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Category: cognition

The origins and evolutionary effects of consciousness

The origins and evolutionary effects of consciousness

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From the Evolution Institute. “How consciousness evolved and how consciousness has come to affect evolutionary processes are related issues. This is because biological consciousness–the only form of consciousness of which we are aware–is entailed by a particular, fairly sophisticated form of animal cognition, an open-ended ability to learn by association or, as we call it, ‘unlimited associative learning’ (UAL). Animals with UAL can assign value to novel, composite stimuli and action-sequences, remember them, and use what has been learned for…

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Neuroscience: Deep breathing changes your brain

Neuroscience: Deep breathing changes your brain

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Humans have some intentional control over our brains (and minds and bodies) and focused breathing is one of those control mechanisms. “This recent study finally answers these questions by showing that volitionally controlling our respirational, even merely focusing on one’s breathing, yield additional access and synchrony between brain areas. This understanding may lead to greater control, focus, calmness, and emotional control.”

Ultrasound stimulation to improve brain function

Ultrasound stimulation to improve brain function

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Earlier this year I attended a presentation by Dr. Jay Sanguinetti, UNM, on using ultrasound stimulation of the brain to improve factors related to attention and clear thinking. His team published an article recently in Frontiers in Neurology describing their research.

New free e-books from Frontiers in Science

New free e-books from Frontiers in Science

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See the selection here. Frontiers is a pioneer in open access science publishing. Of possible interest to this forum: What Is the Role for Effective Pedagogy In Contemporary Higher Education? Reaching to Grasp Cognition: Analyzing Motor Behavior to Investigate Social Interactions Neural Computation in Embodied Closed-Loop Systems for the Generation of Complex Behavior: From Biology to Technology Cellular Therapies: Past, Present and Future Software Architectures for Humanoid Robotics

Neuroscience on intentional breathing

Neuroscience on intentional breathing

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From this piece: “This recent study finally answers these questions by showing that volitionally controlling our respiration, even merely focusing on one’s breathing, yield additional access and synchrony between brain areas. This understanding may lead to greater control, focus, calmness, and emotional control.”

Recontextualizing decenterd cognition

Recontextualizing decenterd cognition

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New issue of Contructivist Foundations on e-cognition. E.g.: “Such considerations motivate the need to re-think our understanding of how the brain itself works. They suggest that the best explanation of brain function may be found in the mixed vocabularies of embodied and situated cognition, developmental psychology, ecological psychology, dynamic systems theory, applied linguistics, the theory of affordances and material engagement, rather than the narrow vocabulary of computational neuroscience.”

The science of storytelling

The science of storytelling

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“Sometimes a good idea isn’t enough to drive social change; more important is how you communicate that idea. This is where “issue framing” comes in. In his talk, Nat Kendall-Taylor, PhD, breaks down the science of framing for philanthropy and nonprofit communications. He explores how people think about social issues and how advocates, experts, and strategic communications professionals can use an understanding of culture, storytelling, and science to communicate about social and scientific issues, shape policy, and lead change. “Dr….

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What are numbers, really?

What are numbers, really?

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The nature of math came up in our embodied cognition discussion. Here is a presentation by Dehaene on the topic followed by comments from The Reality Club: George Lakoff, Marc Hauser, Jaron Lanier, Rafael Núñez, Margaret Wertheim, Howard Gardner, Joseph Traub, Steven Pinker, Charles Simonyi. A few brief, edited Lakoff excerpts follow from that discussion. Note that this is a discussion from 1997, so a lot of confirming science has happened since then. ” [Dehaene] has made it clear that…

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Informative neuroscience presentations at NYU Center for Mind, Brain & Consciousness

Informative neuroscience presentations at NYU Center for Mind, Brain & Consciousness

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The NYU Center for Mind, Brain & Consciousness hosts presentations, including topical debates among leading neuroscience researchers. Many of the sessions are recorded for later viewing. The upcoming debate among Joseph LeDoux (Center for Neural Science, NYU), Yaïr Pinto (Psychology, University of Amsterdam), and Elizabeth Schechter (Philosophy, Washington University in St. Louis), will tackle the question, “Do Split-brain patients have two minds?” Previous topics addressed animal consciousness, hierarchical predictive coding and perception, AI ‘machinery,’ AI ethics, unconscious perception, research replication issues,…

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Neurofeedback as a tool to modulate cognition and behavior

Neurofeedback as a tool to modulate cognition and behavior

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Article here from Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2017, 11:51.  The abstract (note my italicized highlighting): “Neurofeedback is attracting renewed interest as a method to self-regulate one’s own brain activity to directly alter the underlying neural mechanisms of cognition and behavior. It not only promises new avenues as a method for cognitive enhancement in healthy subjects, but also as a therapeutic tool. In the current article, we present a review tutorial discussing key aspects relevant to the development of electroencephalography (EEG)…

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