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Corpo non mente. Le neuroscienze cognitive e la genesi di soggettività ed intersoggettività
... Riflettendo sull'intreccio tra la dimensione simbolica e l'esperienza corporea, Gallese (2013;Glenberg & Gallese, 2011) ha mostrato come, attraverso l'ipotesi dello sfruttamento neurale, sia possibile far risalire lo sviluppo della competenza linguistica (simbolica) al 'corpo in azione', ovvero alla relazione corpo-mondo (riprendendo la riflessione fenomenologica a cui l'autore fa riferimento), mostrando inoltre la continuità di questa con la sfera pre-linguistica (Gallese, 2007), in accordo con le intuizioni di Stern a cui i lavori dell'autore fornirebbero un supporto neurobiologico. Anche l'origine senso-motoria del simbolo si produce attraverso l'incontro corpomondo, un mondo che, pensando all'origine del linguaggio, ha primariamente caratteristiche sonoro-musicali. ...
... Ipotizziamo quindi che l'evoluzione riscontrabile nell'attraversamento delle tre cornici riportate, sia stata espressa anche attraverso l'organizzazione degli elementi grafici sullo spazio-foglio. Riconducendo l'origine dell'affetto ad un'esperienza corporea a cui un altro risponde (Freud, 1895), aspetto che a nostro parere si intreccia con le riflessioni di Gallese sull'intersoggettività (Gallese, 2013), potremmo ipotizzare che un aspetto dell'espressione affettiva traduca nel nostro caso la consapevolezza del bambino di occupare uno spazio (Schwab, 2014), in cui si condensano lo spazio fisico occupato dal proprio corpo, che implica anche la consapevolezza della differenza io-altro (Grinberg & Grinberg, 1976), e lo spazio conversazionale, all'interno del quale il bambino ha riconosciuto la sua posizione di soggetto. Possiamo sintetizzare così che cosa succede in termini di intersoggettività: quando l'adulto che lavora con il bambino autistico in un contesto di cura 'riesce a introdursi tra il bambino e quello che lo assorbe nel mondo, il sentimento di identità del bambino si consolida. ...
In questo lavoro abbiamo inteso coniugare l’approccio psicodinamico con le recenti acquisizioni neuro-scientifiche sullo sviluppo dell’intersoggettività, con attenzione particolare all’area comunicativo-linguistica. Il materiale empirico, raccolto attraverso un’osservazione longitudinale semi-strutturata di un bambino diagnosticato nello spettro autistico, mostra l’intreccio tra i processi intersoggettivi e lo sviluppo della dimensione simbolica nelle diverse modalità espressive in cui si esplicita, rappresentate nel nostro caso dal linguaggio e dal disegno. L’interconnessione dei tre registri - fonetico, linguistico e grafico - ha permesso di identificare l’avvento del linguaggio come produzione intenzionale che segnala la configurazione della soggettività nel campo relazionale.
... Although several studies on the comprehension of idiomatic phrases (Gallese, 2008;2013) show that all human knowledge is deeply rooted in our physicality: the body is the basis for the development of abstract concepts. Wojciehowski and Gallese (2011) suggest that the phenomenon of mental imagery and simulation of feelings and emotions are both processes involved in the use of literary texts. ...
... In other words, the simulation is carried out exclusively in the case in which the end of the entire motor chain is already part of the motor knowledge baggage of the viewer or listener; and, especially, in the case where the motor chain is moved by an intention. The results of studies on mirror neuron systems (Rizzolatti, Senigaglia, 2008;Gallese, 2008;2013) were linked by neuroscientists with one of the themes dear to the phenomenology: empathy. The term Einfühlung, translated with the word empathy realizes the experience mimetic sharing, which is achieved and materialized in various forms of artistic expression. ...
... Although several studies on the comprehension of idiomatic phrases (Gallese, 2008;2013) show that all human knowledge is deeply rooted in our physicality: the body is the basis for the development of abstract concepts. Wojciehowski and Gallese (2011) suggest that the phenomenon of mental imagery and simulation of feelings and emotions are both processes involved in the use of literary texts. ...
... In other words, the simulation is carried out exclusively in the case in which the end of the entire motor chain is already part of the motor knowledge baggage of the viewer or listener; and, especially, in the case where the motor chain is moved by an intention. The results of studies on mirror neuron systems (Rizzolatti, Senigaglia, 2008;Gallese, 2008;2013) were linked by neuroscientists with one of the themes dear to the phenomenology: empathy. The term Einfühlung, translated with the word empathy realizes the experience mimetic sharing, which is achieved and materialized in various forms of artistic expression. ...
