Author: William H. Calvin
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262531542
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
The Cerebral Code is a new understanding of how Darwinian processes could operate in the brain to shape mental images in only seconds, starting with shuffled memories no better than the jumble of our nighttime dreams, but evolving into something of quality, such as a sentence to speak aloud. Jung said that dreaming goes on continuously but you can't see it when you are awake, just as you can't see the stars in the daylight because it is too bright. Calvin's is a theory for what goes on, hidden from view by the glare of waking mental operations, that produces our peculiarly human type of consciousness with its versatile intelligence. As Piaget emphasized in 1929, intelligence is what we use when we don't know what to do, when we have to grope rather than using a standard response. Calvin tackles a mechanism for doing this exploration and improvement offline, as we think before we act or practice the art of good guessing. Surprisingly, the subtitle's mosaics of the mind is not a literary metaphor. For the first time, it is a description of a mechanism of what appears to be an appropriate level of explanation for many mental phenomena, that of hexagonal mosaics of electrical activity that compete for territory in the association cortex of the brain. This two-dimensional mosaic is predicted to grow and dissolve much as the sugar crystals do in the bottom of a supersaturated glass of iced tea. A Bradford Book
The Cerebral Code
Author: William H. Calvin
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262531542
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
The Cerebral Code is a new understanding of how Darwinian processes could operate in the brain to shape mental images in only seconds, starting with shuffled memories no better than the jumble of our nighttime dreams, but evolving into something of quality, such as a sentence to speak aloud. Jung said that dreaming goes on continuously but you can't see it when you are awake, just as you can't see the stars in the daylight because it is too bright. Calvin's is a theory for what goes on, hidden from view by the glare of waking mental operations, that produces our peculiarly human type of consciousness with its versatile intelligence. As Piaget emphasized in 1929, intelligence is what we use when we don't know what to do, when we have to grope rather than using a standard response. Calvin tackles a mechanism for doing this exploration and improvement offline, as we think before we act or practice the art of good guessing. Surprisingly, the subtitle's mosaics of the mind is not a literary metaphor. For the first time, it is a description of a mechanism of what appears to be an appropriate level of explanation for many mental phenomena, that of hexagonal mosaics of electrical activity that compete for territory in the association cortex of the brain. This two-dimensional mosaic is predicted to grow and dissolve much as the sugar crystals do in the bottom of a supersaturated glass of iced tea. A Bradford Book
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262531542
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
The Cerebral Code is a new understanding of how Darwinian processes could operate in the brain to shape mental images in only seconds, starting with shuffled memories no better than the jumble of our nighttime dreams, but evolving into something of quality, such as a sentence to speak aloud. Jung said that dreaming goes on continuously but you can't see it when you are awake, just as you can't see the stars in the daylight because it is too bright. Calvin's is a theory for what goes on, hidden from view by the glare of waking mental operations, that produces our peculiarly human type of consciousness with its versatile intelligence. As Piaget emphasized in 1929, intelligence is what we use when we don't know what to do, when we have to grope rather than using a standard response. Calvin tackles a mechanism for doing this exploration and improvement offline, as we think before we act or practice the art of good guessing. Surprisingly, the subtitle's mosaics of the mind is not a literary metaphor. For the first time, it is a description of a mechanism of what appears to be an appropriate level of explanation for many mental phenomena, that of hexagonal mosaics of electrical activity that compete for territory in the association cortex of the brain. This two-dimensional mosaic is predicted to grow and dissolve much as the sugar crystals do in the bottom of a supersaturated glass of iced tea. A Bradford Book
Cognitive Code
Author: Johannes Bruder
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773559701
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 189
Book Description
As the second decade of the twenty-first century draws to a close, the cultural, social, and economic effects of artificial intelligence are becoming ever more apparent. Despite their long-intertwined histories, the fields of neuroscience and artificial intelligence research are notoriously divided. In Cognitive Code Johannes Bruder argues that seemingly incompatible scales of intelligence – the brain and the planet – are now intimately linked through neuroscience-inspired AI and computational cognitive neuroscience. Building on ethnographic fieldwork in brain imaging labs in the United Kingdom and Switzerland, alongside analyses of historical and contemporary literature, Cognitive Code examines how contemporary research on the brain makes routine use of engineering epistemologies and practices. Bruder elaborates on how the question of mimicking human cognition and thought on the scale of computer chips and circuits has gradually evolved into a comprehensive restructuring of the world through "smart" infrastructures. The brain, traditionally treated as a discrete object that thinks, is becoming part of the larger thinking network we now know as "the Cloud." The author traces a recent shift in the goals of brain imaging to show that the introduction of novel statistical and computational techniques has upset traditional paradigms and disentangled cognition from its biological substrate. Investigating understandings of intelligence from the micro to the macro, Cognitive Code explains how the future of human psychology is increasingly determined by engineering and design.
