BSP 115: Eastern Philosophy and Western Neuroscience

Evan Thompson (click photo to buy BS 115 audio)

Scientific interest in the Mind and Consciousness is relatively new, but both Western and Eastern Philosophy have a long tradition of exploring these topics. In his new book Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy, Evan Thompson explores how these diverse traditions can inform and enrich one another.

Thompson goes beyond a narrow view of consciousness, which focuses only on the waking state. Instead he considers how dreaming, lucid dreaming, and even near death experiences can advance our understanding of how our brain's generate both consciousness and our sense of Self. 

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Related Episodes:

• BSP 5: Very brief introduction to Philosophy of Mind.

• BSP 55: Patricia Churchland, PhD, discusses Neurophilosophy.

• BSP 58: Alva Noë, PhD, discusses Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness.

• BSP 67: Thomas Metzinger discusses The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self.

• BSP 73: Embodied Cognition with Lawrence Shapiro, PhD.

• BSP 81: Patricia Churchland discusses Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality.

• BSP 89: Evan Thompson discusses Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind.

• BSP 96: Robert Burton, MD discusses A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind: What Neuroscience Can and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves.

Announcements:

• This month's Audible recommendation: The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults byFrances E. Jensen, MD

• The next episode of the Brain Science Podcast will feature Dr. Norman Doidge talking about his new book The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity.

• Reminder: the 25 most recent episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always free, but Premium subscribers have unlimited access to all back episodes and transcripts. The Brain Science Podcast Mobile App is FREE. It is a great way to consume both free and premium content (since this will not appear in iTunes or other podcasting apps).

• Please share your feedback about this episode by sending email to brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com or going to the Brain Science Podcast Discussion Forum at http://brainscienceforum.com. You can also post to our fan pages on Facebook or Google+. I am looking for help with these community pages so please email me at brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com if you are interested.

"Mind in Life" with Evan Thompson (BSP 89)

Evan Thompson, PhD

Embodied Cognition is a movement within cognitive science that argues that the mind is inseparable from the fact that the brain is embedded in a physical body. This means that everything that the brain does, from the simplest perception to complex decision-making, relies on the interaction of the body with its environment.  Evan Thompson's book, Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind, is an in-depth look at what he calls the "enactive" approach to embodied cognition. The enactive approach was pioneered by Thompson's mentor Francisco Varela, and it emphasizes the importance of the body's active engagement with its environment.

In a recent interview (BSP 89) I talked with Thompson about some of the key ideas in Mind in Life. Unlike most episodes of the Brain Science Podcast, this is not really a stand-alone episode. It is part of my ongoing exploration of both embodied cognition and the controversial topic of emergence. It is also intended as a follow-up to my recent interview with Terrence Deacon.

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How to get this episode:

• Buy audio mp3 for $1.

• Buy Transcript for $1.

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE. All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free. See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

• 

References:

• Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind, by Evan Thompson (2007).

• The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience, by Francisco J. Varela, Evan T. Thompson, & Eleanor Rosch (1991).

• Embodied Cognition, by Lawrence Shapiro (2010).

• Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter, by Terrence W. Deacon (2011).

• Dynamic Patterns: The Self-Organization of Brain and Behavior, by J. A. Scott Kelso (1995).

• Friston, K.J. (1995) "Transients, Metastability, and Neuronal Dynamics."Neuroimage 5 (164-171).

Related Episodes: 

• BSP 5: A bried introduction to philosphy of mind

• BSP 25: Embodied Intelligence with Rolf Pfeifer

• BSP 36: Art Glenberg on Embodied Cognition

• BSP 53: Discussion of Did My Neurons Make Me Do It? (emergence and free will)

• BSP 62: Warren Brown, co-author of Did My Neurons Make Me Do It?

• BSP 73: Lawrence Shapiro, author of Embodied Cognition.

• Books and Ideas #47: Terrence Deacon, author of Incomplete Nature.

Announcements:

• Continuing education credit is now available for selected episodes of the Brain Science Podcast. Click here to learn more.

• I will be in Philadelphia, PA October 16-21 to attend the annual meeting of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Please contact me if you would like to get together.

• My eBook Are You Sure? The Unconscious Origins of Certainty is on sale for only $2.99. Please post your review.

• Next month's Brain Science Podcast will be a discussion of Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain by Antonio Damasio. Self Comes to Mind is also available from our sponsor Audible.com.

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Embodied Cognition with Lawrence Shapiro (BSP 73)

In his new book, Embodied Cognition, Dr. Lawrence Shapiro provides a balanced introduction to embodied cognition's attempts to challenge standard cognitive science.  His interview in Episode 73 of the Brain Science Podcast is a discussion of a few of his book's key ideas. It also continues our ongoing exploration of the role of embodiment. 

How to get this episode:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Buy mp3 for $1.

• Buy Transcript for $1.

• New episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

Related Episodes:

• BSP 25: Embodied Artificial Intelligence with Dr. Rolf Pfeifer.

• BSP 36: Introduction to Embodied Cognition with Dr. Art Glenberg.

• BSP 58: "Extended Mind" with philosopher Alva Noë.

• BSP 66: Computational cognitive science with Dr. Randy Gallistel.

Some scientists mentioned in this episode:

• Lawrence Shapiro (University of Wisconsin).

• James J Gibson: founder of ecological psychology and the theory of affordances.

• Jerry Fodor: a proponent of standard cognitive science.

• Noam Chomsky: linguist who greatly influenced standard cognitive science.

• Rodney Brooks (MIT): pioneer of embodied artificial intelligence.

• Rolf Pfeifer: embodied AI (interviewed in BSP 25).

• Art Glenberg: discussed embodied cognition in BSP 36.

