Author: M. Chirimuuta
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262548046
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 377
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Book Description
An exciting, new framework for interpreting the philosophical significance of neuroscience. All science needs to simplify, but when the object of research is something as complicated as the brain, this challenge can stretch the limits of scientific possibility. In fact, in The Brain Abstracted, an avowedly “opinionated” history of neuroscience, M. Chirimuuta argues that, due to the brain’s complexity, neuroscientific theories have only captured partial truths—and “neurophilosophy” is unlikely to be achieved. Looking at the theory and practice of neuroscience, both past and present, Chirimuuta shows how the science has been shaped by the problem of brain complexity and the need, in science, to make things as simple as possible. From this history, Chirimuuta draws lessons for debates in philosophy of science over the limits and definition of science and in philosophy of mind over explanations of consciousness and the mind-body problem. The Brain Abstracted is the product of a historical rupture that has become visible in the twenty-first century, between the “classical” scientific approach, which seeks simple, intelligible principles underlying the manifest complexity of nature, and a data-driven engineering approach, which dispenses with the search for elegant, explanatory laws and models. In the space created by this rupture, Chirimuuta finds grounds for theoretical and practical humility. Her aim in The Brain Abstracted is not to reform neuroscience, or offer advice to neuroscientists, but rather to interpret their work—and to suggest a new framework for interpreting the philosophical significance of neuroscience.
Author: M. Chirimuuta
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262378639
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 377
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Book Description
An exciting, new framework for interpreting the philosophical significance of neuroscience. All science needs to simplify, but when the object of research is something as complicated as the brain, this challenge can stretch the limits of scientific possibility. In fact, in The Brain Abstracted, an avowedly “opinionated” history of neuroscience, M. Chirimuuta argues that, due to the brain’s complexity, neuroscientific theories have only captured partial truths—and “neurophilosophy” is unlikely to be achieved. Looking at the theory and practice of neuroscience, both past and present, Chirimuuta shows how the science has been shaped by the problem of brain complexity and the need, in science, to make things as simple as possible. From this history, Chirimuuta draws lessons for debates in philosophy of science over the limits and definition of science and in philosophy of mind over explanations of consciousness and the mind-body problem. The Brain Abstracted is the product of a historical rupture that has become visible in the twenty-first century, between the “classical” scientific approach, which seeks simple, intelligible principles underlying the manifest complexity of nature, and a data-driven engineering approach, which dispenses with the search for elegant, explanatory laws and models. In the space created by this rupture, Chirimuuta finds grounds for theoretical and practical humility. Her aim in The Brain Abstracted is not to reform neuroscience, or offer advice to neuroscientists, but rather to interpret their work—and to suggest a new framework for interpreting the philosophical significance of neuroscience.
Author: Dana H. Ballard
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262028611
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 457
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Book Description
An argument that the complexities of brain function can be understood hierarchically, in terms of different levels of abstraction, as silicon computing is.
Author: Felipe De Brigard
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262045435
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 511
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Book Description
Philosophers and neuroscientists address central issues in both fields, including morality, action, mental illness, consciousness, perception, and memory. Philosophers and neuroscientists grapple with the same profound questions involving consciousness, perception, behavior, and moral judgment, but only recently have the two disciplines begun to work together. This volume offers fourteen original chapters that address these issues, each written by a team that includes at least one philosopher and one neuroscientist who integrate disciplinary perspectives and reflect the latest research in both fields. Topics include morality, empathy, agency, the self, mental illness, neuroprediction, optogenetics, pain, vision, consciousness, memory, concepts, mind wandering, and the neural basis of psychological categories. The chapters first address basic issues about our social and moral lives: how we decide to act and ought to act toward each other, how we understand each other’s mental states and selves, and how we deal with pressing social problems regarding crime and mental or brain health. The following chapters consider basic issues about our mental lives: how we classify and recall what we experience, how we see and feel objects in the world, how we ponder plans and alternatives, and how our brains make us conscious and create specific mental states.
Author: Risto J. Ilmoniemi
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262039826
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257
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Book Description
A unified treatment of the generation and analysis of brain-generated electromagnetic fields. In Brain Signals, Risto Ilmoniemi and Jukka Sarvas present the basic physical and mathematical principles of magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG), describing what kind of information is available in the neuroelectromagnetic field and how the measured MEG and EEG signals can be analyzed. Unlike most previous works on these topics, which have been collections of writings by different authors using different conventions, this book presents the material in a unified manner, providing the reader with a thorough understanding of basic principles and a firm basis for analyzing data generated by MEG and EEG. The book first provides a brief introduction to brain states and the early history of EEG and MEG, describes the generation of electromagnetic fields by neuronal activity, and discusses the electromagnetic forward problem. The authors then turn to EEG and MEG analysis, offering a review of linear and matrix algebra and basic statistics needed for analysis of the data, and presenting several analysis methods: dipole fitting; the minimum norm estimate (MNE); beamforming; the multiple signal classification algorithm (MUSIC), including RAP-MUSIC with the RAP dilemma and TRAP-MUSIC, which removes the RAP dilemma; independent component analysis (ICA); and blind source separation (BSS) with joint diagonalization.
Author: William James
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 738
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Book Description
Author: Thomas Parr
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262362287
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 313
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Book Description
The first comprehensive treatment of active inference, an integrative perspective on brain, cognition, and behavior used across multiple disciplines. Active inference is a way of understanding sentient behavior—a theory that characterizes perception, planning, and action in terms of probabilistic inference. Developed by theoretical neuroscientist Karl Friston over years of groundbreaking research, active inference provides an integrated perspective on brain, cognition, and behavior that is increasingly used across multiple disciplines including neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. Active inference puts the action into perception. This book offers the first comprehensive treatment of active inference, covering theory, applications, and cognitive domains. Active inference is a “first principles” approach to understanding behavior and the brain, framed in terms of a single imperative to minimize free energy. The book emphasizes the implications of the free energy principle for understanding how the brain works. It first introduces active inference both conceptually and formally, contextualizing it within current theories of cognition. It then provides specific examples of computational models that use active inference to explain such cognitive phenomena as perception, attention, memory, and planning.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Industrial hygiene
Languages : en
Pages : 760
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Book Description
Author: Samuel Pozzi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Brain
Languages : en
Pages : 32
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Book Description
Author: Hagai Bergman
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262367297
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 333
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Book Description
The anatomy and physiology of the basal ganglia and their relation to brain and behavior, disorders and therapies, and philosophy of mind and moral values. The main task of the basal ganglia—a group of subcortical nuclei, located at the base of the brain—is to optimize and execute our automatic behavior. In this book, Hagai Bergman analyzes the anatomy and physiology of the basal ganglia, discussing their relation to brain and behavior, to disorders and therapies, and even to moral values. Drawing on his forty years of studying the basal ganglia, Bergman presents new information on physiology and computational models, Parkinson’s disease and other ganglia-related disorders, and such therapies as deep brain stimulation. Focusing on studies of nonhuman primates and human basal ganglia and relying on system physiology and in vivo extra-cellular recording techniques, Bergman first describes the major brain structures that constitute the basal ganglia, the morphology of their cellular elements, their synaptic connectivity and their physiological function in health and disease. He discusses the computational physiology of the healthy basal ganglia, describing four generations of computational models, and then traces the computational physiology of basal ganglia–related disorders and their treatments, including Parkinson’s disease and its pharmacological and surgical therapies. Finally, Bergman considers the implications of these findings for such moral concerns as free will. Explaining this leap into domains rarely explored in neuroscientific accounts, Bergman writes that the longer he studies the basal ganglia, the more he is convinced that they are truly the base of both brain and mind.
