Attachment and bonding are evolved processes; the mechanisms that permit the development of selective social bonds are assumed to be very ancient, based on neural circuitry rooted deep in mammalian evolution, but the nature and timing of these processes and their ultimate and proximate causes are only beginning to be understood. In this Dahlem Workshop Report, scientists from different disciplines—including anthropology, psychology, psychiatry, and behavioral biology—come together to explore the concepts of attachment and bonding from diverse perspectives.
The cognitive disorders that follow brain damage are an important source of insights into the neural bases of human thought. This second edition of the widely acclaimed Patient-Based Approaches to Cognitive Neuroscience offers state-of-the-art reviews of the patient-based approach to central issues in cognitive neuroscience by leaders in the field.
Biological and cultural processes have evolved together, in a symbiotic spiral; they are now indissolubly linked, with human survival unlikely without such culturally produced aids as clothing, cooked food, and tools. The twelve original essays collected in this volume take an evolutionary perspective on human culture, examining the emergence of culture in evolution and the underlying role of brain and cognition.
The event-related potential (ERP) technique in cognitive neuroscience allows scientists to observe human brain activity that reflects specific cognitive processes. In An Introduction to the Event-Related Potential Technique, Steve Luck offers the first comprehensive guide to the practicalities of conducting ERP experiments in cognitive neuroscience and related fields, including affective neuroscience and experimental psychopathology.
The study of event-related potentials (ERPs)—signal-averaged EEG recordings that are time-locked to perceptual, cognitive, and motor events—has increased dramatically in recent years, but until now there has been no comprehensive guide to ERP methodology comparable to those available for fMRI techniques. Event-Related Potentials meets the need for a practical and concise handbook of ERP methods that is suitable for both the novice user of an ERP system and a researcher more experienced in cognitive electrophysiology.
Independent component analysis (ICA) is becoming an increasingly important tool for analyzing large data sets. In essence, ICA separates an observed set of signal mixtures into a set of statistically independent component signals, or source signals. In so doing, this powerful method can extract the relatively small amount of useful information typically found in large data sets. The applications for ICA range from speech processing, brain imaging, and electrical brain signals to telecommunications and stock predictions.
The folk belief that the left brain hemisphere is dominant for language and the right for visuospatial functions is incomplete and even misleading. Research shows that asymmetries exist at all levels of the nervous system and apply to emotional as well as to higher cognitive processes. Going beyond the authors' previous book, Brain Asymmetry, this book reflects the most recent thinking on functional asymmetries and their structural correlates in brain anatomy.
This collection of essays by a group of distinguished social neuroscientists provides the reader with an engaging overview of this emerging multidisciplinary and collaborative field. In the twentieth century, the arbitrary barrier between neuroscience and social psychology was reinforced by the specialized knowledge required by each field and an emphasis on scientific work in isolation from other disciplines; the biological and social perspectives on mind and behavior developed for the most part independently of each other.
How did the human brain evolve so that consciousness of art could develop? In The Psychology of Art and the Evolution of the Conscious Brain, Robert Solso describes how a consciousness that evolved for other purposes perceives and creates art.
