis of systematic empirical research on the use of neuroscientific evidence in criminal cases, which is this chapter's goal.  This review breaks new ground by detailing the critical similarities and differences among all seven empirical studies that researchers have conducted up to 2019.  What is the main takeaway?  Across most of the studies, neuroscientific evidence was firmly planted in five different countries' criminal justice systems, and defense attorneys primarily used it for purposes of mitigation.  Research findings documented the extent of its impact at all phases of the criminal justice system, particularly sentencing.  Most studies also reported that the use of such evidence in the courtroom was increasing over time or, if not, it was being more thoroughly discussed.  In essence, neuroscientific evidence has a secure foothold in criminal justice that will only become stronger.  That said, it is critically important to emphasize the studies' limitations and the nuances behind their results.  While the studies employed a common framework and relied on widely accepted legal databases, they also shared deep structural challenges.  Empirical research is showing more accurately how neuroscientific evidence is helping criminal justice systems better assess mental states and assign punishments.  Yet, the legal system's process of collecting and organizing information needs to advance and modernize.

Η πρώτη εργασία που κατέθεσα και που είχα διαλέξει να γράψω πριν καν γίνω δεκτή στο πρόγραμμα!
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Κοινωνικά πλαίσια - Ανάδυση της έννοιας της δημιουργικότητας,
Ορισμοί, Στάδια δημιουργικής διαδικασίας, Χαρακτηριστικά Δημιουργικού ατόμου,
Οι γνωστικοί μηχανισμοί της Δημιουργικότητας,
Νοητικές διεργασίες,
Η γέννηση και εξέλιξη των νευροεπιστημών
Ιστορική αναδρομή,
Ορισμοί, τα μέρη του εγκεφάλου,
Νευρολογικοί μηχανισμοί της Δημιουργικότητας,
Η Νευροπλαστικότητα.

Λέξεις κλειδιά: Δημιουργικότητα, νευροεπιστήμες, γνωστικοί μηχανισμοί

Abstract

The primary goal of this study is to state the clear changes in functional brain connectivity during all night sleep in psycho-physiological insomnia (PPI). The secondary goal is to investigate the usefulness of Mutual Information (MI) analysis in estimating cortical sleep EEG arousals for detection of PPI. For these purposes, healthy controls and patients were compared to each other with respect to both linear (Pearson correlation coefficient and coherence) and nonlinear quantifiers (MI) in addition to phase locking quantification for six sleep stages (stage.1-4, rem, wake) by means of interhemispheric dependency between two central sleep EEG derivations. In test, each connectivity estimation calculated for each couple of epoches (C3-A2 and C4-A1) was identified by the vector norm of estimation. Then, patients and controls were classified by using 10 different types of data mining classifiers for five error criteria such as accuracy, root mean squared error, sensitivity, specificity and precision. High performance in a classification through a measure will validate high contribution of that measure to detecting PPI. The MI was found to be the best method in detecting PPI. In particular, the patients had lower MI, higher PCC for all sleep stages. In other words, the lower sleep EEG synchronization suffering from PPI was observed. These results probably stand for the loss of neurons that then contribute to less complex dynamical processing within the neural networks in sleep disorders an the functional central brain connectivity is nonlinear during night sleep. In conclusion, the level of cortical hemispheric connectivity is strongly associated with sleep disorder. Thus, cortical communication quantified in all existence sleep stages might be a potential marker for sleep disorder induced by PPI.
Discussion and conclusion
In the present study, four hemispheric connectivity measurements were examined to obtain the electrophysiological arousals on sleep EEG epoches recorded from healthy controls and patients with PPI. All individuals can be classified correctly by using any data mining classifier for both entropy based MI estimations and spectral connectivity measurement so called coherence created by Welch’ method. When the Burg method was performed to compute the power spectral density estimation of sleep EEG epoch in estimating coherence, error free classification can be obtained by using only three classifiers (RBFNetwork, NNge, SMO). Regarding as PCC estimations, one person was misclassified in all classifiers. Concerning phase coherence estimations, one or two individuals were always misclassified.

