Search

This paper analyses the development of UNESCO's Mahatma Gandhi Institute on Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP), examining its record from global, national and institutional perspectives. The global perspective encompasses challenges to UNESCO's attempts to articulate a distinctive, humanistic vision in competition with other multilateral bodies. The national perspective relates to India, which hosts MGIEP, provides the bulk of its funding and exerts significant influence over its governance. Consideration is also given to the relationship between MGIEP's work and Mahatma Gandhi's ideas. Finally, the institutional perspective relates both to the author's own experience with MGIEP, and to information gained through interviews with others involved with the institute. It is argued that MGIEP's story illuminates challenges to attempts, within India and internationally, to sustain a humanistic vision of education in the face of powerful countervailing interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces neuroscience methods in HRD through a study that highlights the role of reflection in developing leaders. Despite increased attention on neuroscience discoveries and its methodologies in the social sciences, there is limited research among HRD scholars that incorporates neuroscience approaches. Relatedly, HRD practitioners and scholars often view reflection as a critical element for developing human resources and leaders. Yet, there is a dearth of research that focuses on the impact of reflection in the brain and the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms that support it. The purpose of this paper is to neurobiologically examine how individual or collective reflection impacts leaders' frontal lobe brain activities during challenging situations, incorporating electroencephalography (EEG) as a method. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology & Society is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Over the past twenty-five years, or so, considerable advances have been made in understanding how learning occurs in the brain, though much of this research is still to make its way into education. One contribution it should be making is to furnish the philosophical critique of past and current theory with supporting empirical evidence. For example, motivation theory and its cognate expectancy-value theory continue to be taught in teacher education, even though their rational cognitivist foundations are philosophically shaky, and their shared representational notion of the mind is incompatible with what is now known about the learning brain. Furthermore, the central claim of motivation theory that children need to be motivated in order to learn is educationally problematic, not least because it incorporates a deficit model of the child as learner. This paper provides a philosophical and educational critique of motivation and expectancy-value theories and begins to sketch out an alternative dynamic systems (complexity-theory) approach, which argues that value is deeply embedded in the learning process, not only in the value students may or may not attach to their learning, but also neurobiologically. In opposition to motivation and its notion of the learner this paper argues that every student is equipped with a brain that is value-orientated towards learning and will learn, when nested in suitably affordant learning environments. In place of expectancy-value, we argue for value-embedded learning (VEL), which provides a non-reductive and biologically plausible account of how value and emotional salience are dynamically interwoven in the learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interest to connect results of neuroscientific research to educational contexts has increasingly grown in recent years. Actors from neuroscience and education show the explicit intention to approach each other. Still, issues and debates exist in the relation between them. This paper aims to bring to the fore one such specific issue that is not only relevant to be mindful of, but also raises questions of an organisational and pedagogical nature. The issue concerns the possible occurrences of conceptual confusion on the bridge from neuroscience to education. I present this paper as a thought experiment that hopes to make public not only the respective issue, but also some of its related questions, such as 'neuroprofessionalisation' and 'relevant knowledge for educational actors'. In doing so, I attempt to make the issue and its questions a concern of ours, and invite readers to join in a collective and vivid conversation about it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a renewed interest in the clinical applications of psychedelics, with increasing use for a variety of psychiatric conditions. Individuals often describe psychedelic sessions as among the most significant experiences in their lives, emphasising the sense of awe, connectedness, and spiritual transformation they undergo. They can also feel they are experiencing truth and becoming aware of reality in deeper ways than ever before. As elusive as it is inescapable, Wilfred Bion’s ‘O’ denotes contact with absolute truth, approachable through an intuitive awareness of reality that goes beyond cognitive strategies seeking to ‘know’. The state of mind cultivated to enter into such realms, to reach O, and indeed to achieve mystical experiences under psychedelics, is one of surrender and transcendence of a cognitively weighted, sensorially bound interfacing with reality. This paper outlines the neurophenomenology of psychedelic use, the concept of O, and their clinical significance vis-à-vis contemporary psychodynamic thinking. As our understanding deepens regarding the changes associated with use of psychedelics, we can draw parallels between acquisition of insight and subsequent reshaping of one’s templates and perspectives taking place through use of these drugs, and the process that occurs over the course of a psychoanalysis or psychodynamic therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions about how empathy should be conceptualized have long been a preoccupation of the field of empathy research. There are numerous definitions of empathy that have been proposed and that often overlap with other concepts such as sympathy and compassion. This makes communication between research groups or across disciplines difficult. Many researchers seem to see the diversity of definitions as a problem rather than a form of benign pluralism. Within this debate about conceptualization, researchers sometimes suggest that more neuroscientific evidence will make the problem go away – that uncovering the processes underlying empathy will thereby also sort out conceptual difficulties. In this paper, I challenge this assumption by examining how neuroscientists