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773559701
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 189
Book Description
As the second decade of the twenty-first century draws to a close, the cultural, social, and economic effects of artificial intelligence are becoming ever more apparent. Despite their long-intertwined histories, the fields of neuroscience and artificial intelligence research are notoriously divided. In Cognitive Code Johannes Bruder argues that seemingly incompatible scales of intelligence – the brain and the planet – are now intimately linked through neuroscience-inspired AI and computational cognitive neuroscience. Building on ethnographic fieldwork in brain imaging labs in the United Kingdom and Switzerland, alongside analyses of historical and contemporary literature, Cognitive Code examines how contemporary research on the brain makes routine use of engineering epistemologies and practices. Bruder elaborates on how the question of mimicking human cognition and thought on the scale of computer chips and circuits has gradually evolved into a comprehensive restructuring of the world through "smart" infrastructures. The brain, traditionally treated as a discrete object that thinks, is becoming part of the larger thinking network we now know as "the Cloud." The author traces a recent shift in the goals of brain imaging to show that the introduction of novel statistical and computational techniques has upset traditional paradigms and disentangled cognition from its biological substrate. Investigating understandings of intelligence from the micro to the macro, Cognitive Code explains how the future of human psychology is increasingly determined by engineering and design.
How Brains Think
Author: William H. Calvin
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465066895
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 151
Book Description
If you're good at finding the one right answer to life's multiple-choice questions, you're "smart." But "intelligence" is what you need when contemplating the leftovers in the refrigerator, trying to figure out what might go with them; or if you're trying to speak a sentence that you've never spoken before. As Jean Piaget said, intelligence is what you use when you don't know what to do, when all the standard answers are inadequate. This book tries to fathom how our inner life evolves from one topic to another, as we create and reject alternatives. Ever since Darwin, we've known that elegant things can emerge (indeed, self-organize) from "simpler" beginnings. And, says theoretical neurophysiologist William H. Calvin, the bootstrapping of new ideas works much like the immune response or the evolution of a new animal species -- except that the brain can turn the Darwinian crank a lot faster, on the time scale of thought and action. Drawing on anthropology, evolutionary biology, linguistics, and the neurosciences, Calvin also considers how a more intelligent brain developed using slow biological improvements over the last few million years. Long ago, evolving jack-of-all trades versatility was encouraged by abrupt climate changes. Now, evolving intelligence uses a nonbiological track: augmenting human intelligence and building intelligent machines.
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465066895
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 151
Book Description
If you're good at finding the one right answer to life's multiple-choice questions, you're "smart." But "intelligence" is what you need when contemplating the leftovers in the refrigerator, trying to figure out what might go with them; or if you're trying to speak a sentence that you've never spoken before. As Jean Piaget said, intelligence is what you use when you don't know what to do, when all the standard answers are inadequate. This book tries to fathom how our inner life evolves from one topic to another, as we create and reject alternatives. Ever since Darwin, we've known that elegant things can emerge (indeed, self-organize) from "simpler" beginnings. And, says theoretical neurophysiologist William H. Calvin, the bootstrapping of new ideas works much like the immune response or the evolution of a new animal species -- except that the brain can turn the Darwinian crank a lot faster, on the time scale of thought and action. Drawing on anthropology, evolutionary biology, linguistics, and the neurosciences, Calvin also considers how a more intelligent brain developed using slow biological improvements over the last few million years. Long ago, evolving jack-of-all trades versatility was encouraged by abrupt climate changes. Now, evolving intelligence uses a nonbiological track: augmenting human intelligence and building intelligent machines.