In particular, lower interhemispheric coherence and lower MI estimations as well as higher PCC values were provided by patients in comparison to controls. In fact, only linear relations between particular hemispheric locations could be observed by using coherence, whereas the MI can measure both linear and nonlinear statistical dependencies of hemispheres in time domain. The results support that the cortex becomes more inactive as the sleep stage goes through from one stage to the next one in non REM sleep periods (stage.1–4), however, the cortex becomes much more active. It means that more neurons will be active in processing the information transmission during REM sleep in REM sleep periods. The higher order statistics of time series can be represented by nonlinear approaches, regarding as the information theory [7]. Therefore, the MI provided the most useful estimations.

The MI can give information in the context of functional connectivity such that its value highly depends on the accuracy of estimated JE derived from probability distribution. The results revealed that temporal dependency of cerebral hemispheres by means of MI can provide a very efficient tool for detection of PPI from sleep EEG recordings. The MI is a measure of statistical dependence between two random time series without making any assumption on the nature of these signals. Since, the duration of each single epoch was long enough, MI estimations gave stable estimates. Another factor making the MI be successful in detecting hemispheric functional changes between controls and PPI is that sleep EEG series are narrow band signals as stated in reference [4].

In the further study, the relationship between sleep stages and information transmission of multi-channel EEG measurements in controls will be investigated. Additionally, MI will be used to analyze sleep EEG series in detecting the effects of mood disorder depending on functional disorganization of the brain.

Objective: Some studies on schizophrenia showed an increased complexity in electroencephalography (EEG) whereas others detected a decreased complexity. Because this discrepancy might be due to the clinical features or complexity measures used, we employed two different complexity measures in a group of schizophrenics similar in illness duration (chronic) and symptom profile (residual). Methods: Right-handed chronic residual schizophrenic patients (10 male, 10 female) and age- and sex-matched 20 healthy controls were included in the study. Eyes-closed resting EEG series were measured through quantitative EEG band activities, the log energy entropy (LEE) values, and the Hurst exponents (HE) of EEG measurements were computed for each electrode site. Results: Significantly higher LEE values in the prefrontal, frontal, temporal and parietal locations were observed in schizophrenic patients compared with controls. HE values were significantly higher on the right frontal area in the schizophrenics. Patient group showed increased prefrontal, frontal and parietal delta activity, prefrontal, left temporal and right parietal theta activity and increased left temporal alpha activity. Discussion: In the present study, we found that chronic residual schizophrenia is associated with decreased complexity and increased smoothness in EEG. In addition, EEG of patients was characterized by obvious slowness at prefrontal and frontotemporal regions, dominantly. An integration of EEG complexity and frequency analysis can be proposed as an innovative tool in schizophrenia research.

