Download or read book Neither Animals Nor Decisions are Interchangeable written by Drew Schreiner and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Decisions are not made in isolation. Rather, they rely on internal states, contextual, temporal, and historical information. This subjective experience is a powerful driver of behavior and the associated neural mechanisms. However, most neurobiological investigations of decision-making ignore the impact of subjective experience and instead focus on constraining tasks (cues, trials) to isolate specific variables (choice, accuracy). By ignoring subjective experience and averaging across subjects and decisions, we may be left with an incomplete or inaccurate picture of the brain-behavior relationship. In this dissertation, I took a dual-pronged approach using relatively unconstrained tasks to investigate how subjective experience affects both behavior and the brain, with a focus on rodent premotor cortex (M2), as prior work has suggested that M2 is poised to be sensitive to this information. Chapter 1 explored how individual variation during learning affected decisions about when to explore versus exploit. Results suggested that individual experience with a rule strengthened exploitation of that rule, with projections from orbital frontal cortex to M2 necessary for this experience-based exploitation. Chapter 2 investigated what aspects of subjective experience were used to guide a self-paced, self-generated behavior. Mice used diverse sources of information beyond just prior actions and reward, including the passage of time and information-checking to guide decision-making. M2 integrated these information sources to bias strategy-level decision-making, while its projections into dorsal medial striatum (M2-DMS) were specifically necessary to implement a recent experience-based strategy. Chapter 3 explored how premotor function and sensitivity to subjective experience were affected by psychiatric disease. Prior chronic alcohol impaired behavioral flexibility, and this was causally linked to the induction of hyperactivity of M2-DMS neurons, suggesting human premotor regions as novel therapeutic targets for alcohol use disorder. These studies show that diverse aspects of subjective experience powerfully drive behavior and its neural representation. They implicate premotor circuits in integrating subjective experience to drive flexible behavior, a role which may be disrupted in psychiatric disease. This suggests that attempts to ignore or factor out subjective experience may be misguided; whether we take account of it or not, it likely will affect the brain and behavior.
Download or read book The Border Between Seeing and Thinking written by Ned Block and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-02-16 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "What is the difference between seeing and thinking? Is the border between seeing and thinking a joint in nature in the sense of a fundamental explanatory difference? Is it a difference of degree? Does thinking affect seeing, i.e. is seeing "cognitively penetrable"? Are we aware of faces, causation, numerosity and other "high-level" properties or only of the colors, shapes and textures that-according to the advocate of high level perception--are the basis on which we see them? Is perception conceptual and propositional? Is perception iconic or more akin to language in being discursive? Is seeing singular? Which is more fundamental, visual attribution or visual discrimination? Is all seeing seeing-as? What is the difference between the format and content of perception and do perception and cognition have different formats? Is perception probabilistic and if so, why are we not normally aware of this probabilistic nature of perception? Are the basic features of mind known as "core cognition" a third category in between perception and cognition? Are there perceptual categories that are not concepts? Where does consciousness fit in with regard to the difference between seeing and thinking? Do the lessons from seeing apply to other senses? These are the questions I will be exploring in this book. I will be exploring them not mainly by appeals to "intuitions" as is common in philosophy of perception but by appeal to empirical evidence, including experiments in neuroscience and psychology"--
Download or read book After Herder written by Michael N. Forster and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-07 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Forster explores the tradition of the study of language in German philosophy. He also makes the case that the most important thinker within that tradition was J.G. Herder.
Download or read book The Machine Question written by David J. Gunkel and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-07-13 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An investigation into the assignment of moral responsibilities and rights to intelligent and autonomous machines of our own making. One of the enduring concerns of moral philosophy is deciding who or what is deserving of ethical consideration. Much recent attention has been devoted to the "animal question"—consideration of the moral status of nonhuman animals. In this book, David Gunkel takes up the "machine question": whether and to what extent intelligent and autonomous machines of our own making can be considered to have legitimate moral responsibilities and any legitimate claim to moral consideration. The machine question poses a fundamental challenge to moral thinking, questioning the traditional philosophical conceptualization of technology as a tool or instrument to be used by human agents. Gunkel begins by addressing the question of machine moral agency: whether a machine might be considered a legitimate moral agent that could be held responsible for decisions and actions. He then approaches the machine question from the other side, considering whether a machine might be a moral patient due legitimate moral consideration. Finally, Gunkel considers some recent innovations in moral philosophy and critical theory that complicate the machine question, deconstructing the binary agent–patient opposition itself. Technological advances may prompt us to wonder if the science fiction of computers and robots whose actions affect their human companions (think of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey) could become science fact. Gunkel's argument promises to influence future considerations of ethics, ourselves, and the other entities who inhabit this world.
Download or read book Nature written by Sir Norman Lockyer and published by . This book was released on 1917 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception written by James J. Gibson and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2014-11-20 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, first published in 1979, is about how we see: the environment around us (its surfaces, their layout, and their colors and textures); where we are in the environment; whether or not we are moving and, if we are, where we are going; what things are good for; how to do things (to thread a needle or drive an automobile); or why things look as they do. The basic assumption is that vision depends on the eye which is connected to the brain. The author suggests that natural vision depends on the eyes in the head on a body supported by the ground, the brain being only the central organ of a complete visual system. When no constraints are put on the visual system, people look around, walk up to something interesting and move around it so as to see it from all sides, and go from one vista to another. That is natural vision -- and what this book is about.
