Cortico-Hippocampal Interplay and the Representation of Contexts in the Brain


Book Description

1. 1 Contexts The principal issue with which this monograph deals is the role of the hippocam pus in establishing and using representations of contexts for information processing. However, before this issue can be addressed directly, it is necessary to ask "what is meant by the word 'context' ?". The first answer which comes to mind is likely to be something along the following lines: "A context is a framework (or background) of information with respect to whieh more specific 'items' ofinformation can be identified and manipulated". This answer may be correct, but it begs a fundamental question. Why should it be necessary to subdivide information into specific "items" of information, and the more global backgrounds, or frameworks? This question is especially pertinent if we are thinking of information representation in the brain, since neuroscientists (or at least the vast majority of them) believe that the basic way in whieh patterns of information are encoded in the brain is as combinations of connections, selected in a variety of ways. Since both "items" of information and "contexts" are just such patterns, apparently differing only in size, it is far from clear why there should be a categorical division between the two. ! This question is relatively new in the neurosciences. However, in a somewhat different guise it has been alive for a long time, since the publication ofImmanuel Kant's Critique 01 Pure Reason.




The Road from Authoritarianism to Democratization in Indonesia


Book Description

This book establishes that a tension exists between how we frame democratisation and the conclusions we arrive at. It demonstrates how and why interpreting ambiguity matters in the study of Indonesia's post-authoritarian settlement and highlights the need for dialogue with proponents of social conflict theory.




The Poetics of Slumberland


Book Description

In The Poetics of Slumberland, Scott Bukatman celebrates play, plasmatic possibility, and the life of images in cartoons, comics, and cinema. Bukatman begins with Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland to explore how and why the emerging media of comics and cartoons brilliantly captured a playful, rebellious energy characterized by hyperbolic emotion, physicality, and imagination. The book broadens to consider similar "animated" behaviors in seemingly disparate media—films about Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent van Gogh; the musical My Fair Lady and the story of Frankenstein; the slapstick comedies of Jerry Lewis; and contemporary comic superheroes—drawing them all together as the purveyors of embodied utopias of disorder.




The Reasoning Brain: The Interplay between Cognitive Neuroscience and Theories of Reasoning


Book Description

Despite the centrality of rationality to our identity as a species (let alone the scientific endeavour), and the fact that it has been studied for several millennia, the present state of our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying logical reasoning remains highly fragmented. For example, a recent review concluded that none of the extant (12!) theories provide an adequate account (Khemlani & Johnson- Laird, 2011), while other authors argue that we are on the brink of a paradigm change, where the old binary logic framework will be washed away and replaced by more modern (and correct) probabilistic and Bayesian approaches (see for example Elqayam & Over, 2012; Oaksford & Chater, 2009; Over, 2009). Over the past 15 years neuroscience brain imaging techniques and patient studies have been used to map out the functional neuroanatomy of reasoning processes. The aim of this research topic is to discuss whether this line of research has facilitated, hindered, or has been largely irrelevant for understanding of reasoning processes. The answer is neither obvious nor uncontroversial. We would like to engage both the cognitive and the neuroscience community in this discussion. Some of the questions of interest are: How have the data generated by the patient and neuroimaging studies: • influenced our thinking about modularity of deductive reasoning • impacted the debate between mental logic theory, mental model theory and the dual mechanism accounts • affected our thinking about dual mechanism theories • informed discussion of the relationship between induction and deduction • illuminated the relationship between language, visual spatial processing and reasoning • affected our thinking about the unity of deductive reasoning processes Have any of the cognitive theories of reasoning helped us explain deficits in certain patient populations? Do certain theories do a better job of this than others? Is there any value to localizing cognitive processes and identifying dissociations (for reasoning and other cognitive processes)? What challenges have neuroimaging data raised for cognitive theories of reasoning? How can cognitive theory inform interpretation of patient data or neuroimaging data? How can patient data or neuroimaging data best inform cognitive theory? This list of questions is not exhaustive. Manuscripts addressing other related questions are welcome. We are interested in hearing from skeptics, agnostics and believers, and welcome original research contributions as well as reviews, methods, hypothesis & theory papers that contribute to the discussion of the current state of our knowledge of how neuroscience is (or is not) helping us to deepen our understanding of the mechanisms underlying logical reasoning processes. References Elqayam, S., & Over, D. E. (2012). Probabilities, beliefs, and dual processing: the paradigm shift in the psychology of reasoning. Mind & Society, 11(1), 27–40. doi:10.1007/s11299-012-0102-4 Khemlani, S. S., & Johnson-Laird, P. N. (2011). Theories of the syllogism: A meta-analysis, (571). Oaksford, M., & Chater, N. (2009). Précis of bayesian rationality: The probabilistic approach to human reasoning. The Behavioral and brain sciences, 32(1), 69–84; discussion 85–120. doi:10.1017/S0140525X09000284 Over, D. E. (2009). New paradigm psychology of reasoning. Thinking & Reasoning, 15(4), 431–438. doi:10.1080/13546780903266188