This manuscript and many others like it were first written in 2011 and early 2012 of which this one carries the computer date stamp of being released on May 27, 2012 and published and archived on the Tripod.com server. And, all this occurred after the author formally spiritually awakened in 2011 and received his Clarion Call to start awakening, educating and enlightening the public with regard to the advent of Creation through the God-SOURCE first exploding and imploding upon ITSEF, essentially forming an open loop of energetic system composed of a Tri-wave system, to freely supply all ITS constituent offspring as sentient beings with such free energies to maintain their gifted consciousness by the God-SOURCE. Creation also gave rise to the nature of our quantum holographic consciousness, both non-locally being bestowed upon us by the God-SOURCE, as well as locally through quantum torsional-helical consciousness vibration about the God-SOURCE. The knowledge received by the author through inspiration and via gaining spiritual attunement with the higher dimensional realms and the Akashic Records of the Zero-Point Field also included details of the nature of the mechanics of our holographic Cosmos and its intricate space-time dimensions. Also related concepts were understanding the nature of our sequential jumping within the Worlds of Matter-Antimatter in what the author later referred to as our ‘conjugate-mirrored space-times of reality,’ giving rise to the nature of our local consciousness. In this respect, the rather illusive nature of time became clear to the author as pertains to the nature of the dimensional realms of time-consciousness (both main or cosmological as well as ‘local’ parallel-anti-parallel dimensions) giving rise to our holographic quantum consciousness experience. Furthermore, the structure of our local Nebadon Universe and its Time Matrix giving rise to a system of 12D Grid or the ‘Tree of Life,’ with our requisite condition of attaining consciousness expansion in order to be able to first of all add to the syntropic energetic of Cosmos as well as leading to our evolution and being able to our stepping up (or inner) dimensions of the Tree of Life culminating in Ascension through gathering consciousness reality experiences in myriad of nested system of space-times, became quite clear. Furthermore it was deciphered that the said space-time dimensions within our Nebadon Universal System located at practically the edge of Cosmos specifically refer to 4 ‘Harmonic Universes’ and the holographic nature of the ‘triad universes’ of ‘matter-antimatter’ and neutral (the ‘Zero-Point Field’) within each Harmonic Universe. Accordingly, the major task became transparent as to first attain consciousness expansion and then help others do the same but without direct interference or lack of their consent as Sovereign individuals endowed with the gift of Free will by the God-SOURCE to be able to choose for themselves. This leaves us with the mission to strive to attain spiritual mastery in which we can create our own reality with required acumen that entails proper usage of our gift of thoughts and appropriately directing our emotional energies bestowed upon us by firstly our God-SOURCE the original Progenitor of our quantum consciousness, as well as through ITS liaison offspring referred to as the Guardian-Founders of this Universal System who first took the initiative to co-create and seed its dimensional realms. Thus, confining our attention on basically this issue, rather than on the intricate details of our consciousness embodiment and its morphogenetic system including the exact nature of our genetic and physiognomy including our brain-heart and nervous system, its require immune system, etc., as well as the nature of our energetic system and related concepts such as the nature of God’s consciousness mechanics, etc., this manuscript concentrates on the challenge of obtaining spiritual mastery to be able to co-create effectively by first of all recrystallizing our three major divine endocrine glands of Pineal, Pituitary, and Hypothalamus, bringing them out of their dormant atrophic state, and spiritualize our blood to retain its crystalline (as opposed to amorphous) status by taking the special initiative to remain awakened and aware at all time to be ‘at presence’ with life. This will negate any outside nefarious forces, what religious superstition commonly dubs as “devil,” “demons,” “goblins” and such, which in essence, only epitomize a series of energetically hungry parasites-vampires ‘fallen’ from the grace of God for defying God and ITS Law of One. These nefarious creatures are void of organic life and are anti-God that have chosen no recourse but to consume our precious divine organic energies bestowed upon us by the God-SOURCE, for them to be able to “survive” or continue maintaining their miserable nonorganic existence through application of their devised Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology that is primarily set on siphoning and harvesting our energies. It is explicated herein, that despite this dire unfortunate circumstance of parasitic carnage befallen on us by these negative aliens, we are still Sovereign individuals with the precious gift of Free Will bestowed upon us to ward off these creatures by revering and maintaining the sanctity of our personal consciousness-auric field and lightbody system through diligently exercising self-responsibility and self-accountability as spiritual masters as to not be plagued by self-destructive avaricious materialistic and carnal lusts and such that only diminish our natural frequency-light quotient of consciousness, practically defying our own sense of Sovereignty by rendering a status that we produce congealed and low consciousness loosh in our blood that make it suitable for the negative aliens’ parasitic feedings. In particular, in the discourse that is to follow, it is emphasized that it is futile to be so much enamored with physicality including physical appearance. Furthermore, it is elucidated that in his auspicious time of pre-Ascension we are endowed with the special opportunity to try to reclaim our sense of consciousness crystallinity through striving to attain spiritual mastery. Accordingly, the role of brain versus heart and using intuitive intelligence provided by the heart vs brain’s binary logic and the workings of brain is concisely expounded upon. It should be emphasized that the parasitic negative aliens exclusively target our brain and mind to plague us with self-destructive behaviors that serve their mission of parasitic carnage. Furthermore, our special traits of consciousness expansibility and multidimensionality are expounded upon. A brief discourse with regard to the biochemical nature of our brain and nervous system, particularly through the use of the major endocrine glands of Pineal, Pituitary. and Hypothalamus and their special contribution to our psychological profile via decision making and consciousness creation are explicated. And, the need for maintaining the proper functioning of our auric-lightbody field and ensuring its integrity are briefly discussed as to lead to negating what may be referred to as ‘auric energetic bleeding.’ In particular, it is strongly recommended that it is prudent that one avoids sympathy with those who have contaminated auric status with negative energies in favor of choosing to exercise empathy in which one strive to keep one’s auric field clear and cleansed of such low energetic contaminations as sympathy leads to miserable company via indulging in ‘pity partying’ soon culminating in futile hopelessness and helplessness as opposed to being able to effectively help the next fellow human with resolute drive and sense of self-discipline and clarity of mind and the heart. The futility of succumbing to fear as well as doubt are expounded upon, be it the delusional sense of fear of survival or indulging in any form of doubt that only clouds one’s mind and sense of clear judgment, soon leading to self-doubt, self-inadequacy, lack of self-assurance, and even lack of self-love that renders one hopeless as well as helpless to indulge in any form of constructive, productive and creational endeavors. Finally, it is emphasized that any strive for productive-constructive consciousness creation must start with the noble INTENT that pays homage and reverence to the doctrines of unconditional love in light of committing to and engaging in SERVICE TO ALL as opposed to ‘service to self only,’ which are the repugnant negative aliens’ traits that have condemned them to be ‘fallen’ and outcasts, having had

