Modern Brain Research Research Articles

Early Christian Families in Context: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue (review)

Reviewed by: Early Christian Families in Context: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue Andrew Jacobs David L. Balch and Carolyn Osiek , editors Early Christian Families in Context: An Interdisciplinary DialogueGrand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003 Pp. xix + 412 + 11 plates. $28 (paper). Emerging out of a 2000 Brite Divinity School conference on the family and/in early Christianity, these seventeen papers (fourteen essays and three responses) provide excellent insight into the directions, methods, and materials of the burgeoning "early Christian families" industry. Balch and Osiek (whose collaborative 1997 Families in the New Testament World: Households and House Churches [Westminster/John Knox] arguably propelled the family in early Christian studies to new prominence) construe "interdisciplinarity" in a manner familiar to most students of early Christianity with a few twists: elements from classical studies (literary and epigraphic), archaeology, New Testament studies, early Judaism, ancient Christianity ("patristics") as well as critical insights drawn from sociology, anthropology, discourse analysis, comparative social history, and psychobiology. The first section treats "Archaeology of the Domus and Insulae." Andrew Wallace-Hadrill (3-18) wants us to "think about Rome not so much as an undifferentiated sea of distinct units of housing, be they domus or insulae . . . but as a series of cellular neighborhoods" (13). Rigid notions of "household" that preserve class and ethnic division give way here to overflowing "housefuls" encouraging much more social mixing. Monika Trümper (19-43) surveys house-types from ancient Delos in order to balance out our Rome-centric sense of urban topography and give a better sense of the type of house in which Paul himself might have preached. In the only essay in this section to treat the family directly, Eric Meyers (44-69) lays out the ways in which archaeology (here, of Roman Galilee) corrects our sense of family dynamics, showing that the unhelpful "public/private" division of "gendered space" "simply cannot characterize this space [the house] where all manner of household, family, and everyday activities were carried on" (59). The second section, "Domestic Values: Equality, Suffering," juxtaposes the two most dissimilar offerings in the collection. Peter Lampe (73-83) asks, "What does modern brain research have to do with theology?" (73) before introducing neurophilosophy into the study of Pauline house churches. He seeks to understand how Paul's communities negotiated the cognitive disconnection between "social" and "mental" constructs of equality (inside the house church) and inequality (in society at large). Lampe's is a creative but ultimately baffling and idiosyncratic attempt to preserve an early Christian erasure of hierarchy and explain away Paul's inconsistencies regarding social status. David Balch (84-108) asks, "What would Paul's word picture of Christ crucified look like, and would some Greco-Roman domestic paintings and sculptures have helped make his gospel comprehensible?" (88). The author draws on ancient art and art criticism to imagine the way in which common household images, such as Iphigeneia and Laocoon, inform the social and theological context of Paul's preaching. Parts III and IV on "Women" and "Slaves" respectively are the strongest in the [End Page 376] volume. Suzanne Dixon's work (111-29) on family in the Roman context is an invaluable source for students of the early Christian family. Moving fluidly between magical and philosophical texts, she pointedly asks what blinders prevent scholars from imagining affective (indeed, passionate) bonds between ancient husbands and wives. Next, Ross Kraemer (130-56) examines the unusually well-documented family lives of two Jewish women, i.e., Berenice, great-granddaughter of Herod the Great and paramour of Titus and Babatha, whose documentary archive survives among detritus of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Kraemer comes to the conclusion that "the study of Jewish families, while fascinating in itself, is not as germane to the study of early Christian families as it might initially seem" since "the dynamics of Jewish families do not appear appreciably different from those of non-Jews . . . in the early imperial Roman period" (155). It is refreshing to be reminded that ancient Jews do not always serve as "background sources" for the study of early Christianity. Margaret Y. MacDonald (157-84) rehearses familiar arguments for the centrality of women in the life and leadership of the first- and second-century church. Finally...

On the legacy of G. Pólya

In this article are given some new aspects of mathematical problem solving. A framework is presented by three main resources: (1) Pólya's studies about mathematical heuristics are augmented by information drawn from a study of the history of mathematical problem solving. (2) Connections are presented between mathematical problem solving and mathematical beliefs. (3) Experience with a special program for mathematical talented students is sketched. On this background a new textbook-series has been developed and some teaching examples are taken from this context. An outlook is given on some new research on teaching of problem solving, including possible relations to modern brain research.

The march of self‐reference

Focuses on the issue of increasing environmental and societal complexity, and its effects on the individual, especially visible in the increase of self‐reference (the commonalities between man, animals and machines). Distinguishes three meanings of self‐reference and discusses the interrelationships between self‐reference, alienation, and growing societal complexity: states that, especially in the last few decades of this secular age, there has been increasing incidence of self‐reference. Also discusses the relationship between self‐reference, constructivism, and modern brain research. Asserts that the march of self‐reference is likely to continue, but that it will change in character.

Cultivating the cortex in German neuroanatomy.

