Edelman's Theory Research Articles

The Simulated Body: A Preliminary Investigation into the Relationship Between Neuroscientific Studies, Phenomenology and Virtual Reality

The author of this paper discusses the theme of the "simulated body", that is the sense of "being there” in a body that is not one's own, or that does not exist in the way one perceives it. He addresses this issue by comparing Immersive Virtual Reality technology, the phenomenological approach, and Gerald Edelman's theory of Neural Darwinism. Virtual Reality has been used to throw light on some phenomena that cannot be studied experimentally in real life, and the results of its simulations enrich the phenomenological discourse on the lived body. Virtual “Reality” seems to replicate—at least in part—the simulation mechanisms of our mind, thus favoring developments in the field of philosophy of mind.

Neurophilosophy, Philosophy of Neuroscience, and Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence: The Problem of Distinguishing

Neurophilosophy is understood as different areas of philosophy, for example, the philosophy of neuroscience, the philosophy of artificial intelligence, or eliminative materialism. This excessive interpretation of the term is due to the fact that the understanding of the subject area of this discipline is still incomplete. For example, one of the earliest definitions of neurophilosophy given by P.S. Churchland stated reduction of psychology to neurosciences. In modern views, the idea of neurophilosophy as an attempt to justify eliminative materialism is outdated and does not correspond to reality. The article analyzes the terms “philosophy of neuroscience,” “neurophilosophy,” and “philosophy of artificial intelligence” and also offers a variant of their differentiation. The authors focus on the common and different features, using the example of G.M. Edelman's theory of consciousness and the concept of connectionism for weak artificial intelligence. It is concluded that integral use of the term “neurophilosophy” should be abandoned. As a result, the term “neurophilosophy” should be understood as a direction in philosophy of the early 21st century, applying neuroscientific concepts to solve traditional philosophical problems, while the philosophy of specific neurosciences can be considered primarily as a field in the philosophy of science that formulates and solves problems of specific neurosciences as well as of the entire neuroscientific direction. The philosophy of artificial intelligence is an area in philosophy that answers the question of what non-biological intelligence is and what makes it possible; in other words, it is a philosophical and methodological basis for the study of non-biological intelligence. In the formation of neurosciences and their scientific and philosophical basis, we are still at the first methodological stage of the analysis and differentiation of hypotheses. After some time, there will emerge a philosophy of neuroscience, as the basis of all existing neuroscientific theories, and then this term will acquire greater significance.

What is Trained Develops! Theoretical Perspective on Skill Learning.

Knowledge about developmental theories is important for experts or specialists working with children following normal development and children who have various kinds of dysfunction, in order to better understand what happens with processes associated with motor behavior. In this article, we have explored how theories of development and learning can be used to understand processes associated with motor behavior. A probabilistic perspective emphasizes that the changes taking place in the development is a result of interaction: structural changes in the nervous system leading to changes in function and behavior and opposite, functional changes resulting in changes in structure. This bidirectional interaction between biological and experiential aspects is a continuous process which cannot be reduced to either organism or environment. Dynamical systems theory (DST) emphasizes that it is the interaction between the person, the environment, and the task that changes how our movements are, also in terms of how we develop and learn new movements. The interplay between these factors will, over time, lead to changes in motor development. The importance of experience is central to Edelman's theory of neuronal group selection (NGST). Activation of the nervous system increases the connections between certain areas of the brain, and the selection processes in the brain are a result of enhancement of neural connections involved in a "successful" motion. The central nervous system adapts its structure and function in response to internal and external influences, and hence neural plasticity is a prerequisite for learning and development. We argue that Edelman´s approach supports the theory of specificity of learning. From the perspectives of probabilistic epigenesis, DST, and NGST, we can see that being physically active and having the opportunity to get different movement experiences are of great significance for promoting motor development and learning. A variation of purposeful or rewarding physical activity in a variety of contexts will provide individual opportunities for changes of behavior in terms of both quantitative and qualitative changes in motor development.

Solving Clinical Puzzles: Memory as Relational Process

This paper offers our view of memory as relational process, a view derived both from Emmanuel Ghent's systems understanding of relational and from Gerald Edelman's biological understanding of process. Memory in our view is understood as relational rather than self-referenced and self-bound; as ongoing process rather than as static representation; as creation rather than as replication; as idiosyncratic in the moment rather than as faithful to the past; and as fluid rather than as fixed, although, as we stress, at times it in fact may feel so different, so fixed, and so faithful to the past. The defining attributes that we conceptualize offer a biological understanding of memory as it actually forms in the brain, emerging from dynamic neuronal patterns and the protein codes by which these variable patterns are set into motion. Generalizations derived from Edelman's global brain theory provide the clinician with both nomothetic and idiographic understanding of memory and its emergence in human experience. Specifically, three such nomothetic generalizations are described and then applied to case material, illustrating the importance of this biological brain-based conceptualization of memory to a more complex understanding of our patients. 1Edelman's (1990, 1992, 2004, 2006) theory of global brain function may be contrasted with the prevailing theory of brain postulated as specialized, segregated modules. This is the theory favored by the field of Neuro-Psychoanalysis, as represented in the mission statement of the inaugural issue of the Neuro-Psychoanalysis Journal (Vol. 1, 1999, pp. 3–4). Edelman's theory is an intricately developed conceptualization that in the form we present here is deceptively simple. It is important not to lose sight of the scientific grounding on which Edelman's global brain theory is premised. The theory requires for full understanding mastery of several foundational scientific premises, each of which must be articulated before his theory of consciousness as a property of brain function can be understood. It is beyond the scope of this paper to provide a full explication of these premises, but nevertheless it seems important to note them, as follows: (a) The properties of Consciousness; (b) The relevant Neuroanatomy of the brain; (c) The Darwinian principles of Evolution and Selectionism: Population Thinking; and (d) Edelman's Theory of Neuronal Group Selection, including the mechanisms of selection particular to neural networks (Edelman, 2004).

