Category: Decade of the Mind

Decade of the Mind goes international

Manfred Spitzer at the University of Ulm issues a clarion call for the internationalization of the Decade of the Mind project in the on-line journal Philosophy, Ethics and Humanities in Medicine.

Money quote:

Emphatically, the Decade of the Mind must be a global initiative, and certainly not merely a USA initiative concerning national (USA) science and medicine, the national (USA) economy, and national (USA) security and well-being. Just as global warming affects all of us and needs to be studied and dealt with on a global scale, the mind is something that should be studied from all angles of the globe and within all cultural backgrounds and contexts. Let’s not waste time and let’s ALL get started! All of humankind!

The Presidential Transition

Those of us who are interested in creating a successful Decade of the Mind initiative are very interested in the rather arcane subject of the presidential transition which will occur after the election in November and before inauguration day in January. I link to a really interesting blog which focuses pretty exclusively on the subject. If you know what the Plum book is, but don’t know what the Prune book is–then this is the site for you.

Jim

National Geographic on Animal Minds

In the spirit of the “Decade of the Mind” initiative that we are so invested in, here’s a very cool article in this month’s National Geographic on animal minds by Virginia Morell. Irene Pepperberg’s work is prominently mentioned.

I’ll remind readers that the third Decade of the Mind event will focus on how mind emerges in animals in May of this year at the Great Ape Trust.

Jim

Putting 2007 to bed

Today marks the last day of what has been a very eventful calendar year for the Institute. It began with a new MRI brain imaging center and ends with plans for a Decade of the Mind. At the same time, it marked the beginning of my second term as institute director and the opening of a new chapter as a full academic unit of George Mason University with two new departments: Social Complexity and Molecular Neuroscience.

None of these achievements would be possible without the folks who do the science here, our faculty. So, to all of our faculty–those who have just joined us, and those who have been here since the beginning back in 1990, I wish you the best of luck in 2008 and heartfelt thanks for your creative efforts in 2007.

I would also like to thank our support staff–your dedication, loyalty and hard work act to enable our scientists. Happy New Year.

Jim

Decade of the Mind: Wikipedia

I’ve been working today on the Wikipedia entry for the Decade of the Mind project. Turns out to be more complicated than writing a blog entry. The key trick was to link it appropriately into the category tree, provide the citations and un-orphan it (from the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study entry).

And yes, I confess to using Wikipedia extensively when reading scientific articles outside my own field.

Jim

Chronicle picks up the meme

This morning on-line: The Chronicle of Higher Education picks up the meme that mind-sciences is becoming mature and links to some very useful sites. If you have trouble linking, here’s the quote:

If you’re generally concerned about consciousness, check out MindPapers, a new online resource that bills itself as “A Bibliography of the Philosophy of the Mind and the Science of Consciousness.” It’s run by David Chalmers and David Bourget, of Australian National University, and boasts 18,329 entries, some of which are directly available.

Jim

Neuroscience on the Mall

This evening I’m giving a talk at the Smithsonian about where neuroscience is as a field, here early in the 21st century. In some senses I’ll be optimistic. Certainly there has been much progress understanding some of the fundamental processes that underlie neural function, particularly where it is mainly homeostatic as opposed to cognitive. But in another sense, there is a real frustration–one that I’ve expressed before, that we are very very far from a coherent theory of brain function. That is why I have a real worry, with all the new “neuro” social fields (eg. neurolaw, neuroeconomics) that the field will get “over-sold” the way AI did in the 1960’s.

How to avoid.

Well, I believe we need to really adopt integrative approaches that study the brain across the different spatial and temporal levels (and there are many). For example, if we are to understand why music is the muse for so many humans, that it is–across cultures–then we need to know something about the auditory pathways. But we also need to understand something about the brain’s dopamine reinforcement systems…and perhaps something about synaptic plasticity….but also we need to look at a phenomenon like perfect pitch. All of these various aspects of music (within the context of brain function) need to be integrated. Without studying the phenomenon across multiple levels, it’s just hair cell physiology, auditory cortex tonotopic maps, and a human with a smile on his or her face.

Which brings me to the subject of “mind” and the notion of a federal investment into a “Decade of the Mind”. Why, given the above worries, do I believe that now is the time for a Decade of the Mind? The answer I believe has to do with an emerging critical mass of scientists (across many fields, not just neuroscience) who are seriously studying the phenomena of mind (such as music) across levels. They are using new imaging techniques. They are using high performance computation to build models and then testing those models against real data. They are sharing that data. And most importantly they are approaching this monumentally important scientific question in an integrative manner.

The pay off: in terms of people healed, technologies developed, economic growth and security (writ large) would without a doubt be huge.

Jim

Oprah’s Soul Series on XM -Radio

I’m getting a lot of requests for more information about the experience of being interviewed by Oprah yesterday evening for her Soul Series on XM-Radio. We did it out of the studios of WGMU in the Johnson Center here at Mason, but with the ISDN line it really felt as if the two of us were just having a friendly conversation in the same studio.

The first thing I need to say is that Oprah is an extremely personable interviewer. She put me pretty much instantly at ease with her combination of humor and warmness, and then we pretty much jumped into a discussion of just what modern neuroscience can offer us as to insight into the human mind, using Joel Achenbach’s article in the Washington Post as a starting point.

We talked about the difference between human intelligence and animal intelligence (we both came to the consensus that our dogs don’t spend a lot of time reflecting on either their soul or their place in the universe). I spent some time talking about what non-invasive brain imaging has gotten us….and what it hasn’t (i.e. we can’t read off the neural code).

Talking about meditation, I think she was surprised to learn that the Dalai Lama had been the star plenary guest at a recent Society for Neuroscience meeting held in Washington. Neuroscience certainly is interested in altered mental states.

The interview then turned to the “Decade of the Mind” project itself. My strong sense is that she understood why we belief that this proposed investment is necessary and supported it.

We also talked about my favorite brain structure, the hippocampus–how it is not only beautiful from a structural standpoint, but also what the clues from patients who have lesions to their hippocampi say about the laying down of episodic memories.

She asked me if it’s just a neuroscientist “thing” to find the hippocampus beautiful or would any person agree. Of course you can guess how I answered.

Finally I got to spend some time talking about the role of intuition in the life of an experimental science–how intuition at the laboratory bench can lead to that “Ah Ha” moment of discovery.

Jim

Heading into the home stretch

This academic year is now in the final stretch. I’m heading to a cook out this evening celebrating the end of the semester for one of our centers. Just left a meeting going over the final draft of a thesis before a PhD defense and it’s getting time to check out my academic regalia and see whether it has survived another winter without become moth gourmet food….commencement isn’t far off.

Next week I’ll be at Sandia National Labs for a scientific meeting with a Russian scientific delegation. Hopefully I’ll be able to blog from the road. The Institute’s ties to New Mexico are extensive. It will be good to be back. At that meeting, I’ll be talking about our upcoming “Decade of the Mind” Symposium on May 21st and 22nd. I hope that our Russian colleagues can pick up some of the excitement that “mind research” is generating here at Krasnow.

Jim