One big challenge faced by cognitive science is the development of a unified theory that integrates disparate scales of analysis of cognitive phenomena. In this paper, I offer a unified framework that provides a way to integrate neural and behavioral scales of analysis of cognitive phenomena-typically addressed by neuroscience and experimental psychology, respectively. The framework is based on the concept of resonance originated in ecological psychology and aims to be the foundation for a unified theory for radical embodiment; that is, a unified theory for that dissident part of cognitive science that shares a methodological commitment to dynamic systems theory and remains skeptical about the adequacy of mechanism and representationalism as the guiding ideas in the field. In the course of my presentation, I analyze different issues regarding the requirements and constraints unification poses to radical embodiment.

Today's professional societies, teacher organizations, accrediting bodies, and government agencies are actively promoting the teaching of computational thinking (CT) skills. 1 Although the discourse about the essence of CT continues, a concerted effort has already helped make computer science a high school graduation requirement in many US states. The idea of procedural thinking and programming for children has been floating around for more than three decades, but its successful entry into learning standards as a competency area for everyone is very recent. 2 Yet, because CT is often linked to electronic devices and equated with thinking by computer scientists, a decade-long discourse has yet to produce ways to separate it from programming and computers. 3 Moreover, the lack of such separation continues to preclude us from capturing the essence of CT in a way that narrows down its skillset and links it to cognitive competencies that can be taught to young students. This article aims to do this by building on a viewpoint previously published in this column 4 to advance the state of computational science education. The viewpoint presented earlier, along with the concept of the mind as a computational device, 5 helps us link computation and cognition through similarities between electronic and biological computation. I suggest that these similarities arise from quantifiable (that is, discrete) aspects of information constructs, as suggested by Alan Turing 80 years ago, 6 and the appearance of a universal mechanism by which all quantifiable things form and evolve. 4 Accordingly, the processing of information constructs by any computing device, be it electronic or biological, involves device-independent computations as well as device-dependent ones, as illustrated in Figure 1. As detailed in my earlier article, 4 we can liken device-independent computation of information to modeling and simulation (M&S). Furthermore, we can argue that heterogeneity is the essence of it because quantifiable things