Evaluating Theory-Practice and Urban-Rural Interplay in Planning


Book Description

This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the second workshop on Evaluation and Planning held at Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Mediterraneennes (CIHEAM) in Valenzano (Bari) in November 1993. The workshop was financially and otherwise supported by the School of Engineering, Bari Polytechnic; the School of Agriculture, University of Bari; and CIHEAM. The publication of this book was made possible by to the efforts of the contributing authors. Several other persons have provided invaluable support for the workshop or the preparation of this volume. One of these is Patsy Healey for her fascinating challenge to Andreas Faludi's most recent arguments about rational planning theory. Another is John Friedmann whose lecture at the workshop presented world future scenarios depicting interaction between economic growth, social justice and ecological balance. Angela Barbanente provided marvelous support in organizing the workshop and editorial advice in the preparation of this volume. Jeremy Franks carefully improved the English and the clarity of all the papers. Carmelo Torre made a final editing of texts and images. We owe thanks to Maurizio Raeli for providing all the support services during the workshop and Claudia Baublys for her excellent help with various administrative issues with regard to the workshop and publication of this book. This book is dedicated to the memory of Professor Giovanni Grittani, Professor of Land Economics, University of Bari.




Ambiguous Transitions


Book Description

Focusing on youth, family, work, and consumption, Ambiguous Transitions analyzes the interplay between gender and citizenship postwar Romania. By juxtaposing official sources with oral histories and socialist policies with everyday practices, Jill Massino illuminates the gendered dimensions of socialist modernization and its complex effects on women’s roles, relationships, and identities. Analyzing women as subjects and agents, the book examines how they negotiated the challenges that arose as Romanian society modernized, even as it clung to traditional ideas about gender. Massino concludes by exploring the ambiguities of postsocialism, highlighting how the legacies of the past have shaped politics and women’s lived experiences since 1989.




About Star Architecture


Book Description

Cities across the world have been resorting to star architects to brand their projects, spark urban regeneration and market the city image internationally. This book shifts the attention from star architects to star architecture, arguing that the process of deciding about and implementing relevant architectural and urban projects is not the product of any single actor. Star architecture can, in fact, be better studied and understood as assembled by multiple actors and in its relationship with urban transformation. In its 18 chapters, the book presents a multidisciplinary collection of expert contributions in the fields of urban planning, architecture, media studies, urban economics, geography, and sociology, consistently brought together for the first time to deal with this topic. Through a vast array of case studies and analytical techniques touching over 20 cities in Europe, the book shows the positive and more problematic impacts of star architecture with reference to the preservation of built heritage, tourism and media. The book will be of interest to architects, sociologists, urban planners, and public administrators.




Modeling the Interplay Between Human Behavior and the Spread of Infectious Diseases


Book Description

This volume summarizes the state-of-the-art in the fast growing research area of modeling the influence of information-driven human behavior on the spread and control of infectious diseases. In particular, it features the two main and inter-related “core” topics: behavioral changes in response to global threats, for example, pandemic influenza, and the pseudo-rational opposition to vaccines. In order to make realistic predictions, modelers need to go beyond classical mathematical epidemiology to take these dynamic effects into account. With contributions from experts in this field, the book fills a void in the literature. It goes beyond classical texts, yet preserves the rationale of many of them by sticking to the underlying biology without compromising on scientific rigor. Epidemiologists, theoretical biologists, biophysicists, applied mathematicians, and PhD students will benefit from this book. However, it is also written for Public Health professionals interested in understanding models, and to advanced undergraduate students, since it only requires a working knowledge of mathematical epidemiology.




The Visible and the Invisible in the Interplay between Philosophy, Literature and Reality


Book Description

Merleau-Ponty's categories of the visible and the invisible are investigated afresh and with originality in this penetrating collection of literary and philosophical inquiries. Going beyond the traditional and current references to the mental and the sensory, mind and body, perceptual content and the abstract ideas conveyed in language, etc., these studies range from the `hidden spheres of reality', to the play of the visible and the invisible left as traces in works of human genius, the origins of intellect and language, the real and the imaginary in literature, and the `hidden realities' in the philosophy of the everyday world. These literary and philosophical probings collectively reveal the role of this disjoined/conjoined pairing in the ontopoietic establishment of reality, that is, in the manifestation of the logos of life. In tandem they bring to light the hidden play of the visible and the invisible in the emergence of our vital, societal, intimate, intellectual, and creative involvements.