The cerebral localization of mental functions is one of the centerpieces of modern brain research. Though the localization paradigm in its cultural and social interwovenness has been characterized as successful in the last third of the nineteenth century by a variety of historians of the neurosciences, there is also general agreement that localization came under threat around 1900. Besides the so-called holistic protest against the localization of mental functions, the neuroanatomical approach itself was challenged by experimental psychology, psychiatric nosology, and psychoanalysis. This story underestimates the fact that anatomically-based localization remained powerful in response to these multiple challenges. This meant a neuroanatomical revision of tools, concepts, and practices. But this meant also a shift in the cultivation of the cortex from a more philosophical agenda to rather concrete political claims. More specifically, the idea of the cortext as the noblest part of man was supplemented by suggestions concerning its "Höherzüchtung." I will analyze this re-orientation and radicalization in two steps. First, I briefly discuss the anatomical and philosophical account of Theodor Meynert and then turn to Paul Flechsig who in the late nineteenth century inscribed the ability to create culture and civilization into the cortext. Second, I focus on the neuroanatomists Oskar and Cécile Vogt, who began their careers around 1900 and expanded the cultivation of the cortext. Even before World War I, they proclaimed a "cerebral hygiene." Consequently, the Vogts linked their innovative neuroanatomical researches with the rising field of genetics, racial hygiene, and eugenics. In the early Weimar Republic, the Vogts openly supported socialist ideas and were engaged in establishing an Institute for Brain Research in Soviet Moscow, where Lenin's brain was analyzed. By the end of the Weimar Republic, the rhetoric of the Vogts was bluntly authoritarian. Based on a few anatomical examinations of so-called elite brains and the brains of criminals, they made concrete suggestions for eugenics and the breeding of "one-sidedly gifted leaders." Given the remarkable popularity of the Vogts around 1930, their program is an important example of the hubris of predicting and guiding future developments on the basis of scientific authority. It can be regarded as an ironic nemesis that the Vogts - never sympathizing with the political aims of the National Socialists - were forced to finish their careers as influential Kaiser Wilhelm scientists in Nazi-Germany.

Methodologies of Brain Research in Cognitive Musicology

This tutorial introduces the principles of the most common non-invasive methods of modern brain research which have been used in determining the neural functions underlying music perception. The methods described are electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), positron emission tomography (PET), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In addition, evidence from brain-lesioned patients will be briefly illuminated.

Phenomena of illusory form: can we bridge the gap between levels of explanation?

The study of illusory brightness and contour phenomena has become an important tool in modern brain research. Gestalt, cognitive, neural, and computational approaches are reviewed and their explanatory powers are discussed in the light of empirical data. Two well-known phenomena of illusory form are dealt with, the Ehrenstein illusion and the Kanizsa triangle. It is argued that the gap between the different levels of explanation, bottom-up versus top-down, creates scientific barriers which have all too often engendered unnecessary debate about who is right and who is wrong. In this review of the literature we favour an integrative approach to the question of how illusory form is derived from stimulus configuration which provide the visual system with seemingly incomplete information. The processes that can explain the emergence of these phenomena range from local feature detection to global strategies of perceptual organisation. These processes may be similar to those that help us restore partially occluded objects in everyday vision. To understand better the Ehrenstein and Kanizsa illusions, it is proposed that different levels of analysis and explanation are not mutually exclusive, but complementary. Theories of illusory contour and form perception must, therefore, take into account the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms and their possible interactions with cognitive and attentional processes.

Cerebral bases of consciousness: A historical view

Attempts of modern brain research, starting at the end of the nineteenth century, to define and hierarchically order consciousness are reviewed. It is emphasized that roots from philosophy, biology, and psychology influenced brain research in its search for possible physical bases of consciousness. Among the mainstreams of research were approaches which defined consciousness by selecting numerous attributes of it and ordering these hierarchically. Similarly, there was widespread speculation on whether all kinds of animals or only some of them are conscious or manifest some of the hierarchically defined attributes of consciousness. On the brain side, the cerebral cortex and in particular its frontal aspects, the prefrontal cortex, was regarded as the principal anatomical basis of consciousness. The dependence of consciousness on memory and the ability to order processes in time were widely acknowledged and case descriptions from Korsakoff patients and epileptics were considered especially to demonstrate the interdependence between consciousness and the brain.

The P300 as a “lie detector”? A warning

Computer vision (CV) makes computers mimic as human and thus utilizes the concept of human vision. The human vision capabilities are brought in computers and huge number of operations can be performed by the computers. Image processing is an integral part of any CV system that involves acquisition of images and their processing for specific applications. Medical image processing is researched in modern times and brain research is ongoing all across the world. The study of cognitive science (CS) involves huge amount of data especially images and videos; and in various stages of CS implementations, lot of redundant data are also processed. This limits the computational speed of the system and also affects the utilization of data storage. This chapter highlights the difficulties in CS- and CV-based research, especially related to dimensionality problem and data duplicates. The applications of data deduplication methods will be discussed in context with CS and CV research.

Early psychopharmacology and the rise of modern brain research

Early psychopharmacology and the rise of modern brain research