studying empathy use concepts in practice – both in the development of their measures and in the interpretation of their data. I argue that this neuroscientific literature demonstrates that continuity and stability comes from the use of certain established measures, while progress comes from expansion upon those measures and the flexibility of stated concepts. We do not 'find' empathy through increased neuroscientific evidence but we do get closer to understanding empathic processes, flexibly understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) have higher rates of unhealthy lifestyles and risk for medical comorbidities Research currently suggests that dietary factors may play a role in the development of depression and anxiety. Therefore, nutritional approaches are potential strategies for the treatment of BD. The aim of this review is to summarize the available evidence on nutrition and BD. Materials and Methods: The paper was developed based on PRISMA 2020 guidelines. The search was conducted in Sep-2021 using PubMed and Cochrane Library, augmented by manually checked references lists. The search found 986 studies, of which 47 were included, combined with 13 from reference lists, totaling 60 studies. Results: There were 33 observational trials, of which 15 focused on fatty acids, 9 on micronutrients, 5 on specific foods, 4 on macro and micronutrients. The 27 interventional studies mainly focused on fatty acids, micronutrients and N-acetylcysteine (NAC). Discussion: Dietary intake or supplementation of unsaturated fatty acids, mainly Omega-3 seems to be associated with improved BD symptoms, along with seafood, folic acid and zinc. Studies found variable, mainly non-significant impacts of creatine, carnitine, vitamin D, inositol or NAC supplementation on BD. There are promising results associated with Coenzyme Q10 (Coq10) and probiotics. Taken together, these preliminary findings suggest that dietetic approaches might be included as part of BD treatment. Also considering the high risk of metabolic disorders in individuals with BD, they should be encouraged to choose healthy dietary lifestyles, including daily intake of fruits, vegetables, seafood and whole grains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is emergent literature that converges from neuroscience and entrepreneurship research, but the definitions and interlinkages are still inconsistent. We conduct a systematic literature review of 167 papers on the interface between neuroscience and entrepreneurship to address this. We observe the literature trends examining the interlinkages between neuroscience and entrepreneurial intention through six antecedents, namely - molecular neuroscience, systems neuroscience, behavioral neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, social neuroscience, and computational neuroscience. Our findings suggest that entrepreneurial intention impacts entrepreneurial activity through five factors, including (1) opportunity recognition, (2) evaluation and risk-taking, (3) entrepreneurial cognition, (4) entrepreneurial behavior, and (5) entrepreneurial decision-making. From our discussions, the links among the neural factors affecting entrepreneurship are identified, and a research agenda highlighting a pathway for future studies is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coupling "know thyself" with anatomical illustrations produced a spatialized understanding of the self, providing preconditions for "brainhood," the view that "we are our brains." To picture oneself, whether in anatomical illustrations or neuroimaging, is to know thyself. This paper traces the historical development of the conflation of self-image and self-knowledge. First, I explore the Renaissance development of linear perspective. Second, I look at how the soul becomes spatialized in psychology as a science of the soul and its relationship to anatomical dissection. Third, I investigate the innovation of anatomical illustration and how it intersects with Renaissance visual culture. Finally, I show how these varied developments manifest "know thyself" in anatomical illustrations and its significance for how we see ourselves. I conclude that, according to the ideology of the neuro, we still "know thyself" through pictures of the body, but with neuroimaging as the new anatomical illustration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous paper, I argued that neuroscience and psychology could in principle undermine libertarian free will by providing support for a subset of what I called “statements of local determination.” I also argued that Libet-style experiments have not so far supported statements of that sort. In a commentary to the paper, Adina Roskies and Eddy Nahmias accept the claim about Libet-style experiments, but reject the claim about the possibilities of neuroscience. Here, I explain why I still disagree with their conclusion, despite being sympathetic to a lot of what they say in support of it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the promise of induced pluripotent stem cells as a model system for the study of neurodegenerative diseases of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other diseases of the aging brain. Research in these areas, as in neuroscience more broadly, has struggled with the imperfect mapping between human and animal brains. The paper argues that the contemporary promise of induced pluripotent stem cells for research is established through their potential to resolve problems of translation, bridging laboratory and clinical contexts by acting as a model of “real” patient bodies. However, the paper shows how this promise is contested and renewed through a rearticulation of the relationship between neurodegeneration, aging and the qualities of “young” and “aged” bodies. This not only results in the introduction of new qualities and attributes to the model system, but also a re-imagining of how aging features within both late and early-onset neurological diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years, neuroscience and brain-based approaches to education have started to feature prominently in the rationale for radical educational reform, both in terms of policy and practice. Revelations about what way the brain works, it seems, is a common point of interest for neuroscience and education alike. Out of these common interests there are now entire disciplines in their own right, such as 'mind, brain and education' and 'neuroeducation', which are collaborative disciplines formed at the boundaries of common points of interest between the brain sciences in general and education. This paper seeks to examine the credibility of the science inherent in this collaboration, with a particular example found in the guise of the Revised Northern Ireland Curriculum, devised and implemented from 2003 onwards by