Deals primarily with the role of emotions in the mechanisms of memory. A compilation of the lectures given at a course conducted at the International School of Biocybernetics.
Visual cognition is an important area of biocybernetics. It ranges from the filtering processes of early vision to the structural and functional organization of the visual centres, as well as, in higher animals, to the neuronal plasticity, the decision-making rules, the effect of noise, the role of attention, the ambiguity of patterns, and the time dimension. All these factors contribute to the cognitive interpretation of visual sensation that takes place in visual perception. A side field is machine vision, in which the signal processing known from animal vision is applied to the mobile robots responding to light stimulation.
The light sense is conceivably the key sense in both the animal and the plant kingdom. Vision research, undoubtedly a fast-growing field, is providing impressive results — thanks to modern theoretical and methodological advances. The approach of biophysics and neuroscience seems to be of great benefit and, for this reason, the present book gives an outline of recent acquisitions and updated advanced methods concerning this approach. Visual mechanisms and processes are analysed at several (molecular, cellular, integrative, computational and cognitive) levels by different methodologies (from molecular biology to computation) applied to different living models (from protists to humans, via invertebrates and lower vertebrates).
Perception is the first step in the whole of the cognitive processes (attention, learning, memory, categorization, imagery, intuition, inference, comprehension, thought, judgement, expression) which culminate in the reasoning activity and to which emotions make a contribution. The production of perception representations is correlated with the perception events. Such perception representations occur by means of the contribution of two kinds of factors: sensory signals which reproduce the spatio-temporal characteristics of the receptor modifications, and interpretation of the intrinsic ambiguity of such signals by means of unconscious inferences. Various interactions intervene between bottom-up signals from peripheral receptors and top-down signals from higher centres.
For a few decades, the puzzle of consciousness, which for centuries was analysed by philosophers, has been finding a wide interest in the scientific field, where previously it was not entitled to be a member. It has become one of the most-debated problems in the cognitive sciences. The anatomical bases, neurophysiological correlates and elementary mechanisms underlying complex processes arising with consciousness have been compared with the psychological (perceptive, cognitive, volitive, emotional) aspects of conscious expressions, in normal and pathological conditions. Various theories, which attempt to fit systematically and coherently neural and psychological data, have been debated, proving the emergence of the phenomenon of consciousness.
This is the first volume of new book series on biophysics and biocybernetics, initiated by the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici.A main problem in biophysics is the interaction of light information with functional living structures, in order to shape the organism's behaviour. Although the processes of photoreception and phototransduction are articulated in various ways in different living beings — as it is seen in the subdivision of the topics in this volume on microorganisms, invertebrates, and vertebrates — general ways of light signal reception and transduction through light energy, i.e., photosensitive molecule interactions, could be observed. Highly sophisticated advanced techniques are employed in this research field.
This book provides a most complete overview of physiological and psychophysical properties of perceptual systems in man and animals. The information processing chains are described step-by-step from the stimuli of the respective environments, via the perceptual neuronal coding networks to conscious sensations and behaviour.Articles by W G K Backhaus, A G Clark, B Hiley, A Iznak, M Kavaliers, B Kramer, A Michelsen, C Neumeyer, G A Orban, T Radil, D G Stavenga, M Stengl, U Thurm, R L DeValois, R Wehner, J S Werner, W Wiltschko, and related short articles.
The experience of emotion is a ubiquitous component of the stream of consciousness; emotional qualia interact with other contents and processes of consciousness in complex ways. Recent research has supported the hypothesis that important functional aspects of emotion can operate outside the conscious awareness. Primary types of emotions are found in animals, while secondary, more complex types are involved in interpersonal relationships. Emotions both influence genetic repair mechanisms of individuals and are responsible for group behavior. Many scholars and scientists believe that no scientific or philosophic account of consciousness can be complete without an understanding of the role of emotion. Contents: Emotion and Consciousness: Current Research and Controversies (A W Kaszniak); The Nature of Typical Emotions (A Ben-Ze''ev); Emotions Associated to Cognitive Revision as a Basis for Values (P Livet); Neuro-Affective Processes and the Brain Substrates of Emotion: Emerging Perspective and Dilemmas (J Pankseep); Imagery and Emotion: Information Networks in the Brain (P J Lang); Hemispheric Asymmetries in Representation and Control of Emotions: Evidence from Unilateral Brain Damage (G Gainotti); Hierarchical Organization of Emotional Experience and Its Neural Substrates (R Lane); Metal Representations, the Reticular Activating System and Emotions (B Cabott); Antecedents and Functions of Emotion Episodes (N H Frijda); The Communication of Emotion (U Hess); The Mental Representation of Romantic Jealousy: A Blended Emotion (and More) (D J Sharpsteen); and other papers. Readership: Postdoctoral students and researchers in biocybernetics, neurosciences, cognitive sciences and psychology.
This book is a sequel on the topics of photoreception and phototransduction covered by Volume I of the series (Biophysics of Photoreception: Molecular and Phototransductive Events), adding the analysis of two other modalities of sensory reception and transduction — the chemical and mechanical ones, which are phylogenetically older. This characterization results not in a succession of three different and uncorrelated moments, but in a fruitful confrontation between experts which usually act separately and in an integration between various particular knowledges. This approach highlights the basic strategies common to different sensory modalities and specializations, as well as the ecological adaptations of each of them.
High dilution effects constitute a major problem on the frontier of biophysics. The reported effects on simple and complex biological systems range from in vitro and in vivo models to cellular metabolism regulation, the immune system, the nervous system, intoxicated organs and organisms, and developmental models. The physical properties of high dilutions have been considered, such as the organization properties of water molecules in the presence and after the presence of solute molecules, the energy characteristics of empty and full water clusters, and their dynamical interactions with proteins. Among the mechanisms responsible for the high dilution effects, a non-molecular transfer of information has been hypothesized.