Daedalus articles from March 1998

Daedalus archives from March 1998

Brain science at the century's ebb.
March 22, 1998... I open this special issue of Daedalus on the brain with a brief philosophical comment. The reason is clear: the half-century's accumulation of knowledge of brain function has brought us face to face with the question of what it means to be human....

Building a picture of the brain.
March 22, 1998... The brain is among the most complicated material objects in the known universe. Even before the advent of modern neuroscience, it was a commonplace that the brain is necessary for perception, feelings, and thoughts; today this is considered a...

Art and the brain.
March 22, 1998... Les causeries sur l'art sont presque inutiles.(1) - Paul Cezanne More often than not, [people] expect a painting to speak to them in terms other than visual, preferably in words, whereas when a painting or a sculpture needs to be...

The functional architecture of the brain.
March 22, 1998... INTRODUCTION We live in an age in which people are increasingly accepting the proposition that our emotional, intellectual, and indeed biological lives are determined uniquely by our brains. Nevertheless, as though we were yet in a time when...

From molecules to mental states.
March 22, 1998... It is remarkable how little we need to know about ourselves in order to survive and reproduce. Humans are probably the only animals that have made conjectures about what goes on inside the body. And even then, it has taken a long time to arrive...

Drug use and abuse.
March 22, 1998... Le seul plaisir durable est dans la connaissance objective. - D. Diderot The use of drugs to affect conscious states in humans goes back almost to the origins of humanity. The pollen of eight medicinal plants was discovered deposited...

The quest for the essence of sleep.
March 22, 1998... INTRODUCTION Sleep is a reversible state of reduced consciousness during which the processing of sensory input is minimal, coordinated behavior is abolished, and cognitive activities (thinking, planning, reflection) are suspended. Sleep must...

The evolution and modification of brains and sensory systems.
March 22, 1998... The true test of the assertion that we understand how brains develop and change as a result of experience, that we know how evolutionary novelties of brains and sensory systems evolve, is whether we are able to predict the consequences of natural...

The acquisition of motor behavior.
March 22, 1998... Recently, great strides have been made in understanding the neural foundations of motor behavior. Through the combined efforts of biologists, computer scientists, physicists, and engineers, a picture has begun to emerge of the way in which the...

Unity and diversity in the human brain: evidence from injury.
March 22, 1998... The laws of nature are constructed in such a way as to make the universe as interesting as possible. - Dyson's Principle Does Dyson's principle apply to the universe within? If the human brain were homogenous, with all parts equally involved...

Where brain, body, and world collide.
March 22, 1998... The brain fascinates because it is the biological organ of mindfulness itself. It is the inner engine that drives intelligent behavior. Such a depiction provides a worthy antidote to the once-popular vision of the mind as somehow lying outside...