Download or read book The American Farmer s Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1852 with total page 782 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Philosophical Papers and Letters written by G.W. Leibniz and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 743 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The selections contained in these volumes from the papers and letters of Leibniz are intended to serve the student in two ways: first, by providing a more adequate and balanced conception of the full range and penetration of Leibniz's creative intellectual powers; second, by inviting a fresher approach to his intellectual growth and a clearer perception of the internal strains in his thinking, through a chronological arrangement. Much confusion has arisen in the past through a neglect of the develop ment of Leibniz's ideas, and Couturat's impressive plea, in his edition of the Opuscu/es et fragments (p. xii), for such an arrangement is valid even for incomplete editions. The beginning student will do well, however, to read the maturer writings of Parts II, III, and IV first, leaving Part I, from a period too largely neglected by Leibniz criticism, for a later study of the still obscure sources and motives of his thought. The Introduction aims primarily to provide cultural orientation and an exposition of the structure and the underlying assumptions of the philosophical system rather than a critical evaluation. I hope that together with the notes and the Index, it will provide those aids to the understanding which the originality of Leibniz's scientific, ethical, and metaphysical efforts deserve.
Download or read book Commentaries on the Law of Evidence in Civil Cases written by Burr W. Jones and published by . This book was released on 1926 with total page 936 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Rabies written by Alan C. Jackson and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2010-07-26 with total page 681 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rabies is the most current and comprehensive account of one of the oldest diseases known that remains a significant public health threat despite the efforts of many who have endeavored to control it in wildlife and domestic animals. During the past five years since publication of the first edition there have been new developments in many areas on the rabies landscape. This edition takes on a more global perspective with many new authors offering fresh outlooks on each topic. Clinical features of rabies in humans and animals are discussed as well as basic science aspects, molecular biology, pathology, and pathogenesis of this disease. Current methods used in defining geographic origins and animal species infected in wildlife are presented, along with diagnostic methods for identifying the strain of virus based on its genomic sequence and antigenic structure. This multidisciplinary account is essential for clinicians as well as public health advisors, epidemiologists, wildlife biologists, and research scientists wanting to know more about the virus and the disease it causes. Offers a unique global perspective on rabies where dog rabies is responsible for killing more people than yellow More than 7 million people are potentially exposed to the virus annually and about 50,000 people, half of them children, die of rabies each year New edition includes greatly expanded coverage of bat rabies which is now the most prominent source of human rabies in the New World and Western Europe, where dog rabies has been controlled Recent successes of controlling wildlife rabies with an emphasis on prevention is discussed Approximately 40% updated material incorporates recent knowledge on new approaches to therapy of human rabies as well as issues involving organ and tissue transplantation Includes an increase in illustrations to more accurately represent this diseases’ unique horror
Download or read book Index digest analysis of Decisions Under the Interstate Commerce Commission Act written by United States. Interstate Commerce Commission and published by . This book was released on 1936 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Plough the Loom and the Anvil written by and published by . This book was released on 1852 with total page 788 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book At the Desert s Green Edge written by Amadeo M. Rea and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2016-06 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Society for Economic Botany's Klinger Book Award, this is the first complete ethnobotany of the Gila River Pima, presented from the perspective of the Pimas themselves.
Download or read book Caring written by Nel Noddings and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2013-09-14 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With numerous examples to supplement her rich theoretical discussion, Nel Noddings builds a compelling philosophical argument for an ethics based on natural caring, as in the care of a mother for her child. In Caring—now updated with a new preface and afterword reflecting on the ongoing relevance of the subject matter—the author provides a wide-ranging consideration of whether organizations, which operate at a remove from the caring relationship, can truly be called ethical. She discusses the extent to which we may truly care for plants, animals, or ideas. Finally, she proposes a realignment of education to encourage and reward not just rationality and trained intelligence, but also enhanced sensitivity in moral matters.
Download or read book Psittacosis Surveillance written by Center for Disease Control and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Purpose in the Universe written by Tim Mulgan and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-10-22 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two familiar worldviews dominate Western philosophy: materialist atheism and the benevolent God of the Abrahamic faiths. Tim Mulgan explores a third way. Ananthropocentric Purposivism claims that there is a cosmic purpose, but human beings are irrelevant to it. Purpose in the Universe develops a philosophical case for Ananthropocentric Purposivism that it is at least as strong as the case for either theism or atheism. The book borrows traditional theist arguments to defend a cosmic purpose. These include cosmological, teleological, ontological, meta-ethical, and mystical arguments. It then borrows traditional atheist arguments to reject a human-centred purpose. These include arguments based on evil, diversity, and the scale of the universe. Mulgan also highlights connections between morality and metaphysics, arguing that evaluative premises play a crucial and underappreciated role in metaphysical debates about the existence of God, and Ananthropocentric Purposivism mutually supports an austere consequentialist morality based on objective values. He concludes that, by drawing on a range of secular and religious ethical traditions, a non-human-centred cosmic purpose can ground a distinctive human morality. Our moral practices, our view of the moral universe, and our moral theory are all transformed if we shift from the familiar choice between a universe without meaning and a universe where humans matter to the less self-aggrandising thought that, while it is about something, the universe is not about us.
Download or read book Cancer Risk Assessment written by Ching-Hung Hsu and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-12-08 with total page 727 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a weight-of-the-evidence approach, cancer risk assessment indentifies hazards, determines dose-response relationships, and assesses exposure to characterize the true risk. This book focuses on the quantitative methods for conducting chemical cancer risk assessments for solvents, metals, mixtures, and nanoparticles. It links these to the basic toxicology and biology of cancer, along with the impacts on regulatory guidelines and standards. By providing insightful perspective, Cancer Risk Assessment helps researchers develop a discriminate eye when it comes to interpreting data accurately and separating relevant information from erroneous.
