NeuroCulture Watch

Brains In Love: The Mereological Fallacy has an interesting article titled "I am my brain". The full article deserves a response (which will come), however, The Neuro Times draws readers attention to some new terminology that appears in the article.

“neuro-realism”

Neuro-realism reflects the uncritical way in which a fMRI investigation can be taken as validation or invalidation of our ordinary view of the world. Neuro-realism is, therefore, grounded in the belief that fMRI enables us to capture a ‘visual proof’ of brain activity, despite the enormous complexities of data acquisition and image processing.

“neuro-essentialism”

The concept of ‘neuro-essentialism’ reflects how fMRI research can be depicted as equating subjectivity and personal identity to the brain. In this sense, the brain is used implicitly as a shortcut for more global concepts such as the person, the individual or the self.

Mode und Methode: Die Kybernetik in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. (Göttingen 2009)

Pop-cybernetics

'Keiner weiß, was Kybernetik ist’ (No one knows what cybernetics is). Or so pondered Rolf Lohberg and Theo Lutz in a 1968 book of that very title - a book designed to bring their fellow Germans somewhat closer to what was to be known of this ‘modern science’ after all. The message - that no one knows – also, and aptly, serves as something of a motto to Philipp Aumann’s more recent history of cybernetics in the German Federal Republic, an ambitious foray into largely uncharted historical territories. Though Aumann’s book is in German, and largely about Germany - the peculiarities of cybernetics in (Western) Germany, to be exact - it is not only the special interest it takes in the biological, or proto-neuro-scientific, side of things that warrants a quick review here. For those interested in the advances of the cerebral sciences in the much under-researched 1950s and 1960s, Aumann’s study provides some welcome information on obscurer developments, and what’s more, in ways laudably distant from previous attempts, it discerns in cybernetics the origins of later, cerebro-centred formations.

But let’s not move too quick. Alliteratively titled Mode und Methode (which we may render into the less alliterative ‘Fad and Method’), Aumann’s book is aiming at something quite different; certainly not at a disciplinary history of any kind.

Ricky Gervais on claims a woman boiled her brain...

Amusing - hat-tip Tom Paine.

ISHN 2010 Award for Outstanding Student Essay in the History of the Neurosciences: Nominations Please

In order to promote and recognize outstanding and original scholarship, the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences (ISHN) awards a biennial prize to the author of an exceptional unpublished essay based on original research in the history of the neurosciences. The Prize is intended for younger scholars or recent entrants into the profession. This prize is awarded at ISHN annual meetings held in even-numbered years. Its next presentation will be at the ISHN 15th annual meeting in Paris, France 15 – 19 June 2010.

General Rules:

• An essay should have been written by a single student. It may be a thesis or dissertation. The essay prize may be won only by a person who was a student at the time of the writing of the thesis.

• There is no restriction on the language of the essay.

• The essay should have appeared in a time period, no longer than 3 years before the year of the award. For the 2010 award, essays written between January 2007 and December 2009, inclusive, are eligible.

• There are no restrictions on the academic discipline of a candidate.

• The essay must be accompanied with a note from the current/former student's department certifying that the author is/was a student during the period of eligibility.

• A candidate does not necessarily have to be a member of the ISHN.

• Nominations may come from anybody; i.e., entries may be submitted either by or on behalf of a student.

Entries, in the form of two (2) copies of the nominated essay (or one (1) copy of a nominated thesis/dissertation) and a cover letter with documentation of the nominee's student status should be sent to the Chair of the ISHN Awards and Prizes Committee:

Dr. Sherry Ginn
Program in Social Sciences
Rowan-Cabarrus Community College
1531 Trinity Church Rd.
Concord, NC 28027
USA
Email: sginn AT carolina.rr.com

Nominations must be received no later than March 1, 2010.
For further information about the Essay Prize or the ISHN, please contact Dr. Ginn.

ISHN 2010 Award for Outstanding Book in the History of the Neurosciences: Nominations Please

In order to promote and recognize outstanding and original scholarship, the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences (ISHN) will award a biennial prize to the author or authors of an exceptional book in the history of the neurosciences. This prize will be awarded at ISHN annual meetings held in even-numbered years. It will next be presented at the ISHN meeting in Paris, France, 15 - 19 June 2010.

General Rules:

• Monographs as well as multi-authored books may be nominated. Edited books will be excluded from the competition.

• There is no restriction on the language of the publication.

• The book should have appeared in a time period, no longer than 3 years before the year of the award. For the 2010 award, books published between January 2007 and December 2009, inclusive, are eligible.

• Candidates do not necessarily have to be members of the ISHN.

• Nominations may come from anybody; self-nominations are allowed.

Nominations will consist of (1) a complete citation of the nominated book and (2) a brief (no longer than one page) statement about the book's significance and importance. Entries should be sent to the Chair of the ISHN Awards and Prizes Committee:

Dr. Sherry Ginn
Program in Social Sciences
Rowan-Cabarrus Community College
1531 Trinity Church Rd.
Concord, NC 28027
USA
Email: sginn AT carolina.rr.com
Nominations must be received no later than March 1, 2010.
For further information about the Book Prize or the ISHN, please contact Dr. Ginn.

International Society for the History of the Neurosciences

The Call for Papers is here - and YIKES the deadline is February 1st.

Hat-tip: D.G.

Nervous Idioms

Nervous Nellie: Someone excessively worried or apprehensive is a nervous Nelly.

The Neurology of Design?

The picture superiority effect makes the straightforward claim that people tend to remember concepts when they are presented as pictures rather than words. More interesting, however, is the way the speaker's claims of established neurological knowledge help to make his presentation more rhetorically effective. It is tempting to be pithy and label this the "neuroscience superiority effect".