... Although several studies on the comprehension of idiomatic phrases (Gallese, 2008;2013) show that all human knowledge is deeply rooted in our physicality: the body is the basis for the development of abstract concepts. Wojciehowski and Gallese (2011) suggest that the phenomenon of mental imagery and simulation of feelings and emotions are both processes involved in the use of literary texts. ...
... In other words, the simulation is carried out exclusively in the case in which the end of the entire motor chain is already part of the motor knowledge baggage of the viewer or listener; and, especially, in the case where the motor chain is moved by an intention. The results of studies on mirror neuron systems (Rizzolatti, Senigaglia, 2008;Gallese, 2008;2013) were linked by neuroscientists with one of the themes dear to the phenomenology: empathy. The term Einfühlung, translated with the word empathy realizes the experience mimetic sharing, which is achieved and materialized in various forms of artistic expression. ...
... È stato infatti dimostrato che la capacità empatica -che ci consente di "vestire" i panni dell'altro immedesimandoci -dipenda essenzialmente dal lavoro svolto dai neuroni specchio che, da un punto di vista operativo, rispondono in maniera automatica agli stimoli visivi sviluppando processi di simulazione incarnata: autorappresentazione mentale istantanea dei gesti compiuti dal nostro interlocutore. Per la neuroscienza, infatti, maturare l'intenzione di fare qualcosa oppure cogliere le intenzioni altrui attraverso la simulazione interna del gesto sono processi neurobiologici equivalenti, in quanto si basano sull'attivazione simultanea delle medesime aree del cervello -premotorie e prelinguistiche -che mette in uno stato di consonanza intenzionale chi compie un movimento e chi semplicemente lo osserva: è questa l'empatia (Gallese 2007(Gallese , 2013; si tratta, in sostanza, di una forma di comunicazione che potremmo definire mimica o proto-verbale. ...
There is no doubt that the discovery of the mirror neuron system – which took place
in the last decade of the twentieth century by a group of Italian neuroscientists at the University of Parma – has fueled a renewed interest in those issues concerning the empathic relationship between man and architecture, which are typical of late-nineteenth-century experimental Aesthetics. Thanks to the use of modern neuroimaging techniques, recent experiments conducted in the Neuroaesthetics’ laboratories are, in fact, now confirming many of the brilliant insights made by a large group of Nineteenth-Century Central European philosophers and art historians who championed the theory of Einfühlung. This school of Experimental Aesthetics accommodates within itself the first instances of human neurophysiology, which gradually led to the diffusion of the new concept of organic space and which resulted, in some cases, in real experimental laboratories of sensory architecture or, we might say, Proto-neuroarchitecture. Therefore, a careful textual and comparative analysis between the cornerstones of the Aesthetics of Einfühlung and the most recent neuroscientific approaches – aided by a focal rereading of some futuristic case studies – can certainly provide new elements of knowledge capable of reopening territories of research that have remained unexplored: this is what we will attempt to demonstrate.
... La voce però traccia i confini e rende possibile -a condizioni accessibili e per una durata temporale che è strettamente correlata alla relazione tra voce e ascolto -la comunicazione narrativa, che a sua volta consente la costruzione di uno spazio ulteriore, immaginario e, come ci insegnano le neuroscienze, incarnato (Gallese, 2013;Cometa, 2017, pp. 263-264). ...
The need that emerged from many years of research and training of operators and volunteers in reading aloud is to investigate and define one of the fundamental assumptions of the teaching of reading aloud: the creation of a specific reading area within the educational and instructional services. In order to define the construct of the reading aloud zone, the concept of third space has been used, whose hybrid and relational na- ture is suitable for enhancing the complexity of the construct. The constant dialogue with the fieldwork – from the formative stimulus back to research – has allowed a first systematiza- tion, through the qualitative-quantitative control of the results and the qualitative feedback of the processes (interviews, focus, dialogues) and through the subsequent and further reflec- tion and comparison with an interdisciplinary literature.
