Download or read book Mirrors in the Brain written by Giacomo Rizzolatti and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2008 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When we witness a great actor, musician, or sportsperson performing, we share something of their experience. It become clear just how this sharing of experience is realised within the human brain. This text provides an accessible overview of mirror neurons, written by the man who first discovered them.
Download or read book The Mirror and the Mind written by Katja Guenther and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2024-11-26 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the classic mirror test served as a portal for scientists to explore questions of self-awareness Since the late eighteenth century, scientists have placed subjects—humans, infants, animals, and robots—in front of mirrors in order to look for signs of self-recognition. Mirrors served as the possible means for answering the question: What makes us human? In The Mirror and the Mind, Katja Guenther traces the history of the mirror self-recognition test, exploring how researchers from a range of disciplines—psychoanalysis, psychiatry, developmental and animal psychology, cybernetics, anthropology, and neuroscience—came to read the peculiar behaviors elicited by mirrors. Investigating the ways mirrors could lead to both identification and misidentification, Guenther looks at how such experiments ultimately failed to determine human specificity. The mirror test was thrust into the limelight when Charles Darwin challenged the idea that language sets humans apart. Thereafter the mirror, previously a recurrent if marginal scientific tool, became dominant in attempts to demarcate humans from other animals. But because researchers could not rely on language to determine what their nonspeaking subjects were experiencing, they had to come up with significant innovations, including notation strategies, testing protocols, and the linking of scientific theories across disciplines. From the robotic tortoises of Grey Walter and the mark test of Beulah Amsterdam and Gordon Gallup, to anorexia research and mirror neurons, the mirror test offers a window into the emergence of such fields as biology, psychology, psychiatry, animal studies, cognitive science, and neuroscience. The Mirror and the Mind offers an intriguing history of experiments in self-awareness and the advancements of the human sciences across more than a century.
Download or read book Your Dog Is Your Mirror written by Kevin Behan and published by New World Library. This book was released on 2012 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes a model for understanding canine behavior based on the premise that dog and owner form a group mind and that when a dog behaves in a certain manner it is reacting to the emotions the owner is feeling.
Download or read book Jasper Johns written by Carlos Basualdo and published by Whitney Museum of American Art. This book was released on 2021 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This lavishly illustrated retrospective of Jasper Johns's work offers a new perspective on the artist's work based on his own enduring fascination with mirroring and doubles"--
Download or read book The High Performance Mind written by Anna Wise and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1997-01-27 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Her purpose here is to discuss and illustrate the four types of brain waves—beta, alpha, theta, and delta—with emphasis on what they do, how they work together, and whether we can use their power."—Booklist.
Download or read book The Mirror of Yoga written by Richard Freeman and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2010-09-14 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world of yoga is astonishingly rich in its array of schools and practices. Yet, as diverse as they seem, they share a common aim: the discovery of the essence of existence that can be found at the core of our being, and the liberation that comes from that discovery. With this worthy goal in mind, Richard Freeman presents an enlightening overview of the many teachings, practices, and scriptures that serve as the basis for all the schools of yoga—hatha, bhakti, jnana, karma, tantra, and others. He shows how the myriad forms are ultimately related, and can even be perceived to make up a vast, interpenetrating matrix, symbolizing the unity, profundity, and beauty of the ancient tradition. Richard's wide-ranging discussion includes the Upanisads and Samkhya philosophies, the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, the eight limbs of astanga yoga, the process and purpose of hatha yoga, and much more. He also explores the role of the guru, chanting, meditation, and the yogic imperative of offering service to others. All of this is applied to the actual practice, giving the reader the tools to digest and apply the wealth of information to daily life. The Mirror of Yoga will be a welcome resource to all yogis who wish to better practice the profound philosophy underlying their practice.
Download or read book The Myth of Mirror Neurons The Real Neuroscience of Communication and Cognition written by Gregory Hickok and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2014-08-18 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential reconsideration of one of the most far-reaching theories in modern neuroscience and psychology. In 1992, a group of neuroscientists from Parma, Italy, reported a new class of brain cells discovered in the motor cortex of the macaque monkey. These cells, later dubbed mirror neurons, responded equally well during the monkey’s own motor actions, such as grabbing an object, and while the monkey watched someone else perform similar motor actions. Researchers speculated that the neurons allowed the monkey to understand others by simulating their actions in its own brain. Mirror neurons soon jumped species and took human neuroscience and psychology by storm. In the late 1990s theorists showed how the cells provided an elegantly simple new way to explain the evolution of language, the development of human empathy, and the neural foundation of autism. In the years that followed, a stream of scientific studies implicated mirror neurons in everything from schizophrenia and drug abuse to sexual orientation and contagious yawning. In The Myth of Mirror Neurons, neuroscientist Gregory Hickok reexamines the mirror neuron story and finds that it is built on a tenuous foundation—a pair of codependent assumptions about mirror neuron activity and human understanding. Drawing on a broad range of observations from work on animal behavior, modern neuroimaging, neurological disorders, and more, Hickok argues that the foundational assumptions fall flat in light of the facts. He then explores alternative explanations of mirror neuron function while illuminating crucial questions about human cognition and brain function: Why do humans imitate so prodigiously? How different are the left and right hemispheres of the brain? Why do we have two visual systems? Do we need to be able to talk to understand speech? What’s going wrong in autism? Can humans read minds? The Myth of Mirror Neurons not only delivers an instructive tale about the course of scientific progress—from discovery to theory to revision—but also provides deep insights into the organization and function of the human brain and the nature of communication and cognition.