the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA). The paper will also invoke a philosophical notion known as the mereological fallacy, to offer a conceptual critique of the curricular changes in Northern Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban built environments can influence human cognitive and emotional comforts. Human comfort in the built environment has challenged architects and urban designers while developing comfortable spaces. Emerging cognitive-architectural studies in architecture engineering inform new directions for improvising human spatial design practices. This paper intends to present a systematic meta-analysis of selected empirical studies to identify the gaps and future scope of research in human cognition and built environments. However, the scope of the literature review is to concentrate on experiments that consider physiological reading in different environments, such as nature and architectural spaces in cognitive study areas. The peer-reviewed literature published from 2010 to 2021 illustrates that only limited design parameters are considered in these experiments. The study analyses the extensive consideration of experimental medium, simulation categories, and participant factors like gender and age in this research domain. The survey recommends considering more visual features, contextual conditions, and ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Translations of summary In their paper 'The case for neuropsychoanalysis' Yovell, Solms, and Fotopoulou (2015) respond to our critique of neuropsychoanalysis (Blass & Carmeli, 2007), setting forth evidence and arguments which, they claim, demonstrate why neuroscience is relevant and important for psychoanalysis and hence why dialogue between the fields is necessary. In the present paper we carefully examine their evidence and arguments and demonstrate how and why their claim is completely mistaken. In fact, Yovell, Solms, and Fotopoulou's paper only confirms our position on the irrelevance and harmfulness to psychoanalysis of the contemporary neuroscientific trend. We show how this trend perverts the essential nature of psychoanalysis and of how it is practiced. The clinical impact and its detrimental nature is highlighted by discussion of clinical material presented by Yovell et al (2015). In the light of this we argue that the debate over neuropsychoanalysis should be of interest to all psychoanalysts, not only those concerned with biology or interdisciplinary dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper discusses the application of organizational neuroscience in management research in Africa. In so doing, the paper draws from the field of neuroscience, organizational neuroscience, and cultural neuroscience to explore the extent to which topics, such as corruption, tribal identity, and nepotism could be analyzed through the lens of organizational neuroscience. The paper's implications for further research and management practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we begin to explore how knowledges being generated in bioscience might be brought into productive articulation with the Sociology of Education, considering the potential for emerging transdisciplinary, 'biosocial' approaches to enable new ways of researching and understanding pressing educational issues. In this paper, as in our current research, we take learning as our focus. Our work brings together collaborators from across fields: sociology of education; molecular biology and biochemistry; cognitive neuroscience; fMRI imaging; and EEG. Through the paper we explore the generative potential of an encounter between life sciences and sociology of education. Through consideration of the conceptual and methodological elements of our 'Synchrony in Learning' research and engagement with our pilot experimental approach, our research is suggesting that our central concept, learning, is undergoing metamorphosis, challenging us to understand learning as a phenomenon produced through the intra-action of a multiplicity of forces and processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have investigated brain responses to different art media. Investigations into brain processes during art making have highlighted important structures. Neuroimaging tools have been used to investigate activation of brain areas whilst artmaking, but not in a therapeutic setting. This review highlights recent advancements in this area and encourages researchers to be the first to apply this in the UK. To understand how the principles of neuroscience are currently informing the literature to explain the effects of art media in art therapy practice. Review of published peer-reviewed research between years 2000 and 2020 on neuroscience and art therapy. Findings were summarised into categories discussing psychological/neurobiological issues, art media, neuroimaging technology, and models posited. Forty-six studies were found; majority discussed the structure and function of the brain to explain art therapy processes. The Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) model theorised that media properties stimulate different levels of visual and cognitive processing. The novel Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MoBI) neuroimaging technology may be used as a means of quantifying data. Significant progress has been made in attempting to explain brain responses during the art therapy process. However empirical data is needed to prove theoretical models. The use of neuroimaging has started this process to lead research into evidence-based practice. Evidencing the ground-breaking ETC model, using neuroimaging and MoBI technology is needed through close collaboration between transdisciplinary departments. Art therapists should be encouraged to use the ETC to inform art therapy assessment, planning and treatment. Neuroscience is the study of the brain and its processes, and recently technology has been available to researchers to examine brain processes in detail. This systematic narrative review explores recent literature that uses the principles of neuroscience to investigate the effects of art therapy, with a specific interest in art media. A systematic narrative review is when the findings of the study rely on the use of words to summarise the data. Art media is an important part of art therapy, as it is through artistic expressions that the client communicates their inner troubles. Different art media has been shown to elicit different feelings and behavioural responses in clients. However, research showing brain responses to different art media is limited. This study highlights ways in which further research in this field can take place. Results show that significant advancements have already been made that identify important structures and functions of the brain accessed during art therapy. Important