... Per Atwell (2007: 20-25) la zona di lettura è sia la situazione didattica dedicata alla lettura libera nella scuola, sia lo spazio e il tempo dell'esperienza estetica, una sorta di «stato di lettura» (Atwell 2007: 21), il luogo virtuale in cui il lettore si sprofonda e, per un certo periodo di tempo, scompare. La lettura in comune e la lettura individuale devono essere comunque promosse, nella scuola primaria e secondaria, in quanto esperienze concrete -che si compiono in situazioni date, in ambienti che devono essere adegua-ti -e, anche, se non soprattutto, in quanto esperienze simulate o mediate, che si svolgono, come ormai abbiamo imparato dall'introspezione e dalle neuroscienze, nel corpo del lettore (Gallese 2013;Cometa 2017: 263-264). Se attraverso il controllo dell'ambiente di apprendimento, infatti, possiamo favorire lo sviluppo di abitudini di lettura e rendere più efficace l'esperienza estetica, è proprio grazie a quest'ultima che possiamo riuscire a mettere a frutto tutte le potenzialità dell'incontro con quel particolare tipo di discorso narrativo che è l'opera letteraria. ...
Nussbaum e Todorov, sia pure da posizioni diverse, hanno contribuito a sviluppare un’idea di insegnamento letterario basata sulla lettura simpatetica o immersiva, che consente di cambiare sé stessi e di sviluppare un’attitudine all’incontro con l’altro. Queste idee, che hanno trovato scarsa applicazione in ambito didattico, vengono approfondite e sviluppate alla luce degli studi sull’esperienza estetica e sulla narrazione, nel tentativo di fornire qualche indicazione utile a individuare modelli didattici in grado di valorizzare il ruolo educativo della lettura delle opere letterarie.
Keywords: esperienza estetica, lettura, didattica della letteratura, Writing and Reading Workshop, apprendistato cognitivo.
... L'idea di creare delle "zone di lettura libera" o ZLL (Falcetto, 2011, p. 130) riecheggia la metafora della "zona di lettura" (The Reading Zone) proposta da Nancie Atwell (2007), che definisce con questa espressione sia la situazione didattica dedicata alla lettura libera nella scuola, sia lo spazio e il tempo dell'esperienza estetica, una sorta di «stato di lettura» (Atwell, 2007, p. 21), il luogo virtuale in cui il lettore si sprofonda e, per un certo periodo di tempo, scompare. La lettura in comune e la lettura individuale devono essere comunque promosse, nella scuola primaria e secondaria, in quanto esperienze concrete -che si compiono in situazioni date, in ambienti che devono essere adeguati -e, anche, se non soprattutto, in quanto esperienze simulate o mediate, che si svolgono, come ormai abbiamo imparato dall'introspezione e dalle neuroscienze, nel corpo del lettore (Gallese, 2013;Cometa, 2017, pp. 263-264). ...
Ci siamo addentrati in un labirinto. Moltissime le diramazioni, moltissime le piste possibili. Abbiamo cercato di lasciare qualche segno, qualche traccia che permetta di orientarsi, almeno parzialmente.
Le parole fioriscono dalle storie. La comprensione è anche, ma non soltanto, questione di patrimonio lessicale e di abitudine, allenamento, alla comprensione stessa. La comprensione linguistica non è un processo così lineare, come ben esprime, nell’esergo, Tullio De Mauro. Abbandonando una visione semplificata e semplificante della comprensione è possibile, qui, osservare come da diversi sguardi si possa giungere a una visione maggiormente realistica della comprensione, che mette in gioco numerosi e complessi processi, abilità, competenze e conoscenze, non riducibili a una o più formule.
Le parole – questo emerge dai contributi – hanno un valore che deriva loro dall’utilizzo che se ne fa e dai significati che siamo in grado, tramite esse, di condividere. Il riconoscimento del diritto dell’altro alla parola è un mo- do ulteriore per dare valore alle nostre parole e a quelle degli altri (espressione di pensieri, di valori, di identità). La fondatezza e legittimità di un movimento che ci viene richiesto (un “andare verso”) per accedere ai significati dell’altro da noi (che vengono, a loro volta, negoziati attraverso le parole) assegna, a sua volta, un valore alle parole. La necessità che ciascuno possieda un lessico ricco e vario, che acceda facilmente alla comprensione, che si trovino mezzi e strategie per favorire il percorso di tutti in questa direzione appare, dai contributi presenti in questo volume, indifferibile.
Che cosa può fare la scuola, ma più in generale il sistema di istruzione, per arricchire il lessico, per supportare lo sviluppo di abilità di comprensione? Coscienti della complessità e della molteplicità di strumenti utilizzabili, qui si sceglie di proporre la lettura, in particolare la lettura ad alta voce, di testi di narrativa da parte dell’insegnante, come strumento capace di contribuire in modo “naturale” allo sviluppo del lessico e delle abilità di comprensione.