Conversations with Neil's Brain
Author: William H. Calvin
Publisher: William H. Calvin
ISBN: 0982916760
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 688
Book Description
Publisher: William H. Calvin
ISBN: 0982916760
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 688
Book Description
The Cortex and the Critical Point
Author: John M. Beggs
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262544032
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 217
Book Description
How the cerebral cortex operates near a critical phase transition point for optimum performance. Individual neurons have limited computational powers, but when they work together, it is almost like magic. Firing synchronously and then breaking off to improvise by themselves, they can be paradoxically both independent and interdependent. This happens near the critical point: when neurons are poised between a phase where activity is damped and a phase where it is amplified, where information processing is optimized, and complex emergent activity patterns arise. The claim that neurons in the cortex work best when they operate near the critical point is known as the criticality hypothesis. In this book John Beggs—one of the pioneers of this hypothesis—offers an introduction to the critical point and its relevance to the brain. Drawing on recent experimental evidence, Beggs first explains the main ideas underlying the criticality hypotheses and emergent phenomena. He then discusses the critical point and its two main consequences—first, scale-free properties that confer optimum information processing; and second, universality, or the idea that complex emergent phenomena, like that seen near the critical point, can be explained by relatively simple models that are applicable across species and scale. Finally, Beggs considers future directions for the field, including research on homeostatic regulation, quasicriticality, and the expansion of the cortex and intelligence. An appendix provides technical material; many chapters include exercises that use freely available code and data sets.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262544032
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 217
Book Description
How the cerebral cortex operates near a critical phase transition point for optimum performance. Individual neurons have limited computational powers, but when they work together, it is almost like magic. Firing synchronously and then breaking off to improvise by themselves, they can be paradoxically both independent and interdependent. This happens near the critical point: when neurons are poised between a phase where activity is damped and a phase where it is amplified, where information processing is optimized, and complex emergent activity patterns arise. The claim that neurons in the cortex work best when they operate near the critical point is known as the criticality hypothesis. In this book John Beggs—one of the pioneers of this hypothesis—offers an introduction to the critical point and its relevance to the brain. Drawing on recent experimental evidence, Beggs first explains the main ideas underlying the criticality hypotheses and emergent phenomena. He then discusses the critical point and its two main consequences—first, scale-free properties that confer optimum information processing; and second, universality, or the idea that complex emergent phenomena, like that seen near the critical point, can be explained by relatively simple models that are applicable across species and scale. Finally, Beggs considers future directions for the field, including research on homeostatic regulation, quasicriticality, and the expansion of the cortex and intelligence. An appendix provides technical material; many chapters include exercises that use freely available code and data sets.
Lingua Ex Machina
Author: William H. Calvin
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262531986
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 318
Book Description
A neuroscientist and a linguist show how evolution could have given rise to structured language. A machine for language? Certainly, say the neurophysiologists, busy studying the language specializations of the human brain and trying to identify their evolutionary antecedents. Linguists such as Noam Chomsky talk about machinelike "modules" in the brain for syntax, arguing that language is more an instinct (a complex behavior triggered by simple environmental stimuli) than an acquired skill like riding a bicycle. But structured language presents the same evolutionary problems as feathered forelimbs for flight: you need a lot of specializations to fly even a little bit. How do you get them, if evolution has no foresight and the intermediate stages do not have intermediate payoffs? Some say that the Darwinian scheme for gradual species self-improvement cannot explain our most valued human capability, the one that sets us so far above the apes, language itself. William Calvin and Derek Bickerton suggest that other evolutionary developments, not directly related to language, allowed language to evolve in a way that eventually promoted a Chomskian syntax. They compare these intermediate behaviors to the curb-cuts originally intended for wheelchair users. Their usefulness was soon discovered by users of strollers, shopping carts, rollerblades, and so on. The authors argue that reciprocal altruism and ballistic movement planning were "curb-cuts" that indirectly promoted the formation of structured language. Written in the form of a dialogue set in Bellagio, Italy, Lingua ex Machina presents an engaging challenge to those who view the human capacity for language as a winner-take-all war between Chomsky and Darwin.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262531986
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 318
Book Description