• Andy Clark: along with David Chalmers he has proposed the idea of "extended mind".

• Alva Noë: philosopher intervied in BSP 58.

• Randy Gallistel: discussed the computational approach to cognitive science in BSP 66.

References:

• Embodied Cognition, by Lawrence Shapiro.

• Radical Embodied Cognitive Science, by Anthony Chemero.

• How the Body Shapes the Way We Think: A New View of Intelligence, by Rolf Pfeifer and Josh C. Bongard.

• Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness, by Alva Noë.

• Memory and the Computational Brain: Why Cognitive Science will Transform Neuroscience, by C. R. Gallistel and Adam Philip King.

• Held, R. Hien, A. (1963) "Movement-Produced Simulation in the Development of Visually Guided Behavior," Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 56: 872-6. (Discussion)

• Brooks, R. (1991) "New Approaches to Robotics," Science 253: 1227-32.

• Brooks, R. (1991) "Intelligence without Representation," Artificial Intelligence 47: 139-59.

• Clark, A. and Chalmer, D. (1998) "The Extended Mind." Analysis 58: 7-19.

• Glenberg, A. and Kaschak, M. (2002) "Grounding Lanquage in Action," Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 9: 558-65.

• Ehrlich, S., Levine, S., and Golden-Meadows, S. (2006) "The Importance of Gesture in Children's Spatial Reasoning," Developmental Psychology 42: 1259-68.

• Thelan, E. and Smith,L. (1994) A Dynamical Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action (Cambridge: MIT Press).

• See Episode Transcript for additional references.

Announcements:

• Join the discussion of this episode in our new Discussion Group at Goodreads.com.

• Subscribe to the Brain Science Podcast newsletter to get detailed show notes for every episode.

• The next episode of the Brain Science Podcast will be an interview with Dr. Olaf Sporns, author of Networks of the Brain. I am also hoping to interview Antonio Damasio later this spring.

• The Brain Science Podcast application is now available for iPhone, iPad Touch, and Android Devices.

• Please listen to my other podcast Books and Ideas, which comes out in the alternate months between episodes of this podcast.

• I will be giving a live talk in London, UK on May 11. Visit the London Skeptics in the Pub website for more details, or send me email.

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Send feed back to Dr. Campbell at brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com

Embodied Cognition with Art Glenberg (BSP 36)

Episode 36 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with Arthur Glenberg, PhD, about embodied cognition.  Dr. Glenberg recently moved to Arizona State University, after over 30 years at the University of Wisconsin's Laboratory of Embodied Cognition.  His research focuses on the relationship between embodiment and language.  In this interview, we explore the experimental evidence for a theory of language that embraces the concept that our language abilities are actually rooted in our perceptual and motor abilities.  Dr. Glenberg also explains how his work has practical implications in helping children learn how to read.

Since Dr. Glenberg has had a long career as a working research scientist, this interview also provided an opportunity to explore how scientific hypotheses are formed and how experiments are designed to test these hypothesis.  I think this interview will give you a fascinating look into the real world of cognitive psychology.

How to get this episode:

• Premium Subscribers now have unlimited access to all old episodes and transcripts.

• Buy mp3 for $1.

• Buy Transcript for $1.

• New of the Brain Science Podcast are always FREE.  All episodes posted after January 1, 2013, are free.  See the individual show notes for links the audio files.

Listen in your Favorite Audio app: Audible, Amazon music, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and many more.

Links and References:

Arthur Glenberg, PhD

• email: arthur.glenberg@asu.edu.

• Laboratory for Embodied Cognition.

• Havas, D.A., Glenberg, A.M., and Rink, M. (2007) Emotion simulation during language comprehension. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review14 (3), 436-441

• Thinking With the Body: blog post of March 3, 2008.

Other scientists mentioned in the Episode:

• George Lakoff: pioneering linguist.

• James Gibson: known for his ideas about affordances.William Epstein-emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin.

• Joseph Campos: University of California (Berkelely).

• Amy Needham and Amanda Woodard-experiments with velcro mits and infant cognition.

• David A Havas: graduate student and co-author with Dr. Glenberg.

• Mike Kashak: Florida State University.

• Mike Rinck: German co-author-see paper under Glenberg.

• Vittorio Gallese, Dept of Neuroscience, University of Parma, Italy (where mirror neurons were discovered): extensive experimental with motor neurons in monkeys.

• Fritz Stack (Germany): experiments showing that facial experiments affect mood and cognition.

References:

• Havas, D.A., Glenberg, A.M., and Rink, M. (2007) Emotion simulation during language comprehension. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review14 (3), 436-441.

• more publications by Arthur Glenberg.

• Sommerville, J.A., Woodard, A.L., and Needham, A., Action experience alters 3-month-old infants’ perception of others’ actions, Cognition 96 (2005) B1-B11..Strack, F., Martin, L. L., & Stepper, S. (1988). Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: A nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 54, 768-777.

• Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things (1987), by George Lakoff.

• Recent essays by George Lakoff written for the Rockridge Institute

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Some Recent Research About Embodied Cognition

There is an ongoing debate on the Brain Science Podcast Discussion Forum about whether the importance of embodiment is an essential obstacle to trying to simulate human cognition with computers.  Meanwhile, the role of embodiment in cognition continues to be a growing area of research.  I enjoyed a recent post on the Scientific American Community website entitled, Thinking with the Body, by Art Glenberg from Arizona State University.  He reviews recent research by Holt and Bellock.  The bottom line is that even when people are involved in verbal tasks, like reading sentences, their comprehension is influenced by their body knowledge of what is being described.

You can read more at Mind Matters: Neuroscience, Psychology, Psychiatry, and More.