models which incorporate neuroscience principles and theorise the art therapy process are highlighted. A significant model is the Expressive Therapies Continuum. This model explains how the brain processes information when different art media is used. However empirical data is needed to substantiate the theory behind this model. The use of neuroimaging technology is one way to achieve this. Therefore, this paper encourages transdisciplinary research to further investigate the effects different art media has on the brain during the art therapy process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasingly central part of the scientific debate in sports has come to focus on how neuroscience can help to explain sports performance and development of expertise. In particular, the process of identifying young talents has been increasingly influenced by neuroscientific tests to identify future potential. It has been argued that instead of relying on coaches' subjective assessments the process of selection should be based on general metrics of the brain through standardized testing. One key neurological function highlighted in the search for talent is cognitive executive functions. In the contemporary debate, studies of brain activity have suggested that children should undergo neuroscientific testing to determine the appropriate cognitive executive functions (CEF) for elite sports. This paper builds on previous work on the implications of a neuroscientific ontology in sports and Bruno Latour's work on the construction of scientific facts. Departing from discourse analysis, this paper studies the production and popularization of CEF as scientific facts. The findings illustrate how representations of brain activity are visualized and legitimized and how the out-of-context tests are translated into facts about brain functions. The CEF test results are produced as inscriptions of undisputable facts, claiming that the results show prerequisites for sporting success. We argue that the mind-brain-behaviour relationship cannot be reduced to CEF tests and instead calls for a critical gaze on neuroscientific truth-claims and taken-for-granted facts in the area of sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the recent concussion litigation from the United States’ National Football League (NFL), the paper examines the emergence of neuroscience knowledge as part of a defining rationale for the justification and rationalization of the lawsuit. The paper argues that neuroscience knowledge is best understood as a regulatory discourse that is attached to larger social, political, and economic realities that bring it into being as a legitimate type of knowledge. This larger socio-political governance logic is one that scholars call ‘biopolitical’ which emphasizes the protection of individual life over and above other ways of being. Risk discourses that frame risk-taking practices as immoral thus emerge within this biopolitical regime of governance that frame morality in terms of public health that individual citizens ought to pursue. With this in mind neuroscience knowledge plays an important role in concussion litigation. It emerges as a technology of biopolitical governance in that it is used to justify legal decisions on concussion. This is despite the fact that neuroscience knowledge remains nascent and even scientifically uncertain. Because of this, the paper argues that scholars ought to not only consider neuroscience research skeptically, but also ought to be aware of the dangers of neuroscience’s emergence as an ‘anticipatory discourse’ that has the potential to reduce human behavior to matters of the brain that thus transforms our very ontology of ourselves and the practices we perceive as ‘good’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:Knowledge about the brain has been growing rapidly since the 1990s as a result of developments in neuroscientific research linked to improvements in functional neuroimaging and other brain imaging technologies. As the brain is the ‘principal organ involved in learning’ (1), it would seem reasonable to assume that education should be one of the chief beneficiaries of this research, leading to advances in our understanding of how people learn, the development of new curricula and innovative teaching and learning approaches. However, the linkage between neuroscience and education has, historically, always been weak, and, we suggest, continues to be so, notwithstanding important research initiatives since the year 2000. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to critically explore current theoretical understanding of joint neuroscientific and educational research, herein referred to as ‘neuroeducational’ research. There is a particular focus on a critique of the transdisciplinary model as applied in a study of imitation in learners with autism. Main argument and sources of evidence:The review of the literature in the first half of the paper identifies the key barriers to neuroeducational research, including neuromyths, lack of shared understanding, the problem of the translation of neuroscientific findings to schools and clashing research assumptions, methodologies and traditions. However, a model of transdisciplinarity is presented as a possible way forward. This model is tested in the second half of the paper against the experiences of the authors in conducting transdisciplinary research in autism and imitation in the secondary classroom. Here, we develop the concepts of ‘transfer affordances’, ‘transfer challenges’ and ‘transfer opportunities’ to structure our analysis of the various dimensions of the transdisciplinary research process. These new concepts are defined, and their relevance and utility explained. Conclusions:The main conclusion of the paper is that the transdisciplinary research process within neuroeducation is complex, far from fully understood and requires further mapping. It is proposed that the concepts of ‘transfer affordances’, ‘transfer challenges’ and ‘transfer opportunities’ are useful theoretical ideas in pursuit of this aim. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper summarises my current understanding of relevant neuroscience and trauma therapy concepts, and discusses the implications for psychoanalytic psychotherapy with traumatised patients. It also explores the new social constructivist theory of 'How emotions are made' which has deep resonances with the psychoanalytic theory of thinking. These bio-psycho-social models and ideas challenge our existing traditional techniques and ways of working with trauma, and places the necessity of addressing body states at the forefront of our work. Some guidelines on working with traumatised children are discussed which take account of the newer findings of the impact of trauma on the body/brain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Challenging the influential view that the chapter on biology in the first volume of The Second Sex is exposing scientific myths in severe prose, in the view of this paper, the chapter is as much about scientific facts as it is an intriguingly open-ended dialogue between phenomenology and science. Beauvoir's consuming epistemological and scientific preoccupation with the category of biology is analysed in a bid to advance a new, naturalist-feminist conception of Beauvoir's theory of natural history. The analysis unravels the theoretical edifice, with its tensions between Beauvoir's selective but brilliant appropriation of recent discoveries in evolutionary biology and genetics and certain deliberate rejections and omissions of Darwinian evolutionary thinking. Contrary to Beauvoir's intentions, she ends up conflating the term biology with, in particular, reproductive physiology, and perpetuating the ill-fated division between body and psyche. In contributing to a reformulation of an empirically grounded approach to the embodied mind and situated body, this paper debates some promising insights from contemporary neuroscience and primatology. These insights are critical to theory development, based on a non-anthropocentric stance and non-dualistic understanding of the mind-brain continuum and the body as a situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human-machine interface (HMI) techniques use bioelectrical signals to gain real-time synchronised communication between the human body and machine functioning. HMI technology not only provides a real-time control access but also has the ability to control multiple functions at a single instance of time with modest human inputs and increased efficiency. The HMI technologies yield advanced control access on numerous applications such as health monitoring, medical diagnostics, development of prosthetic and assistive devices, automotive and aerospace industry, robotic controls and many more fields. In this paper, various physiological signals, their acquisition and processing techniques along with their respective applications in different HMI technologies have been discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Famously posed by seventeenth-century French philosopher René Descartes, the mind-body problem remains unresolved in western philosophy and science, with both disciplines unable to move convincingly beyond the dualistic model. The persistence of dualism calls for a reframing of the problem through interdisciplinary modes of inquiry that include non-western points of view. One such perspective is Islamic theology of the soul, which, while approaching the problem from a distinct point of view, also adopts a position commensurate with (substance) dualism. Using this point of convergence as a conceptual starting point, we argue that bringing into dialogue contemporary neuroscientific, philosophy of mind, and Sunni Islamic theological discourses may provide a fruitful way of reframing the age-old mind-body problem. This paper provides an overview of how these three discourses have approached the issue of the mind-body (-soul) problem. Juxtaposing these three discourses, we hope, may ignite further scholarly dialogue and investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to outline some of the parts of the brain to increase understanding of the aetiology of criminal behaviours. It goes without saying that any complete answer will encompass: evolutionary, genetic, biochemical, neuropsychological, and cognitive factors as well as social factors (familial and societal). Antisocial and social behaviours are underpinned by feeling, cognitions and actions, which are in turn, underpinned by the neurobiological actions in the brain. The daunting task of understanding the relations between brain function and offending is made potentially more tractable by the way in which the brain can be seen as being organised into discrete anatomical circuits, many of which have definable functions. The paper describes a number of these circuits in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the connection between the mask and fiction writing. Freud has theorised the identifications of writers and readers with the masks of literary personae, but my interest in this essay is with how the mask of a narrator or character can function uncannily to impede identification. I am also interested in research emerging from neuroscience, socobiology and robotics, the last of which has drawn attention to the 'uncanny valley', an affect generated by cybernetic beings that deny – by virtue of their mask-like faces – the neuronal mirror activity fundamental to human identity. Both Freudian and emerging scientific research provide the context for the question I ask here: how might we understand the affect generated by a fiction writer who uses the uncanny mask of a narrator or character to refuse opportunities for identification and to elicit, instead, an uncanny crisis in subjectivity within the reader? To answer this question, I employ a hybrid autoethnographic methodology that recognises the primacy of feeling when it comes to the experience of the uncanny and that acknowledges my own compromised position as a writer invested in such unfriendly or sadistic affects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A society's cultural heritage is its inheritance of physical artifacts and intangible attributes, and their maintenance, protection, and continuation for future generations. The meaning of cultural heritage is, however, constantly changing in light of globalization and rapid urbanization. To better understand interactions between people and cultural heritage in daily life, and return cultural heritage to its sense of "place," we present a visual methodology for heritage protection. Considering the Guangzhou overseas-Chinese community (OCC) as a case study, we apply pictorial assessment, eye-tracking, and interview methods to identify meanings of a returned overseas-Chinese inhabited area. Proposing a hybrid visual method, we aim to focus on the public's interpretation of cultural heritage with regard to safeguarding it. Results indicate that the cultural heritage of the overseas-Chinese site has weakened over time due to its increasing importance as a metropolitan area. In accordance with our results, this paper offers insights for protection measures with a focus on architectural details, activities, and publicities. From the perspective of "neural turn," we also propose a new method for cultural heritage protection that can effectively answer non-representational geographical questions and discuss cultural heritage protection in a fluid, embodied, and abstract context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of neuroscience looms large today. In this introductory essay, we provide some context for the volume by acknowledging the expansion of applied neuroscience to everyday life and the proliferation of neuroscientific disciplines. We also observe that some individuals have sounded cautionary notes in light of perceived overreach of some claims for neuroscience. Then we briefly summarize the articles that comprise this volume. This diverse collection of papers represents the beginning of a conversation focused on the intersection of sport, ethics and neurophilosophy. As such, the essays also represent a new mode of interaction between philosophy and science with sport in the center of the discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue brings together philosophical perspectives on the debate over cognitive ontology. We contextualize the papers in this issue by considering several different senses of the term “cognitive ontology” and linking those debates to traditional debates in philosophy of mind. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