... L'idea di creare delle "zone di lettura libera" o ZLL (Falcetto, 2011, p. 130) riecheggia la metafora della "zona di lettura" (The Reading Zone) proposta da Nancie Atwell (2007), che definisce con questa espressione sia la situazione didattica dedicata alla lettura libera nella scuola, sia lo spazio e il tempo dell'esperienza estetica, una sorta di «stato di lettura» (Atwell, 2007, p. 21), il luogo virtuale in cui il lettore si sprofonda e, per un certo periodo di tempo, scompare. La lettura in comune e la lettura individuale devono essere comunque promosse, nella scuola primaria e secondaria, in quanto esperienze concrete -che si compiono in situazioni date, in ambienti che devono essere adeguati -e, anche, se non soprattutto, in quanto esperienze simulate o mediate, che si svolgono, come ormai abbiamo imparato dall'introspezione e dalle neuroscienze, nel corpo del lettore (Gallese, 2013;Cometa, 2017, pp. 263-264). ...
... We are able to infer what the other feels and we can recognise his/her emotions, because we also have previously experienced them directly and we therefore own some reference points. This process is also called "embodied simulation" (Gallese and Sinigaglia 2011;Gallese et al. 2004), and its discovery opens to a new way of conceiving human relationships: there are no separate "you and I" anymore, but constantly "us" (Gallese 2010(Gallese , 2013. This is because of the profound sharing of neural networks that accompanies human relationships, even in the cerebral areas that were identified as the locus of the self. ...
Empathy, in the patient-clinician relationship, plays a key role. Here we address this issue from a neuroscientific perspective, as neuroscience research attempts are shedding much light on the mechanisms underlying empathy. In particular, we focus on the relationship between clinician and suicidal individuals that represents a difficult category of patients that puts the emotional and empathic regulation capacity to the test. Therefore, we provide the reader with an overview on the current neuroscientific knowledge about empathy, intending to return an interpretative clue and favour new intuitions promoting a better comprehension, based on a scientific use of empathy in the patient-clinician relationship. We then propose the concept of “empathic disconnection” referring to those situations in which the clinician, automatically and unconsciously, puts him/herself in the position of not taking any advantage from the empathic relationship with the patient. We propose the concept of “empathic moment” as a communicative strategy, whose goal is to intentionally use empathic mechanisms to gather information directed at identifying the inner state of the patient. We finally suggest the use of vitality forms as a relevant element for the cognitive analysis of the patient’s inner states. We conclude with some practical-applicative considerations based on what is discussed.
... The hypothesis I have proposed (Gallese 2013; Gallese & Cuccio 2015) is that the notion of paradeigma is a good model not only for the creation of linguistic rules but also for the definition of the embodied simulation mechanism. In this connection, simulation allows us, at a sensorimotor level, to hypostatize and reuse what holds " for everybody and nobody. ...
Observing the world is a more complex enterprise than the mere activation of the ‘visual brain’, because it implies a multimodal notion of vision. Neuroscientific evidence from non-human primates and humans is summarized and discussed, with particular emphasis on space, objects, actions, emotions and sensation. It is argued that vision also encompasses the activation of motor, somatosensory and limbic parts of the brain, within the broader notion of the intrinsic pragmatic nature of our relations with the world. This empirical evidence will be used to discuss the notion of embodied simulation, here proposed as a new model of visual perception and cognition and potentially capable of showing how to link language to our bodily nature.
... Questa rappresenta un vero e proprio cambiamento di paradigma nelle neuroscienze cognitive. Lo studio della condizione umana, infatti, parte dallo studio della dimensione corporea della cognizione con una strategia bottom-up che privilegia il corpo come campo d'indagine e mette in relazione il sistema cervello-corpo con il tema dell'intersoggettivita e della soggettivita, mostrandone l'interrelazione a livello neurobiologico (Gallese, 2013). 2 -l'utilita di sviluppare la ricerca sull'uso di test con materiale stimolo motivante e coinvol- gente; -l'importanza di tenere in considerazione lavalidita ecologica e le potenzialita del soggetto nell'ottica di progettare percorsi riabilitativi; -la possibilifa di utilizzare l'ICF nella VGM. ...