A neuroscientist and a linguist show how evolution could have given rise to structured language. A machine for language? Certainly, say the neurophysiologists, busy studying the language specializations of the human brain and trying to identify their evolutionary antecedents. Linguists such as Noam Chomsky talk about machinelike "modules" in the brain for syntax, arguing that language is more an instinct (a complex behavior triggered by simple environmental stimuli) than an acquired skill like riding a bicycle. But structured language presents the same evolutionary problems as feathered forelimbs for flight: you need a lot of specializations to fly even a little bit. How do you get them, if evolution has no foresight and the intermediate stages do not have intermediate payoffs? Some say that the Darwinian scheme for gradual species self-improvement cannot explain our most valued human capability, the one that sets us so far above the apes, language itself. William Calvin and Derek Bickerton suggest that other evolutionary developments, not directly related to language, allowed language to evolve in a way that eventually promoted a Chomskian syntax. They compare these intermediate behaviors to the curb-cuts originally intended for wheelchair users. Their usefulness was soon discovered by users of strollers, shopping carts, rollerblades, and so on. The authors argue that reciprocal altruism and ballistic movement planning were "curb-cuts" that indirectly promoted the formation of structured language. Written in the form of a dialogue set in Bellagio, Italy, Lingua ex Machina presents an engaging challenge to those who view the human capacity for language as a winner-take-all war between Chomsky and Darwin.
The Languages of the Brain
Author: Albert M. Galaburda
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674007727
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 444
Book Description
The only way we can convey our thoughts to another person is through verbal language. Does this imply that our thoughts ultimately rely on words? This text takes the contrary position, arguing that many possible 'languages of thought' play different roles in the life of the mind.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674007727
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 444
Book Description
The only way we can convey our thoughts to another person is through verbal language. Does this imply that our thoughts ultimately rely on words? This text takes the contrary position, arguing that many possible 'languages of thought' play different roles in the life of the mind.
The Persuasion Code
Author: Christophe Morin
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119440750
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 356
Book Description
The Persuasion Code Capture, convince, and close—scientifically Most of your attempts to persuade are doomed to fail because the brains of your audience automatically reject messages that disrupt their attention. This book makes the complex science of persuasion simple. Learn to develop better marketing and sales messages based on a scientific model; NeuroMapTM. Regardless of your level of expertise in marketing, neuromarketing, neuroscience or psychology: The Persuasion Code: How Neuromarketing Can Help You Persuade Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime will make your personal and business lives more successful by unveiling a credible and practical approach towards creating a breakthrough persuasion strategy. This book will satisfy your interest in neuromarketing, scientific persuasion, sales, advertising effectiveness, website conversion, marketing strategy and sales presentations. It’ll teach you the value of the award-winning persuasion model NeuroMapTM : the only model based on the science of how your customers use their brain to make any decision including a buying decision. You will appreciate why this scientific approach has helped hundreds of companies and thousands of executives achieve remarkable results. Written by the founders of SalesBrain who pioneered the field of neuromarketing SalesBrain has trained more than 100,000 executives worldwide including over 15,000 CEO Includes guidance for creating your own neuromarketing plan Advance your business or career by creating persuasive messages based on the working principle of the brain.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119440750
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 356
Book Description
The Persuasion Code Capture, convince, and close—scientifically Most of your attempts to persuade are doomed to fail because the brains of your audience automatically reject messages that disrupt their attention. This book makes the complex science of persuasion simple. Learn to develop better marketing and sales messages based on a scientific model; NeuroMapTM. Regardless of your level of expertise in marketing, neuromarketing, neuroscience or psychology: The Persuasion Code: How Neuromarketing Can Help You Persuade Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime will make your personal and business lives more successful by unveiling a credible and practical approach towards creating a breakthrough persuasion strategy. This book will satisfy your interest in neuromarketing, scientific persuasion, sales, advertising effectiveness, website conversion, marketing strategy and sales presentations. It’ll teach you the value of the award-winning persuasion model NeuroMapTM : the only model based on the science of how your customers use their brain to make any decision including a buying decision. You will appreciate why this scientific approach has helped hundreds of companies and thousands of executives achieve remarkable results. Written by the founders of SalesBrain who pioneered the field of neuromarketing SalesBrain has trained more than 100,000 executives worldwide including over 15,000 CEO Includes guidance for creating your own neuromarketing plan Advance your business or career by creating persuasive messages based on the working principle of the brain.