The University of North Carolina Press
Volume 45, October 2021
pp. 229-255

In this article, I contrast humanist and cognitivist discourses, and argue that when humanists distance themselves from metanarratives, cognitivists will effectively commandeer the terrain and claim that one cannot contest cognitivist discourse at all. Since cognitivist science has eclipsed and undermined the humanities in terms of cultural capital and funding, it is important to examine how humanists—in this case, an emblematic critical theorist, Slavoj Žižek, and a novelist, Richard Powers—have responded to its implications. The recurring question is whether philosophy or science has become dominant not just epistemologically, but ontologically; one of Žižek's primary tenets is that "the human being reduced to an object of technological manipulation is no longer properly human" (Žižek, Event 29). But Žižek also a priori concludes material factors cannot wholly account for human behavior, communication or identity. Žižek attempts to bolster the relevance and import of the humanities by asserting its priority and, sometimes oddly, its conservative credentials: "philosophy is in a way more critical, more cautious even, than science. Philosophy asks even more elementary questions" (Žižek, Conversations 25). Even as he decries the effects that scientific manipulation, alteration and deterministic discourses have on human identity, however, Žižek insists that we already are fragmented, "artificial," and determined, but by inherent ontological limitations rather than by pure materialism. Žižek exhorts "philosophers, when we hear that modern science and technology pose a threat to our human identity … [to ask] which notion of "human"[?] … [As Heidegger suggests], humanist protests against the reign of technology are ultimately futile" (Žižek, Disparities 28). In other words, for Žižek, humanist objections to the way cognitivism and technology dehumanize us, and turn us into determinate and inhuman subjects, erroneously presume that we begin as fully self-integrated humans, and try to preserve some totality we lack as a constitutive feature of our being.

In the second part of the essay, I assess the confluence between Žižek's Lacanian and Richard Powers' humanist narratives regarding science. Both writers view cognitivist sciences as transcendental—for Žižek via the transcendentalism of German idealism and for Powers via the transcendentalism of the American Renaissance—and [End Page 229] yet inadequate because, in effect, they are too successful. Žižek and Powers pit the humanist metanarrative against the cognitivist one, and both start with the premise that cognitivism abrogates narrative itself.

One of Žižek's concerns regarding cognitivism is that the Event that has been the domain of narrative has been co-opted by the domain of science. Summarizing the divide between humanism and scientific determinism and cognitivism, Lyotard concluded that it is "impossible to judge the existence or validity of narrative knowledge on the basis of scientific knowledge and vice versa: the relevant criteria are different. … Lamenting the 'loss of meaning' in postmodernity boils down to mourning the fact that knowledge is no longer principally narrative" (26).1 Similarly, according to Žižek, a positivist form of scientism threatens the categories of knowledge and communication that comprise the basis of human subjectivity: "the transcendental approach reached its apogee with [Heidegger] … while the ontological one seems today kidnapped by natural sciences; we expect the answer to the question of the origins of our universe to come from quantum cosmology, the brain sciences and evolutionism" (Žižek, Event 6). This straightforward claim also hints at the religious anxiety that would attend the receipt of absolute knowledge, which would obviate faith, or the arrival of a messiah, god, or judgment day—i.e., any aspect of eschatology. Addressing the other temporal end of the ontological spectrum, the beginning, Žižek contends that science now offers the metanarratives that preclude human narrative: the "New emerges through narrative, the apparently purely reproductive retelling of what happened—it is this retelling that opens up the space (the possibility) of acting in a new way" (133). In Žižek's estimation, we can tell stories and communicate as humans only because of "a minimal temporal gap between the existence of things in their immediate brute reality, and the registration...

We need a sense of the unity of life and of humans for the sake of human welfare and for the survival of the planet. We need a sense of unity with the cosmos so that we can connect with Reality.  But we also need a sense of individuality, for the sake of our own dignity and independence and of the loving care for others. We need it to appreciate each natural form, each animal and plant, each human person in their uniqueness. 