Dream interpretation, affect, and the theory of neuronal group selection: Freud, Winnicott, Bion, and Modell

The author uses a dream specimen as interpreted during psychoanalysis to illustrate Modell's hypothesis that Edelman's theory of neuronal group selection (TNGS) may provide a valuable neurobiological model for Freud's dynamic unconscious, imaginative processes in the mind, the retranscription of memory in psychoanalysis, and intersubjective processes in the analytic relationship. He draws parallels between the interpretation of the dream material with keen attention to affect‐laden meanings in the evolving analytic relationship in the domain of psychoanalysis and the principles of Edelman's TNGS in the domain of neurobiology. The author notes how this correlation may underscore the importance of dream interpretation in psychoanalysis. He also suggests areas for further investigation in both realms based on study of their interplay.

Criteria and evaluation of cognitive theories

I have three types of interrelated comments. First, on the choice of the proposed criteria, I argue against any list and for a system of criteria. Second, on grading, I suggest modifications with respect to consciousness and development. Finally, on the choice of “theories” for evaluation, I argue for Edelman's theory of neuronal group selection instead of connectionism (classical or not).

The Relevance of Gerald Edelman's Theory of Neuronal Group Selection and Nonlinear Dynamic Systems for Psychoanalysis

Gerald Edelman's theory of neuronal group selection (1987, 1989, 1992) describes how we appraise, organize, and reorganize our subjective experience of the world. Edelman's theory and the intrinsic principles of selection and self-organization are explicated. A clinical case illustrates the psychoanalytic implications of both Edelman's theory and a dynamic systems approach to development and change (Thelen and Smith, 1994) in which deeply ingrained traumatic experience is transformed through positive, new experiences that impact and become integrated within primary consciousness. The relevance of recognition, adaptive matching, mapping, and remapping of trajectories of experience, primary emotions, and brain asymmetry to developmental change is discussed.

School Choice Policies in the Political Spectacle

This article presents research on school choice. It takes the case of a school district in Boulder, Colorado, through the decade of the 1990s and shows how interest groups took advantage of federal, state, and district policies meant to promote school choice and molded them into a system of schools that met individualistic interests rather than the common good. Extensive interviewing and analysis of documents and media reports served as sources of evidence. The authors argue that district officials accommodated the demands of elite groups of parents to transform the district. The study is framed by revisionist theories of policy, particularly Murray Edelman's theory of political spectacle wherein real values are allocated to a few groups, the allocation occurring largely out of public scrutiny. For most of the public, however, policies are largely symbolic.

MIND AND MUSIC: ON INTENTIONALITY, MUSIC THEORY, AND ANALYSIS

Among current theories of cognition, Gerald Edelman's Theory of Neuronal Group Selection is one of the most successful in showing how the mind is grounded in neurobiological activity. Edelman brings together ideas concerning the selective adaptability of the brain and the interplay of neural impulses during perception to show how the brain creates interconnected neural maps from which memory, the foundation for consciousness, is constructed. Such maps are adaptive; they can change in response to a plethora of ongoing associations in the cortex. Hence, perceptions, rather than remaining fixed in memory, are acts of reconstruction, a perspective that encourages one to view music less as a collection of immutable structures and more as a subject for intentional creative perception. An analysis of Berg's Op. 2, No. 3 tests these ideas by bringing intentionalism and the biological basis of the mind to the forefront of the discussion.

MIND AND MUSIC: ON INTENTIONALITY, MUSIC THEORY, AND ANALYSIS

Among current theories of cognition, Gerald Edelman's Theory of Neuronal Group Selection is one of the most successful in showing how the mind is grounded in neurobiological activity. Edelman brings together ideas concerning the selective adaptability of the brain and the interplay of neural impulses during perception to show how the brain creates interconnected neural maps from which memory, the foundation for consciousness, is constructed. Such maps are adaptive; they can change in response to a plethora of ongoing associations in the cortex. Hence, perceptions, rather than remaining fixed in memory, are acts of reconstruction, a perspective that encourages one to view music less as a collection of immutable structures and more as a subject for intentional creative perception. An analysis of Berg's Op. 2, No. 3 tests these ideas by bringing intentionalism and the biological basis of the mind to the forefront of the discussion. The task of understanding music is complicated, necessarily, by the fact that music-and by that I mean music not only in its written form, but also music as a collection of ideas and processes-is ever-changing

Interactions among affect, cognition, and visuomotor coordination as measured in words and symbols.

The associative frequencies of responses to stimulus words during free and controlled forced-choice word-association tests correlate well with each other and with assessments of the affective character (emotional content) of the stimulus words for the test subjects (Osgood Index) for three samples of volunteer French undergraduate students (ns = 200, 64, and 72). These indices correlate negatively with the subjects' performance on Digit Symbol Substitution tests. Neisser's theory of schemata and Edelman's theory of neuronal group selection may provide insight into this relationship. If the associative frequency of a subject's response decreased, the affective content of the word stimulus (as perceived by the subject) diminished as well. This relationship was associated with a relatively higher score on Digit Symbol Substitution. Conversely, it was observed that subjects whose responses were characterized by high associative frequencies (whether the response was spontaneous or forced-choice) rated the stimulus words as having a relatively stronger affective content or emotional character and performed less well on Digit Symbol Substitution.

Copyright: Film Copyright and Edelman's Theory of Law

Journal Article Copyright: Film Copyright and Edelman's Theory of Law Get access Vincent Porter Vincent Porter Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Screen, Volume 20, Issue 3-4, Winter 1979, Pages 141–148, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/20.3-4.141 Published: 01 December 1979