La valutazione cognitiva appare una componente fondamentale della valutazione geriatrica multidimensionale e definire delle linee guida su come debba essere condotta sembra un’importante sfida. In risposta a recenti riflessioni che auspicano il ricorso ad un approccio clinico-neuropsicologico e la necessità di abbracciare nuove impostazioni teoriche e nuovi modelli, vengono messi in evidenza i principali elementi di criticità della valutazione cognitiva dell’anziano per poi illustrare come il modello della riserva cognitiva, il modello biopsicosociale e la visione “incarnata” del rapporto mente-corpo, aprano a nuove prospettive. Sulla base del Sistema Nazionale per le Linee Guida, promosso dall’Istituto superiore di sanità (ISS) e dal Centro nazionale epidemiologia, sorveglianza e promozione della salute (CNESPS), si immagina un possibile sviluppo di linee guida della valutazione cognitiva dell’anziano, utile a definire quali strumenti utilizzare nei diversi contesti di valutazione (ad esempio, valutazione di screening presso il medico di base, valutazione cognitiva presso centri specialistici, valutazione per l’assegnazione di una tecnologia assistiva) e con le diverse tipologie di utenti (ad esempio, soggetti con afasia).
The paper aims to highlight theoretical reflections and project implications about technological interactivity within the artistic research of Studio Azzurro, setting them in a constellation of relations and affinities with the context of reference. The distinctiveness of the Milan-based collective, founded in 1982, has been shaped around the concept of “socializing interactivity.” This phenomenon stems from a design process that involves a constant negotiation between narratives, space, bodies and technologies, conceived as a system of relationships mediated by “natural interfaces.”The study traces the roots of this placement back to the counter-information experiences of the 1970s and the intersection with the experimental theatre of the 1980s, evolving through the language of cinema and video. At the same time, Studio Azzurro research remains constantly focused on the physical and sensitive properties of space, objects, bodies (both real and virtual), and the potentialities of montage – understood both as video editing and as spatial dramaturgy.The paper finally considers the socio-political implications of this form of art, bringing the attention on the creation of “spaces of relationships” that foster community and intersubjectivity.This investigation situates Studio Azzurro’s contributions within the broader context of technological interactivity and its potential to reshape human experience and communication.
This paper explores the mechanisms that lead to a destructive tendency in the formation and functioning of the psychic apparatus, to the characteristic states of subjects who are drawn to non-life. The dynamics of the primary mother-child relationship involve a structural interaction between mind and body, subject and object. The dialectic between the life drive and the death drive is conceptualized as the structuring of homeostatic dynamic equilibria, in which both drives belong to the living, provided they are kept in a non-isolated system. This conception has analogies with other disciplines that have changed their paradigms, such as neurobiology, which, for living beings in open systems, hypothesises a continuous interconnected Becoming of undivided separation and of discontinuity. In unitary psyche-soma functioning, a dynamic homoeostatic balance marks the state of health of the relating subject; or if, instead, the system is isolated, a pathological dysregulation depending on the emotional-affective vicissitudes it undergoes. Two clinical cases illustrate these dynamics. For this tendency on the level of the somatopsychic unit, the name alloiosis has been put forward, in analogy with cellular apoptosis.
The chapter explores a central theme for future world education: ethics as the essence and necessity of teacher education in the perspective of long-life learning. Particularly, the assumption of the idea of ethics as a scientific, natural, and humanistic dimension, as well as a valuable and political one, is consistent with the embodied cognition approach and the “embodied-based” training models aimed at the development of life—soft skills. In this sense, it is possible to identify the construct of ethical competence as an essential competence underpinning inclusive professionals and teachers in primes. A priority objective is, therefore, to provide a scientific definition of ethical competence and to operationalize it through the implementation of embodied cognition-based approaches and strategies. In addition to the definition of the theoretical framework, the chapter will also present the findings of a preliminary survey examining various dimensions of ethical competence among teachers in training at specialization courses for support activities in four Italian universities, aimed at designing training courses for their development and implementation.
English:
This interdisciplinary study explores the connection between the manifestation of intentional consciousness in social institutions and the experience of individual subjects within the context of redistributive welfare phenomena. The object of study is the linguistic communication between institutions and beneficiaries of monetary transfer policies. The adopted method integrates phenomenology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and attachment theory to analyze the role of language in the production of self-consciousness and individual agency. The study employs the speech act theory of Austin and Searle, as well as recent neurocognitive developments. The analysis focuses on two aspects: 1) the presence of a form of institutional intentional consciousness conveyed through linguistic acts; 2) the existence of a correspondence between the institutional narrative and the behavioral responses of beneficiaries. The results reveal a discrepancy between the institution's expectations and the subjective perceptions of individuals. Conclusions: Attachment Theory provides a psychodynamic interpretation of the gap between subjective perception and institutional intention. The study suggests expanding research on the forms in which consciousness shapes the perception of the world, with particular attention to the field of welfare, as it is hypothesized to be linked to Internal Working Models, which would reactivate primary survival needs across the lifespan.
