Author: Agustín González Publisher: Frontiers E-books ISBN: 2889193063 Category : Brain Languages : en Pages : 267
Book Description
The brain of each animal shows specific traits that reflect its phylogenetic history and its particular lifestyle. Therefore, comparing brains is not just a mere intellectual exercise, but it helps understanding how the brain allows adaptive behavioural strategies to face an ever-changing world and how this complex organ has evolved during phylogeny, giving rise to complex mental processes in humans and other animals. These questions attracted scientists since the times of Santiago Ramon y Cajal one of the founders of comparative neurobiology. In the last decade, this discipline has undergone a true revolution due to the analysis of expression patterns of morphogenetic genes in embryos of different animals. The papers of this e-book are good examples of modern comparative neurobiology, which mainly focuses on the following four Grand Questions: a) How are different brains built during ontogeny? b) What is the anatomical organization of mature brains and how can they be compared? c) How do brains work to accomplish their function of ensuring survival and, ultimately, reproductive success? d) How have brains evolved during phylogeny? The title of this e-book, Adaptive Function and Brain Evolution, stresses the importance of comparative studies to understand brain function and, the reverse, of considering brain function to properly understand brain evolution. These issues should be taken into account when using animals in the research of mental function and dysfunction, and are fundamental to understand the origins of the human mind.
Author: National Research Council Publisher: National Academies Press ISBN: 0309069882 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 610
Book Description
How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.
Author: National Academy of Sciences Publisher: ISBN: Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 388
Book Description
The Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia of the National Academy of Sciences address scientific topics of broad and current interest, cutting across the boundaries of traditional disciplines. Each year, four or five such colloquia are scheduled, typically two days in length and international in scope. Colloquia are organized by a member of the Academy, often with the assistance of an organizing committee, and feature presentations by leading scientists in the field and discussions with a hundred or more researchers with an interest in the topic. Colloquia presentations are recorded and posted on the National Academy of Sciences Sackler colloquia website and published on CD-ROM. These Colloquia are made possible by a generous gift from Mrs. Jill Sackler, in memory of her husband, Arthur M. Sackler.
Author: Francisco Aboitiz Publisher: Frontiers Media SA ISBN: 2889455572 Category : Languages : en Pages : 133
Book Description
The nervous system is the product of biological evolution and is shaped by the interplay between extrinsic factors determining the ecology of animals, and by intrinsic processes that dictate the developmental rules that give rise to adult functional structures. This special topic is oriented to develop an integrative view from behavior and ecology to neurodevelopmental processes. We address questions such as how do sensory systems evolve according to ecological conditions? How do neural networks organize to generate adaptive behavior? How does cognition and brain connectivity evolve? What are the developmental mechanisms that give rise to functional adaptation? Accordingly, the book is divided in three sections, (i) Evolution of sensorimotor systems; (ii) Cognitive computations and neural circuits, and (iii) Development and brain evolution. We hope that this initiative will support an interdisciplinary program that addresses the nervous system as a unified organ, subject to both functional and developmental constraints, where the final outcome results of a compromise between different parameters rather than being the result of several single variables acting independently of each other.
Author: Rolf W. Frohlich Publisher: Xlibris Corporation ISBN: 1413409547 Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 443
Book Description
Human nature holds the intelligence of life. It provides a psychology that is much stronger, more effective and more reliable than the psychology society teaches us. This psychology taps into the evolutionary survival experience of our species, which occupied most of human history. It was the period when the species evolved and our ancestor survived as a hunter and gatherer. More than 99% of human history is encoded in the DNA of our genes and lastingly etched into the human psyche. Our natural psychology, the human psyche, is the result of evolutionary adaptation. The psyche provides the genetic capacity for behavioral, mental and spiritual adaptation. It supports the gratification of our needs. And it contains the blueprint of human life. The book is about human nature and human survival. Human nature, that is, the human psyche, has survival value. The book introduces a metapsychology that refers to the Jungian archetypes and the survival capabilities inherent in the psyche. Like all living organisms and forms of life, we possess an innate capacity for survival. By awakening this evolutionary intelligence, we gain access to the primordial power and wisdom of the archetypal psyche. This innate psychology transcends the cultural conditioning that has shaped us all and erects an entirely different reference system making us look at life in a new way. We live in a world that reflects human nature and we are well equipped to survive in it. Beyond that, there is also something in us that resonates with a larger context. Our psychological constitution relates us to the outer realities of nature and cosmos. It is in this sense that we partake in the evolution of life on this planet and in the larger design of a cosmic universe. This primary psyche is shared by all humanity as part of a common biological and psychological history.