We must preserve the sense of unity and the sense of diversity and multiplicity. We must recognize that the One and the Many are the same thing viewed from different angles. The One is the Many. The One is manifested only in and through the Many. It has no separate existence apart from the Many. Equally the Many are the One. Even during their temporary separation, they are always part of the One, and always united with the One. Every one of us is always part of the One, and can unite with the One at any time we choose.

In this article I assert that time is schematic to the imagination. The imagination as quantum-like brain function is multi-dimensional, engages with possibilities and uncertainties, and deals with the elasticity of time schematically. Based on this model, a notion of the future is entirely imagined. It provides us with patterns or schematic representations of possible future scenarios. We also re-compose our memories out of details from the past. Our past is then re-imagined. Dreams offer imagination-based associative patterning and schematic representation as holographic-like multi-dimensionality. The theatre stage is capable of limitless representative realities. It is by analogy, a quantum space. Creatively animating this space is, I assert, a holographic process. Equivalence, uncertainty, chance, probability and schematic multi-dimensionality are the lingua franca of the imagination in creative practice. Suspending judgement to enable the creative process requires a reversal in which all choices are suspended to enable the imagination to lead – engaging the imagination in the creation of patterns of possibilities, and then providing the ability to project those patterns into discoveries ‘holographically’ in the creation of works of art.

Evidence from imaging and anatomical studies suggests that the midcingulate cortex (MCC) is a dynamic hub lying at the interface of affect and cognition. In particular, this neural system appears to integrate information about conflict and punishment in order to optimize behavior in the face of action-outcome uncertainty. In a series of meta-analyses, we show how recent human electrophysiological research provides compelling evidence that frontal-midline theta signals reflecting MCC activity are moderated by anxiety and predict adaptive behavioral adjustments. These findings underscore the importance of frontal theta activity to a broad spectrum of control operations. We argue that frontal-midline theta provides a neurophysiologically plausible mechanism for optimally adjusting behavior to uncertainty, a hallmark of situations that elicit anxiety and demand cognitive control. These observations compel a new perspective on the mechanisms guiding motivated learning and behavior and provide a framework for understanding the role of the MCC in temperament and psychopathology.

Incorporating new insights from the neuroscience of learning and the role of language in cognition, CNE is an approach to optimizing positive learning outcomes in the enhancement of cognitive processes through a new understanding of the brain-mind-behavior connection. CNE is directly applicable to both education and mental health and is the only modality in either field that is strictly tied to how the brain actually works within a tightly constructed, exhaustively comprehensive model of the mind as formed exclusively from rigorous hermeneutic and phenomenological analysis.

Starting with a model of human behavior based on the evolution of the human brain, we describe how a new understanding of the brain-mind-behavior connection leads to both innovation in the classroom and the basis for a breakthrough modality in the recovery from cognitive and behavioral disorder.

The Theory of Relativity of Cognition (TRC) offers a comprehensive solution to many scientific and philosophical problems associated with cognition. In particular, the theory explains:
- the work of the brain as a whole;
- The connection of human knowledge with the structure and functioning of the brain;
- the process of cognition, training and education;
- conceptual knowledge and intuition;
- understanding and pattern recognition;
- what is intelligence and how does it work;
- purposefulness and structure of targeted systems;
- what is knowledge and truth;
- how to distinguish true knowledge from false; in particular, how to distinguish scientific theories from pseudoscientific ones,
- why the laws of logic apply;
- how natural language is formed;
- how language is connected with the brain and how it physically exists;
- how the concepts of language are arranged, how they physically exist;
- how the concepts of language are used to designate objects of reality;
- what are the objects of reality;
- how language is related to logic;
- how language serves to describe reality;
- how is it possible to unite all the conceptual knowledge of people;
- what is information and what is the relationship between information and knowledge;
- “mirror neurons” and infant amnesia;
- much more.