Italiano:
Questo studio interdisciplinare esplora il legame tra la manifestazione della coscienza intenzionale delle istituzioni sociali e l'esperienza dei singoli individui nel contesto dei fenomeni di welfare redistributivo. L'oggetto di studio è la comunicazione linguistica tra le istituzioni e i beneficiari delle politiche di trasferimento monetario. Il metodo adottato integra la fenomenologia, le neuroscienze, le scienze cognitive e la teoria dell'attaccamento per analizzare il ruolo del linguaggio nella produzione dell'autocoscienza e dell'agentività individuale. Vengono impiegate la teoria degli atti linguistici di Austin e Searle, nonché i più recenti sviluppi neurocognitivi. L'analisi si concentra su due aspetti: 1) la presenza di una forma di coscienza intenzionale istituzionale veicolata dagli atti linguistici; 2) l'esistenza di una corrispondenza tra la narrazione istituzionale e le risposte comportamentali dei beneficiari. I risultati evidenziano una discrasia tra le aspettative dell'istituzione e le percezioni soggettive degli individui. Conclusioni: la Teoria dell'Attaccamento fornisce una chiave di lettura psicodinamica del divario tra percezione soggettiva e intenzione istituzionale. Si suggerisce di ampliare gli studi sulle forme in cui la coscienza plasma la percezione del mondo, con particolare attenzione al campo del welfare, poichè si ipotizza un legame con i Modelli Operativi Interni, che riattiverebbe i bisogni primari di sopravvivenza lungo l'arco della vita.
For decades, there has been a clash between the sciences, with numerous attempts to assert themselves over the other on issues such as morals, ethics, emotions and actions. Today, on the contrary, it is noticeable how the sciences, more often than not, work in concert, with the aim of achieving a result, which is as broad and defined as possible. Within this chapter, we will attempt to explore various points of connection that the sciences have and could have. Various previously conducted research will be used as examples and, above all, a way of integrating different data from different sciences will be proposed. Admittedly, this is a complex piece of work to explain in one chapter and would certainly deserve more in-depth study, but it is an attempt to highlight the difficulties and try to overcome them.
Although belonging to the wider family of applied theatre, social theatre
has some specific historical, methodological and contextual characteristics. When taking part in social theatre, people, groups and even larger,
more recognisable social systems actively transform and improve their lifeworlds through their direct involvement in theatrical, ludic, festive and
performative practices. The actors’, authors’ and spectators’ participation
in such cultural practices – combined with powerful representations, actions and relationships – leads to symbolic inner growth and regeneration in
the social body.
This book, which opens with an introduction by Claudio Bernardi, explores the whys and wherefores of social theatre with particular attention to
Italy. It is structured around two types of contribution. One comes from the
interventions of some of the speakers at the International Conference
Performing the Social. Education, Care and Social Inclusion through Theatre, held in Milan on 20-21 September 2019.
They are Isabel Bezelga, Marco De Marinis, David Le Breton, Tim Prentki,
Pier Cesare Rivoltella, Diana Taylor, James Thompson and Emmanuel Wallon.
The second part is a more direct result of the Research Project of National Relevance (PRIN) with the same title; namely the application of social
theatre in the fields of education, health and inclusion.
The authors of these essays are Carla Bino, Roberta Carpani, Livia
Cavaglieri, Guido Di Palma, Fabrizio Fiaschini, Roberta Gandolfi, Giulia
Innocenti Malini, Stefano Locatelli, Alberto Pagliarino, Alessandro Pontremoli,
Alessandra Rossi Ghiglione.
Neuroscientific studies related to neuroplasticity and multisensoriality have made it possible to understand the importance of cross-modal stimulation in the learning phase. The present article presents the cerebral mechanisms involved, recalling and updating the studies of Montessori pedagogy, in a new educational reality, in which the corporeal medium becomes the "embodiment" of knowledge.
Gli studi neuroscientifici legati alla neuroplasticità e alla multisensorialità, hanno permesso di comprendere l'importanza di una stimolazione cross-modale in fase di apprendimento. Il presente articolo presenta i meccanismi cerebrali coinvolti, richiamando ed aggiornando gli studi della pedagogia montessoriana, in una nuova realtà educativa, in cui il medium corporeo diventa "incarnazione" della conoscenza.