Download or read book Surfaces and Essences written by Douglas Hofstadter and published by Basic Books (AZ). This book was released on 2013-04-23 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shows how analogy-making pervades human thought at all levels, influencing the choice of words and phrases in speech, providing guidance in unfamiliar situations, and giving rise to great acts of imagination.
Download or read book Nature as Mirror written by Stephanie Sorrell and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2011 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Basing our psychospiritual development on the model of the tree a symbol of the continuity of life Stephanie Sorrell shows how we may understand the rhythms and cycles of the tree and integrate them into our vision in a conscious way.
Download or read book The Awakened Mind written by Cecil Maxwell Cade and published by Element Books, Limited. This book was released on 1989 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shows how biofeedback is matte more effective when combined with meditation through relevant exercises, skills, and sensory sequences.
Download or read book Mirror Meditation written by Tara Well and published by New Harbinger Publications. This book was released on 2022-06-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the power of mirror meditation to help you awaken self-compassion, increase self-awareness, and gain the confidence needed to thrive. Seeing ourselves clearly isn’t always easy—especially in the age of social media. Technology has eroded our capacity for authentic self-reflection. As a result, we feel more anxious and depressed, have shorter attention spans, and have become more estranged from ourselves and each other. We’ve also become more critical of our physical appearance, and this self-criticism can damage our confidence and stand in the way of our happiness. In order to heal, we must come face to face with our true selves—not the images of ourselves that we alter and post online. If you're ready for self-reflection that has nothing to do with selfies, this book will reveal the way. Based in cutting-edge neuroscience, Mirror Meditation offers mindful practices for increasing your self-awareness, managing stress and emotions, developing self-compassion, and increasing your confidence and personal presence. Using the three principles of mindfulness meditation—attention to the present moment, open awareness, and kind intention toward oneself—you’ll realize just how much your self-criticisms are affecting you. Then you’ll have a choice—and a practice—to treat yourself with more self-acceptance. Self-awareness can help you break free from both your inner critic and the external world that stokes the fears and anxieties that we are never good enough, never have enough, and are never safe enough. The simple self-mirroring technique in this unique guide isn’t grounded in technology—just a commitment to be present with yourself.
Download or read book The Mind s Mirror written by Kari Hohne and published by Way of Tao Books. This book was released on 2009-05-13 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tap the wisdom of your dreams to discover how dreams guide you toward success and fulfillment in this comprehensive dream dictionary. Kari Hohne, popular radio dream analyst, shares her 30 years of experience in this newly revised and updated edition. You spend one third of your life exploring who you are in the topsy turvy world of dreams and symbols. As if you have entered a world of mirrors, nothing is as it appears to be and all you encounter becomes a reflection of you. When you are lost, dreams reveal the way through crisis as if some aspect of your mind knows you better than you know yourself. Filled with the symbolic treasures that can offer insight into your real identity, this Dream Dictionary and Translation Guide allows you to retrace your steps into you nightly adventures to discover how dreams actively lead you to fulfill your destiny.
Download or read book Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature written by Richard Rorty and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 1980 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Christian Mysticism East and West written by Maria Jaoudi and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores themes of transformation, wholeness, and healing as presented by both Eastern and Western mystics, and how their ideas parallel the global insights found in Hinduism, Taoism, Islam, and Buddhism.
Download or read book The Mirror of the World written by Christopher Peacocke and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014-02 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christopher Peacocke presents a new theory of subjects of consciousness, together with a theory of the nature of first person representation. He identifies three sorts of self-consciousness—perspectival, reflective, and interpersonal—and argues that they are key to explaining features of our knowledge, social relations, and emotional lives.
Download or read book Mirror Touch written by Joel Salinas and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-04-18 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenging our understanding of what it means to be human, Joel Salinas, a Harvard-trained researcher and neurologist at Massachusetts General, shares his experiences with mirror-touch synesthesia, a rare and only recently identified neurological trait that causes him to feel the emotional and physical experiences of other people. Performing a spinal tap, he feels the needle slowly enter his lower back. If a disoriented patient flies into a confused rage, Salinas slips into a similarly agitated physical state, and when a patient dies, he experiences an involuntary ruin—his body starts to feel vacant and lifeless, like a limp balloon. Susceptible to the pain and discomfort of his patients, most of whom suffer from a host of disorders and extreme injuries, Salinas uses his trait to treat their symptoms, almost as if they were his own. At the same time, in his personal life, his mirror touch blurs the boundaries between himself and those close to him until he ends up inextricably entangled, no longer able to differentiate where he ends and someone else begins. Salinas refers to his condition as a kind of compulsory mindfulness, a heightened empathic ability that offers him invaluable clues about how to see and live the world through other people’s perspectives. This heightened sense of awareness is at the center of Mirror Touch. Through his experiences, both in his neurological practice and his personal life, Salinas offers readers insights about mirror-touch synesthesia and how the brain, in its endless wonder, can sometimes perform in a nearly superhuman, extrasensory way. In the process, Salinas reveals the full power and potential of his trait, as well as its thorny complications and often debilitating limitations. Beautifully written with intelligence and compassion and anchored by the latest developments in neurology, psychology, and psychiatry, Mirror Touch is an enthralling and wholly original investigation into the unexplored corners of the brain, where the foundation of human experience and relationships take root—everything it means to think, to feel, and to be.
Download or read book Mirrors in Mind written by Richard Langton Gregory and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997-01 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a look at the important roles mirrors have played in science, history, and art