The Organization of the Cerebral Cortex
Author: Francis O. Schmitt
Publisher: Mit Press
ISBN: 9780262693066
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 614
Book Description
These published proceedings of a Neurosciences Research Program Colloquium do not deal exhaustively with particular cortical issues—rather, they convey the highlights of the topic, beginning with a series of presentations on the ontogenetic and morphogenetic development of the cerebral cortex followed by a systematic view of the remarkable explosion during the last decade of our knowledge of the cellular organization and connectively of the cortex. All of the topics in the book are put into perspective in an opening keynote by W. Maxwell Cowan. He there observes that theoretical constructs (or the lack of them) are the weakest aspect of neurobiology at the moment. Thus the book's final section (with contributions by three Nobel laureates—Francis Crick, Gerald Edelman, and Leon Cooper—among others) is a meaningful new effort toward redressing the balance.
Publisher: Mit Press
ISBN: 9780262693066
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 614
Book Description
These published proceedings of a Neurosciences Research Program Colloquium do not deal exhaustively with particular cortical issues—rather, they convey the highlights of the topic, beginning with a series of presentations on the ontogenetic and morphogenetic development of the cerebral cortex followed by a systematic view of the remarkable explosion during the last decade of our knowledge of the cellular organization and connectively of the cortex. All of the topics in the book are put into perspective in an opening keynote by W. Maxwell Cowan. He there observes that theoretical constructs (or the lack of them) are the weakest aspect of neurobiology at the moment. Thus the book's final section (with contributions by three Nobel laureates—Francis Crick, Gerald Edelman, and Leon Cooper—among others) is a meaningful new effort toward redressing the balance.
Imaging of the Brain
Author: Thomas P. Naidich, MD
Publisher: Elsevier Health Sciences
ISBN: 1416050094
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 1234
Book Description
Imaging of the Brain provides the advanced expertise you need to overcome the toughest diagnostic challenges in neuroradiology. Combining the rich visual guidance of an atlas with the comprehensive, in-depth coverage of a definitive reference, this significant new work in the Expert Radiology series covers every aspect of brain imaging, equipping you to make optimal use of the latest diagnostic modalities. Compare your clinical findings to more than 2,800 digital-quality images of both radiographic images and cutting edge modalities such as MR, multislice CT, ultrasonography, and nuclear medicine, including PET and PET/CT. Visualize relevant anatomy more easily thanks to full-color anatomic views throughout. Choose the most effective diagnostic options, with an emphasis on cost-effective imaging. Apply the expertise of a diverse group of world authorities from around the globe on imaging of the brain. Use this reference alongside Dr. Naidich's Imaging of the Spine for complementary coverage of all aspects of neuroimaging. Access the complete contents of Imaging of the Brain online and download all the images at www.expertconsult.com.
Publisher: Elsevier Health Sciences
ISBN: 1416050094
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 1234
Book Description
Imaging of the Brain provides the advanced expertise you need to overcome the toughest diagnostic challenges in neuroradiology. Combining the rich visual guidance of an atlas with the comprehensive, in-depth coverage of a definitive reference, this significant new work in the Expert Radiology series covers every aspect of brain imaging, equipping you to make optimal use of the latest diagnostic modalities. Compare your clinical findings to more than 2,800 digital-quality images of both radiographic images and cutting edge modalities such as MR, multislice CT, ultrasonography, and nuclear medicine, including PET and PET/CT. Visualize relevant anatomy more easily thanks to full-color anatomic views throughout. Choose the most effective diagnostic options, with an emphasis on cost-effective imaging. Apply the expertise of a diverse group of world authorities from around the globe on imaging of the brain. Use this reference alongside Dr. Naidich's Imaging of the Spine for complementary coverage of all aspects of neuroimaging. Access the complete contents of Imaging of the Brain online and download all the images at www.expertconsult.com.