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The Anatomy of Bias: How Neural Circuits Weigh the Options Hardcover – January 1, 2010
I will recklessly endeavor to scavenge materials from these various fields with the single aim of producing a coherent, but open-minded account of attention, or bias versus sensitivity, or how the activities of neurons allow us to decide one way or another that, with a faint echo of Hamlet in the background, something appears to be or not to be. -- from The Anatomy of Bias.
In this engaging, even lyrical, book, Jan Lauwereyns examines the neural underpinnings of decision-making, using "bias" as his core concept rather than the more common but noncommittal terms "selection" and "attention." Lauwereyns offers an integrative, interdisciplinary account of the structure and function of bias, which he defines as a basic brain mechanism that attaches different weights to different information sources, prioritizing some cognitive representations at the expense of others. Lauwereyns introduces the concepts of bias and sensitivity based on notions from Bayesian probability, which he translates into easily recognizable neural signatures, introduced by concrete examples from the experimental literature. He examines, among other topics, positive and negative motivations for giving priority to different sensory inputs, and looks for the neural underpinnings of racism, sexism, and other forms of "familiarity bias." Lauwereyns -- a poet and essayist as well as a scientist -- connects findings and ideas in neuroscience to analogous concepts in such diverse fields as post-Lacanian psychoanalysis, literary theory, philosophy of mind, evolutionary psychology, and experimental economics. With The Anatomy of Bias, he gives readers that rarity in today's world of proliferating and ever more narrowly focused technical research papers: a work of sustained, rational thinking, elegantly expressed.
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Print length262 pages
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LanguageEnglish
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PublisherMit Pr
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Publication dateJanuary 1, 2010
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Dimensions7.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
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ISBN-10026212310X
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ISBN-13978-0262123105
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About the Author
Jan Lauwereyns is a Professor in the Graduate School of Systems Life Sciences at Kyushu University in Japan and Adjunct Research Associate in the School of Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. He has published articles in journals including Nature, Journal of Neuroscience, and Trends in Cognitive Science as well as poetry, fiction, and essays.
Product details
- Publisher : Mit Pr; 0 edition (January 1, 2010)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 262 pages
- ISBN-10 : 026212310X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0262123105
- Item Weight : 1.4 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #6,142,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #89,158 in Motivational Self-Help (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Jan Lauwereyns (1969) is a poet, essayist, and scientist. Born and raised in Belgium, he was trained as a cognitive psychologist at the University of Leuven (PhD, 1998). He went on to specialize in neurophysiology, performing postdoctoral research at Juntendo University in Japan and at the US National Institutes of Health. His research focuses on the cognitive and neural mechanisms of attention and decision making. Lauwereyns lives in Fukuoka, Japan, where he is Professor in the Graduate School of Systems Life Sciences, Kyushu University. In addition to his scientific writing, Lauwereyns has published innovative poetry and fiction in Dutch, English, and Japanese. For his creative work in Dutch, he has received several important accolades, including most notably the VSB Poetry Prize 2012.
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Not so at all! If you pick up Tse's astonishing book-- The Neural Basis of Free Will: Criterial Causation -- and then read Jan's book in tandem, or before or after Tse, you'll be amazed at Jan's prescience and anticipation of Tse's revolutionary ideas about everything from consciousness to choice.
Consider plasticity not as it was seen in a learning context a few years ago, but as "pre-firing" neuron states that (kindof) "sim" the decision. As in, you are "thinking" before choosing, but those thoughts are "soft" (as in plastic or pliable) and the spike conditions are not energized immediately. Jan looks at these as tendencies, but he presages Tse's essential message-- about coincidental signals-- almost exactly!
If you briefly allow the word bias to be similar to the word weights, the two authors taken together have started a trend in looking "above and before" spiking oscillations in a way that will be mined for decades. If you read these two books, you'll be on the cutting edge of what's about to revolutionize the "layers" above and below, before and after, the well established dynamical systems models of spike patterns. Adding Buzsaki Rhythms of the Brain completes the proposed picture at a meta level-- showing how oscillations can be both physical, and collectively symbolic in the energy states of the wave functions themselves.
Not an easy or "fun" read-- but enlightening on every page if you invest the energy to get the central, startling, and innovative message. NOT a "learn the past or current" technology book-- more of a "here's what's coming."
Library Picks reviews only for the benefit of Amazon shoppers and has nothing to do with Amazon, the authors, manufacturers or publishers of the items we review. We always buy the items we review for the sake of objectivity, and although we search for gems, are not shy about trashing an item if it's a waste of time or money for Amazon shoppers. If the reviewer identifies herself, her job or her field, it is only as a point of reference to help you gauge the background and any biases.
Once I began reading through it, I noticed that the author produced a tome with information that I've already gathered through other sources; some not scientific.
The content is interesting, don't get me wrong. But the read is very dry and definitely not what I expected. Seeing as I am starting Fall-Term here in a few weeks, I've decided to save my energy for dry and redundant material until then. If you're a reader who is in the works of learning the scientific evidence of bias, I would recommend this text to you. From the 50 pages I read, it definitely provides valuable information.