Of course, the theory does not solve all problems, but can serve as the basis for further research.

This work describes the system of basic concepts of the Theory of Relativity of Cognition, the main ideas and the main consequences of TRC.

In addition, the rationale for logic, the scientific method and the mathematical method is given, the structure of conceptual knowledge is described, the errors of previous theories of knowledge that prevented the solution of the problem are explained.

The last thirty years have seen an explosion of neuroscience research on how the mind functions. This research paints a revised image of what constitutes human nature and behavior and how the criminal law can handle those extremes of it that endanger individuals and their society. The revision is important to the criminal law because key criminal law concepts of culpability depend on the internal workings of individuals’ minds. Research into intentionality, consciousness, and brain plasticity are just some examples of areas where new discoveries could help enhance validity and reliability within the criminal justice system. Not surprisingly, lawyers have increasingly introduced neuroscience evidence into the courtroom, a trend suggesting that the complexity of the legal issues raised will only expand as the science progresses. On a more fundamental level, neuroscience is also an excellent resource to revitalize the Model Penal Code’s original focus on subjective determinations of an individual defendant’s blameworthiness, based on that particular defendant’s mental state. Over the last sixty years, the American criminal justice system has become far more punitive, and the subjective inquiry has been overshadowed by a more objective standard that downplays the need to assess individual culpability. The incorporation of modern neuroscience research into the criminal law would bring back a system of justice that more accurately reflects a given defendant’s mental state as well more effectively protects the rest of society. But to benefit from neuroscience in this way, we must first penetrate the mystique that often surrounds the meaning and applicability of the science. We must move on from misconceptions, fears, and misguided debates. And we must realize that although neuroscience brings unique insight to the law, there is nothing about neuroscience that merits unique treatment by the law.

We consider several key aspects of prediction in language comprehension: its computational nature, the representational level(s) at which we predict, whether we use higher level representations to predictively pre-activate lower level representations, and whether we ‘commit’ in any way to our predictions, beyond pre-activation. We argue that the bulk of behavioral and neural evidence suggests that we predict probabilistically and at multiple levels and grains of representation. We also argue that we can, in principle, use higher level inferences to predictively pre-activate information at multiple lower representational levels. We also suggest that the degree and level of predictive pre-activation might be a function of the expected utility of prediction, which, in turn, may depend on comprehenders’ goals and their estimates of the relative reliability of their prior knowledge and the bottom-up input. Finally, we argue that all these properties of language understanding can be naturally explained and productively explored within a multi-representational hierarchical actively generative architecture whose goal is to infer the message intended by the producer, and in which predictions play a crucial role in explaining the bottom-up input.

Keywords: language comprehension, prediction error, generative model, probabilistic, surprisal

The Theory of Relativity of Cognition (TRC) offers a comprehensive solution to many scientific and philosophical problems associated with cognition. In particular, the theory explains:
- the work of the brain as a whole;
- The connection of human knowledge with the structure and functioning of the brain;
- the process of cognition, training and education;
- conceptual knowledge and intuition;
- understanding and pattern recognition;
- what is intelligence and how does it work;
- what is knowledge and truth;
- how to distinguish true knowledge from false; in particular, how to distinguish scientific theories from pseudoscientific ones,
- why the laws of logic apply;
- how natural language is formed;
- how language is connected with the brain and how it physically exists;
- how the concepts of language are arranged, how they physically exist;
- how the concepts of language are used to designate objects of reality;
- what are the objects of reality;
- how language is related to logic;
- how language serves to describe reality;
- how is it possible to unite all the conceptual knowledge of people;
- much more.
Of course, the theory does not solve all problems, but can serve as the basis for further research.
This work describes the system of basic concepts of the Theory of Relativity of Cognition, the main ideas and the main consequences of TRC.

How can three and a half pounds of gray matter in our skulls produce the world of subjective experience?  Questions of bodies and minds have been topics of intense concentration through the history of philosophy.  We can now approach those questions with new techniques and new findings in the brain sciences.