Author: Stephen Cunnane Publisher: John Wiley & Sons ISBN: 9780470609873 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 232
Book Description
The evolution of the human brain and cognitive ability is one of the central themes of physical/biological anthropology. This book discusses the emergence of human cognition at a conceptual level, describing it as a process of long adaptive stasis interrupted by short periods of cognitive advance. These advances were not linear and directed, but were acquired indirectly as part of changing human behaviors, in other words through the process of exaptation (acquisition of a function for which it was not originally selected). Based on studies of the modem human brain, certain prerequisites were needed for the development of the early brain and associated cognitive advances. This book documents the energy and nutrient constraints of the modern brain, highlighting the significant role of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) in brain development and maintenance. Crawford provides further emphasis for the role of essential fatty acids, in particular DHA, in brain development, by discussing the evolution of the eye and neural systems. This is an ideal book for Graduate students, post docs, research scientists in Physical/Biological Anthropology, Human Biology, Archaeology, Nutrition, Cognitive Science, Neurosciences. It is also an excellent selection for a grad student discussion seminar.
Author: Harry Jerison Publisher: Elsevier ISBN: 0323141080 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 497
Book Description
Evolution of the Brain and Intelligence covers the general principles of behavior and brain function. The book is divided into four parts encompassing 17 chapters that emphasize the implications of the history of the brain for the evolution of behavior in vertebrates. The introductory chapter covers the studies of animal behavior and their implications about the nature of the animal's world. The following chapters emphasize methodological issues and the meanings of brain indices and brain size, as well as the general anatomy of the brain. Other chapters discuss the history of the brain in the major vertebrate groups that were known about 300 million years ago to determine the fate of these early vertebrate groups. Discussions on broad trends in evolution and their implications for the evolution of intelligence are also included. Substantive matter on the brains, bodies, and associated mechanisms of behavior of vertebrates are covered in the remaining chapters of the book, with an emphasis on evolution "above the species level. This book is of value to anthropologists, behavioral scientists, zoologists, paleontologists, and neurosciences students.
Author: Jay A. Gottfried Publisher: CRC Press ISBN: 142006729X Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 458
Book Description
Synthesizing coverage of sensation and reward into a comprehensive systems overview, Neurobiology of Sensation and Reward presents a cutting-edge and multidisciplinary approach to the interplay of sensory and reward processing in the brain. While over the past 70 years these areas have drifted apart, this book makes a case for reuniting sensation a
Author: Robert Maxwell Young Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA ISBN: 0195063899 Category : Adaptability (Psychology) Languages : en Pages : 310
Book Description
The author examines ideas of the nature and localization of the functions of the brain in the light of the philosophical constraints at work in the sciences of mind and brain in the 19th century. Particular attention is paid to phrenology, sensory-motor physiology and associationist psychology.
Author: Peter LaFrenière Publisher: Psychology Press ISBN: 1136945180 Category : Family & Relationships Languages : en Pages : 409
Book Description
In this text, students are invited to rethink psychology by grounding it in the natural sciences with the understanding that evolutionary and developmental processes work together with culture to solve problems of human adaptation. These processes are cast as interdependent: Development cannot be understood except in the light of evolutionary theory, and the best proof of evolution is the fact of development. For students of evolutionary psychology, all the central topics -- such as evolved mental modules for theory of mind or language -- require an understanding of the developmental processes that lead to their expression. Genes, as important as they are, are never the whole story. The role of biological factors is explored in chapters outlining evolution, development, genetics, human origins, hormones and the brain. Then, the integrative value of this evolutionary/developmental vision in understanding key topics in psychology is illustrated by applying it to traditional area of inquiry including infancy and attachment, emotions and their expression, social relations with peers, cognitive and language development, sex differences, courtship and mating, violence and aggression, and cooperation and competition.
Author: Agustín González
Author: National Research Council
Author: National Academy of Sciences
Author: Francisco Aboitiz
Author: Rolf W. Frohlich
Author: Stephen Cunnane
Author: Harry Jerison
Author: Jay A. Gottfried
Author: Robert Maxwell Young
Author: Peter LaFrenière