The aim of this part is to design actions to support highly sensitive children in their immediate environment. Part 2 is aimed at the teachers. Firstly, the importance of the environment for the upbringing of highly sensitive children is examined. Qualities of the external environment such as noise and sensory overload, as well as the support experienced by the child are all important for the child’s development. In maladjusted conditions the child will experience difficulty to adapt, while optimal support facilitates development of the child’s own potential (Vantage Sensitivity). The optimal attitude of the parents and carers working with highly sensitive children and its roots in humanistic psychology are described afterwards. A highly sensitive child is the recipient of educational and parental efforts. Realization of those functions requires considering specific needs of a highly sensitive child and the adaptation of the ways of achieving those goals. Because of the specific ways of experiencing reality and the individualized responses, a highly sensitive child is often seen by teachers as difficult. It requires an effort of their part to surface and develop the child’s innate potential.
Keywords: highly sensitive child, educational environment, upbringing, humanistic upbringing, vantage sensitivity
This study is the result of an international collaboration of researchers and practitioners who have set themselves the common goal of developing support-oriented approach for highly sensitive children in their immediate environment. High sensitivity is a temperamental trait that characterizes about 20% of the population. Research confirms that highly sensitive people process information and stimuli coming from their environment more strongly (intensively) and deeply than others. These individuals are more sensitive, both to positive and negative experiences. According to Elaine N. Aron (2013), the author of the concept of high sensitivity, the number of individuals characterized by high sensitivity is too high to treat the trait like any other trait, but too small for these individuals to be understood and supported by their environment in an adequate way. The trait acquires particular significance when we talk about children. For highly sensitive children, inadequate conditions of development may become particularly burdensome and consequently affect their future. The adult plays a key role in creating conditions for the child’s development and is the primary source of support. The following parts, therefore, deal with the issue of conditions that support the child according to their immediate environment: parents who raise the child, specialists who work with the child, the institution (school, kindergarten) that creates conditions for development.
The book is addressed primarily to specialists who work with children aged 3–10 years daily (teachers, educators, psychologists, pedagogues), as well as to those who, due to their interests or professional responsibilities, are involved in supporting children. Given its content, the study can be useful for students of psychology and pedagogy. We also recommend the book to parents. Although we realize that parts of the book may be difficult to read in places, we are convinced that the knowledge and guidance it contains will pay dividends in both a fuller understanding of the nature of sensitivity and in effective support of children.
The book consists of four parts, which systematize knowledge about the functioning of a highly sensitive child and indicate the importance of the environment in which the child develops. Each part begins with an introduction summarizing the knowledge about the issue. A paragraph introduces conceptual underpinnings of high sensitivity, supported by information from research findings and existing knowledge. Consecutively, reference is made to the practical dimensions of the information - the authors seek to answer the question of how to put knowledge about the functioning of highly sensitive children into practice. Each section is summarized with short bullet points or tips on working with a highly sensitive child.
The first part, SENSORY PROCESSING SENSITIVITY, introduces the issue of sensitivity (its professional name, meaning and definition), as well as the specifics of behaviour of highly sensitive people. It characterizes the functioning of a sensitive child in the physical, emotional, cognitive and interpersonal spheres. The
last paragraph attempts to summarize the most important information.
In line with the goal of our work, adequate support of highly sensitive children
should start with the trait identification, in the first place. To begin with, it is necessary
to identify whether we are dealing with a highly sensitive child. Initial identification
of temperament traits is often based on behavioural analysis, which in the
case of highly sensitive children may be confused in the clinical picture with disorders
such as hyperactivity, sensory integration disorder, autism spectrum disorders,
among others. Competence in identifying the trait (positive diagnosis) should be the
beginning of the process of supporting highly sensitive children, their families and
their immediate environment.
The second part of the book comprises the content oriented on EDUCATION
AND SUPPORT OF HIGHLY SENSITIVE CHILDREN. In research on child development,
special attention is paid to the role of conditions for development, the
importance of adequate stimulation. The source of stimulation for a young child is
its immediate environment, especially the family home, and then kindergarten and
school. The younger the child, the greater, more crucial for development is the importance
of environmental stimulation, and thus the quality of the environment. In
the first place, attention should be paid to creating conditions for the child’s development.
Such an educational contact requires the involvement of both the educator and
the child. Accordingly, it is the person of the educator, teacher, caregiver and their
skills that create the conditions that foster the child’s development.
The third part of the book, EDUCATION AND SUPPORT FOR PARENTS OF
HIGHLY SENSITIVE CHILDREN, provides a parent’s perspective. It describes information
that clarifies the child’s characteristics, including aspects of the child’s
functioning that may be challenging for the parent. Special attention is given to the
emotional realm of child functioning, the challenges of parenting, as well as specific
methods of working with the child. The section is concluded with suggestions of activities
recommended for working with the highly sensitive child.