This paper explores the content of the somniloquies of Dion McGregor, the most extensive sleep talker ever recorded, and compares these with dream content from normative male dreams on the Hall and van de Castle Content Scales (1966) and Hobson (et al., 1987) Bizarreness Scales. On the Hall and van de Castle Scales, the somniloquies contained significantly more female characters relative to males than for the norms, more familiar characters and friends, but fewer family members. The dreamer-as-character was much likelier to be either a befriender or an aggressor than in the normative dreams but much less likely to engage in physical aggression specifically.  There was less aggression, friendliness, or sex per character in McGregor’s narratives, as well as less of all three of these types of interaction total than for the norms, but much more self negativity.  There was a lower percentage of negative emotions, good fortune, and success, but the somniloquies were similar to the norms in their levels of misfortune and failure.    On the Hobson Bizarreness Scales, the McGregor somniloquies were not differentiated from dreams on 3 of 6 scales—having similar levels of discontinuity of plot, characters, object, or actions but had slightly fewer incongruities of plot, and many fewer instances of incongruity or  uncertainly of thought. These findings are discussed in terms of presumed brain activation differences—more frontal activation--and also in terms of McGregor’s (1964) personal idiosyncrasies.

On the traces of an energetic theory of mind. Angelo Mosso and the work of emotions.

Résumé

Cet article explore quelques-unes des foisonnantes activités de recherche du physiologiste italien Angelo Mosso (1846-1910). À Turin, au cœur de son laboratoire, des sujets faits personnages, aussi rares qu’idéaux, offrent un accès privilégié aux autographes cérébraux qui accompagnent l’activité mentale ou l’expression des émotions. Le laboratoire de Mosso est dédié à l’étude des mouvements intérieurs de la vie des sujets et propose une forme de physiologie sociale qui témoigne d’une épistémologie ouverte incluant la ville, les bruits et l’hétérogénéité des sujets expérimentaux comme base à l’universalité des phénomènes étudiés. À travers cette étude de cas, une histoire des rapports intriqués entre empirisme et théorisation, entre conceptualisation et technicité dans l’étude des fondements physiques de la conscience humaine est proposée.

Abstract

This article explores some of the many research activities of the Italian physiologist Angelo Mosso (1846-1910). In his laboratory located in Turin, experimental subjects were turned into ideal characters who offered a priviledged access to the signatures of the brain during mental activity or the expression of emotions. Mosso’s laboratory studied the inner life movements of the human subject and proposed a social physiology which was part of an open epistemology including the noisy city and the heterogeneity of the experimental subjects, which was a condition for the universality of the phenomena under scrutiny. Through this case study, a history of the intertwined relationships between empiricism, theorizing, and technicity in the study of the physicial underpinnings of consciousness is proposed.

Objectives: This study aimed to profile the cognitive aging research landscape from 1956 to 2021.
Methods: A total of 3698 documents were retrieved from the Scopus database for the bibliometric analysis and network visualization. By comparing each keyword's overall connection strength (centrality), frequency (density), and average year of publication (novelty) to the calculated median values acquired from the overlay view of the VOSviewer map, the enhanced strategic diagrams (ESDs) were constructed.
Results: The findings showed an increasing trend in the number of publications. The United States leads the contributing countries in cognitive aging research. The scientific productivity pattern obeyed Lotka’s Law. The most productive researcher was Deary, I. J., with the highest number of publications. The collaborative index showed an increasing trend from 1980 onwards. The journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience is the most prestigious in the field of cognitive aging research. In Bradford core journals zone 1, the top 10 core journals of cognitive aging research provided more than half of the total articles (683, or 55.30 percent).
Conclusions: For the next decades, the trending topics in cognitive aging research include functional connectivity, amyloid-beta (Aβ), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), decision-making, compensation, frailty, gait speed, anxiety, mini-mental state examination (MMSE), hearing loss, obesity, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), lifestyle, nutrition, and D-galactose.