John Hick (1922–2012) was an influential analytical philosopher of religion and liberal Christian philosophical theologian who taught in Britain and the United States. His work on religious epistemology, the theology of religions and, to some extent, eschatology has close links with his understanding of the philosophy of religious experience. This paper offers a detailed analysis and critical evaluation of these significant elements of Hick’s philosophical and theological thought, focusing in particular on his theory of religious knowledge and the role played by religious concepts within religious experience, and the relevance of these reflections for his pluralistic account of the variety of religions and his criterion of religious truth. Hick’s response to the challenges of contemporary neuroscience and the philosophy of mind is also reviewed. The paper reflects on the relevance of these views to accounts of an experience of transcendent reality collected through the empirical psychology of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In his 1918 paper “Lines of advance in psychoanalytic therapy,” Freud suggested that psychoanalysis should reach out to the masses on a larger scale. “We need to alloy the pure gold of analysis with the copper of direct suggestion,” he noted. Time has proven this assertion to be true. As Freud had anticipated, the psychoanalytic technique has left doctors’ offices to enter a number of different areas: from hospital and state mental health centers to clinics, social work organizations, and nongovernmental health institutions. Moreover, some authors, following the paths established by Freud, have conceptually enriched psychoanalytic theory and eventually achieved a voice of their own. Hence, one might wonder whether today, in the early twenty-first century, “pure gold” psychoanalysis exists, whether there is a psychoanalyst who, with uncontaminated theories, is conceptually pure gold, the owner of the truth. This paper tries to find the common denominator of current theories of psychoanalysis through the analysis of the different meanings of psychoanalysis today. To do this, it has taken as a model the metaphor of a short story written by Raymond Carver entitled “What we talk about when we talk about love.” In that story, the partners in two marriages talk about the different meanings of the word “love.” Some years later, Gordon Lish, Carver's editor, admitted that he had retouched Carver’s original text to help its publication. This controversy allows us to consider unorthodox practices carried out by Freud that sometimes have been silenced in the pursuit of maintaining “the pure gold of psychoanalytic practice.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The potential of educational neuroscience in teacher training and continuing professional development has been debated extensively, yet knowledge translation is largely absent in this field. Without objective methods for translating and disseminating educational neuroscience evidence, the impact of training on educators and the children they serve will remain limited. This position paper addresses this critical teacher education need by providing a rationale for why brain literacy training is vital as teachers learn to meet the needs of diverse learners. The authors offer three important factors for consideration regarding the utility of educational neuroscience for educators and allied school practitioners. First, the foundations and history of professional educator development in educational neuroscience will be considered. Second, a brief review of the empirical learning science literature within the context of science-based education will be considered. Third, a rationale for including a more intensive brain literacy training for educators is provided by comparing the impact traditional teaching practices and brain literate strategies have on curriculum and instruction, and how standard practices may actually undermine student brain development. Finally, three recommendations for developing educator brain literacy are offered to guide future policy, research, and practice decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the way mathematical and computational models are used in network neuroscience to deliver mechanistic explanations. Two case studies are considered: Recent work on klinotaxis by Caenorhabditis elegans, and a long-standing research effort on the network basis of schizophrenia in humans. These case studies illustrate the various ways in which network, simulation, and dynamical models contribute to the aim of representing and understanding network mechanisms in the brain, and thus, of delivering mechanistic explanations. After outlining this mechanistic construal of network neuroscience, two concerns are addressed. In response to the concern that functional network models are nonexplanatory, it is argued that functional network models are in fact explanatory mechanism sketches. In response to the concern that models which emphasize a network’s organization over its composition do not explain mechanistically, it is argued that this emphasis is both appropriate and consistent with the principles of mechanistic explanation. What emerges is an improved understanding of the ways in which mathematical and computational models are deployed in network neuroscience, as well as an improved conception of mechanistic explanation in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to outline some new developments in a mature research program that sees administrative theory as cohering with natural science and uses a coherence theory of epistemic justification to shape the content and structure of administrative theory. Three main developments are discussed. First, the paper shows how to deal with the evaluation of theories (of, say, leadership) where there is a demand