Consciousness and Cognition: Fragments of Mind and Brain

What were the circumstances that led to the development of our cognitive abilities from a primitive hominid to an essentially modern human? The answer to this question is of profound importance to understanding our present nature. Since the steep path of our cognitive development is the attribute that most distinguishes humans from other mammals, this is also a quest to determine human origins. This collection of outstanding scientific problems and the revelation of the many ways they can be addressed indicates the scope of the field to be explored and reveals some avenues along which research is advancing. Distinguished scientists and researchers who have advanced the discussion of the mind and brain contribute state-of-the-art presentations of their field of expertise. Chapters offer speculative and provocative views on topics such as body, culture, evolution, feelings, genetics, history, humor, knowledge, language, machines, neuroanatomy, pathology, and perception. This book will appeal to researchers and students in cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychology, cognitive science, and philosophy.

Includes a contribution by Noam Chomsky, one of the most cited authors of our time

Chapter 1: How Did Modern Human Cognition Evolve?

Chapter 2: Taking Up Arms

Chapter 3: Celebrating 300 Million Years of the Mind: A Bird’s-Eye View

Chapter 4: Was Medieval Cell Doctrine More Modern Than We Thought?

Chapter 5: Can Evolution Produce Robots?

Chapter 6: The Thought-Translation Device

Chapter 7: Babes in Arms: Studies in Laterality

Chapter 8: Why a Creative Brain? Evolutionary Setups for Off-Line Planning of Coherent Stages

Chapter 9: Creativity: Method or Magic?

Chapter 10: The Cross-Cultural Brain

Chapter 11: Where’s the Missing Body? A Puzzle for Cognitive Science

Chapter 12: Whose Free Will is it Anyway? or, The Illusion of Determinism

Chapter 13: Affective Neuroscience and the Ancestral Sources of Human Feelings

Chapter 14: The Funny Meat Behind Our Eyes

Chapter 15: Practicing Safe Stress: A Selective Overview of the Neuroscience Research

Chapter 16: Petrol Sniffing, the Brain, and Aboriginal Culture: Between Sorcery and Neuroscience

Chapter 17: Chatting with Noam Chomsky

Index