that a theory needs to be context relevant, but also comprehensive. The solution is to allow context to determine the scope of comprehensiveness. Second, the paper develops an argument structure employing a coherentist epistemology for how ethical claims can be incorporated into administrative theories. Finally, the paper, drawing on research in neuroscience, argues for the relevance of emotion in rational decision-making. Contrary to the belief that emotion compromises rationality, the paper argues that it is essential for rationality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper develops Professor Eileen Munro's coverage of ‘emotional dimensions’ in her Review of Child Protection in England. It argues that managerialism has failed to recognise the importance of the emotional life of human beings and the importance of the relationships we build in social work and that this failure seriously hinders the quality and effectiveness of social work. The paper begins with an account of what an ‘emotional dimension’ might encompass and, drawing on conceptualisations mainly from neuroscience, looks at what is meant by the words emotions and feelings, affect, attunement and empathy. A second section looks at the skewed representation of logical thinking as innately superior to emotional and intuitive reasoning and the part played by conscious and unconscious elements within judicial decision-making. It then analyses the dangers evident in the more extreme and rigid forms of managerialism that can be found in some areas of social work and a final section argues that for managerialism to be humanised it calls for an emotionally responsive relationship-based practice to be located at the heart of social work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper builds upon previous cybernetics scholarship to explore the neuroscience in The Crying of Lot 49, focusing on the neuronal action potential. In 1952, the cybernetics-influenced action potential was elucidated, a process which decreases entropy through feedback loops to transmit information. Lot 49 exemplifies what happens when the action potential stops properly communicating. This communication failure occurs because the clues that the protagonist Oedipa associates with the Tristero organization increase information entropy, which breaks her neuronal feedback loops and subsequently increases the thermodynamic and informatic entropy of her nervous system. Oedipa drinks alcohol in an attempt to combat the Tristero's entropic effects on herself, but the attempt backfires as the entropy of her nervous system continues to increase and culminates in seizures. Oedipa believes her seizures are divine interventions that provide energy despite the fact that they derive from all the Tristero information saturating her. This misguided belief overtakes Oedipa because the type of epilepsy she suffers from is temporal lobe epilepsy, whose seizures symptomatically impart consciousness loss, amnesia, and religious hallucinations to mask their entropy. Consequently, Lot 49 captures the blossoming of modern neuroscience from cybernetics in the mid-20th century by intertwining neuroscience with its themes of entropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an overview of contemporary inscriptions of mindfulness, their conditions of possibility, and examples of the braining of mind on which contemporary neuro-meets-contemplative turns are dependent. We examine key nineteenth century events integral to the formation of Biologies Old, in which historic debates over ‘the death of God’ in Western worldviews forge a space of finitude dedicated to fleshy materiality and the relocation of bios. We also examine what emerges in the wake of such debates, including how Biologies New and a transcendence/ immanence horizon continues to reverberate through popular, contemporary recommendations for mindfulness in teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, connections are being made between neuroscience and education. At their interface is the attempt to ‘bridge the gap between conscious minds and living brains’. All too often, the two sides pursue a reductionist strategy of excluding the other. A middle way, promoted by Sankey in the context of values education, is emergentism: our conscious mental states are the product of brain processes but are not reducible to them. This paper outlines Sankey’s emergentist position and raises two objections: What are emergent properties and What is the process of emergence? Sankey accepts neuroscience but rejects an eliminative materialist version on three grounds: materialism, reduction and determinism. All three are rebutted. His account of the neuronal, synaptic self is considered and found wanting. Finally, some positive remarks are made about the contribution eliminativism might make to values education. The conclusion reached is this: attempts to bridge the gap between mind and brain have not been successful and Sankey’s emergentism is no exception. This is one divide in education which will not be crossed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper combines Bourdieu’s Field Theory with the concept of “doability” to investigate an interdisciplinary scientific project, namely biosocial criminology. Biosocial criminologists seek to incorporate genetic and neuroscientific findings in criminology. Drawing on literature analysis and semi-structured interviews, I show how the doability of this interdisciplinary research project, which is mainly determined by considerations surrounding data and technologies, is a function of biosocial researchers’ position within the scientific field. This is made apparent at two different levels. First, the availability of genetic data, which is attributable to behavior geneticists’ “generosity” and inter-field exchanges, largely explains why biosocial criminologists mostly focused on genetic factors of crime and neglected neuroscience, a more costly area of endeavor. Second, the problem of doability prevents biosocial criminologists from performing any kind of genetic research. Because behavior geneticists’ generosity has its limits too, biosocial criminologists cannot resort to the most advanced methodological designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multidisciplinary scholarly dialogue can bring academics and researchers together and open up new areas of inquiry. This paper is a case study about how two scholars, one in social work and the other in science, have found common ground. It discusses their respective research projects and how ‘the rubber hits the road’ by exploring why the knowledge of science/neuroscience is important to non-science majors like social workers in their practice, using childhood trauma, to illustrate that. Finally, it makes recommendations regarding the inclusion of science education in social work curricula and offers some ideas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delivered as one of the keynote addresses at the International Standing Committee on the History of Education (ISCHE) Conference held in Chicago in August 2016, this paper offers a broad review of how the body and embodiment have been incorporated into histories of education. Based on this historiography, I extend three “inspiring provocations” intended to set the stage for new questions, new theorising, and new methods regarding the body in the field. By asking new questions of the past, drawing on innovative theoretical and methodological frameworks, I argue, historians can continue to give proper empirical standing to the body and embodiment in our histories of education. I conclude with a central question: What are the important questions in the history of education that the body might help us to answer? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of International Journal of Psychoanalysis is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Research in disparate fields of education, psychology and neuroscience suggests that emotions play a central role in learning. We critically examine research at the intersection of emotions, adult learning and neuroscience. First, we review studies in the IJLE related to emotions and adult learning. In particular, we focus on the impact of an IJLE publication that argued using neuroscience research for the important role of emotions in transformative learning theory. We then highlight recent developments in neuroscience of emotions with links to transformative learning, before reflecting on ways to move forward by combining neuroscience research with transformative learning theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past decade has witnessed a growing awareness of conceptual and methodological hurdles within psychology and neuroscience that must be addressed for taxonomic and explanatory progress in understanding psychological functions to be possible. In this paper, I evaluate several recent knowledge-building initiatives aimed at overcoming these obstacles. I argue that while each initiative offers important insights about how to facilitate taxonomic and explanatory progress in psychology and neuroscience, only a “coordinated pluralism” that incorporates positive aspects of each initiative will have the potential for success. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I critique those brands of contemporary neuroscientific research into human health that rest on a set of interrelated, reductionist assumptions. These assumptions result in the claim that grieving or loving are caused mechanically by physiological, chemical, and electrical processes in the brain. I employ a critical realist understanding of scientific practice to detail methodological impossibilities entailed in reductionist neuroscience that are nevertheless used to justify claims to scientific knowledge and authority. I use an exemplar of such research to delineate specific errors and to show how knowledge claims based on them are therefore ideological, not scientific. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Clinical synesthesia is commonly defined as the experience of having perceptions in one sensory modality triggered by a stimulus from another. This paper adopts a particular orientation toward synesthesia, exploring it as a cultural phenomenon common to us all, as an ability that can be learnt instead of an accidental neurological condition. If synesthesia is both a capacity that we are not fully aware of and a way to access what is stored in memory even at the unconscious level, can art help us to bring this awareness back? Bearing upon a close reading of selected artworks created by Johannes Deutsch, a multi-media artist who has been experimenting with synesthesia, the paper argues that synesthesia can become a tool in the hands of contemporary artists to revitalize the Wagnerian ideal of a “total work of art”. This is to be understood as a politics of the senses based on communality rather than individualism, not as an ideology of totalitarian tendencies. Ultimately, the transformative potential of certain art resides in its capacity to foster a pedagogy of the image that is based upon multi-sensoriality, memory and history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is a large potential overlap between neuroscience and architecture, the studies bridging these fields are rare and newly emerging. Moreover, a gap is observed between the constructs, terminologies and research methods of architecture and neuroscience. In order to alleviate these problems, this study investigates main research themes and developments in spatial cognition research over the past two decades on the basis of the author keywords of published articles. Vosviewer© bibliometric analysis software was utilized to conduct keyword co-occurrence analysis, keyword clustering, and timeline analysis of keywords and current research on spatial cognition is discussed accordingly. The paper also reviews existing research at the intersection of neuroscience and architecture and comments on how this nexus could evolve in the future. It is concluded that embodied spatial cognition and affordances of architectural design provide a robust framework to guide further studies in this track. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article 'Towards new human rights in the age of neuroscience and neurotechnology', published in 2017, Ienca and Andorno review the current stage of neuroscience and neurotechnology development, proposing four new human rights that shall protect the individual from the dangers arising from said development. The authors accept the idea of infiltration into our interior castle -- the mind -- requiring only the proper level of protection against the described probable misuse of techniques, especially their use against the individual's will. Although their proposal seems a needed addition to the human rights system, it raises doubts as to the very definition of human it was designed to protect. Is the whole concept of the technical infiltration of the brain to alter the mind processes reconcilable with human freedom, especially with freedom of thought, conscience, and religion? In the article, the authors deliberate the inadequacy of two visions of human: the one that was the foundation of the human rights system and another emerging from Ienca and Andorno's article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Global Perspectives, we bring you interviews with psychoanalysts from around the world in an effort to explore the influence of culture, politics, and socio-economics on training, theory development, and adherence to clinical technique and psychoanalytic practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]