The Fourth Part, EVIDENCE BASED EMBODIED EDUCATION STRATEGIES
TO PROMOTE WELL -BEING OF HIGHLY SENSITIVE CHILDREN, presents a framework
and practical strategies, based on psychological and neuroscience research, for
understanding how embodied education facilitates regulation and an integrated sense
of self, and thus contributes to health and well-being of highly sensitive children.
Knowledge and skills to support highly sensitive children are also essential for
other adults who are important in the child’s life. The content of the child’s temperamental
sensitivity area and the skills to support it could enhance the school’s prevention
activities, especially in universal prevention.
Accordingly, designing support for highly sensitive children is not about modifying
their characteristics. Conscious work does not imply interfering with the trait,
accepting it as a difficulty or a problem to be dealt with, but on providing conditions
in which highly sensitive children will have equal opportunities to develop their
potential.
La psicoterapia della Gestalt permette l'uso delle immagini e delle fotografie nel processo terapeutico in ragione della sua natura fenomenologica orientata al processo. Le fotografie di-ventano un mezzo che consolida la consapevolezza dei pazienti, facilitando la dinamica figura/sfondo. Questo articolo offre un excursus teorico che spazia tra la fototerapia e la psicoterapia della Gestalt, con riferimento ai capisaldi della epistemologia gestaltica come la consapevolezza, la concentrazione e la presenza ai sensi. Propone altresì una trattazione sulla correlazione tra le recenti ricerche neuroscientifiche sui neuroni specchio, il campo di indagine della neuroestetica, il concetto di conoscenza relazionale estetica e quello di risonanza corporea, come sfondo teorico alla validità dell'uso della fotografia nei processi trasformativi terapeutici. Gli autori concludono con esempi di applicazione del mezzo fotografico nel processo di terapie individuali.
Attualmente si ritiene che la dipendenza sia un disturbo comportamentale complesso che è influenzato da fattori biologici, psicologici, sociologici, e che, co-me tale, debba essere visto da una prospettiva biopsicosociale. Gli autori reputano che possano essere due le "calamite" principali che prima stimolano e poi stabilizzano la dipendenza favorendone la recidiva: il tentativo di effettuare una auto-terapia della propria disregolazione affettiva (alessitimia) e l'attivazione della memoria del piacere. Dopo aver presentato una breve rassegna sull'uso dell'ipnosi nel trattamento dei disturbi da addiction, gli autori espongono una propria tecnica, la Desensibilizzazione Sistematica Inversa, illustrandola attraverso un caso clinico. L'efficacia della tecnica nel ridurre il pensiero della sostanza, quindi il craving e la recidiva, sta producendo esiti positivi in termini di aumento del tasso di tenuta in trattamento e di successo.
Recent theories within the avenue of the bio-cultural turn, and particularly about embodied cognition are forecasted in the anthropological, philosophical, physiological and scientific debate of the late 18th century in Germany. Philosopher and theologian Johann Gottfried Herder contributed to this discourse sigificantly, opening up new perspectives on the link among thought and language and body. In this paper we aim at highlighting some core issues of Herders’s discourse about knowledge, perception and cognition, that seem to anticipate some of the most recent 4E Cognition issues.
In questo articolo proponiamo una modalità con cui la neuroscienza cognitiva può fornire nuovi insight su tre aspetti della cognizione sociale. Intersoggettività, Sé umano e linguaggio. Sottolineiamo il ruolo sociale del corpo, concepito come sor-gente costitutiva della coscienza preriflessiva del Sé e degli altri. Intendiamo fornire una visione critica della neuroscienza contemporanea cognitiva e sociale e soste-niamo che il livello neurofisiologico di descrizione è condizione necessaria ma non sufficiente per lo studio dell'intersoggettività, del Sé umano e del linguaggio; questi elementi possono essere chiaramente comprensibili solo in collegamento ad un pie-no riconoscimento della loro stretta inter-relazione con il corpo. Prenderemo in esame i meccanismi specchio e la simulazione incarnata per la loro importanza per una nuova concettualizzazione dell'intersoggettività e del Sé umano. In questo con-testo ci focalizzeremo su una forma specificamente umana di intersoggettività: il linguaggio. Discuteremo gli aspetti della cognizione sociale legati al linguaggio in termini di incarnazione, sottolineando sia il carattere innovativo sia i limiti di que-sto approccio. Sosterremo che un aspetto chiave del linguaggio umano consiste nel disaccoppiamento dal suo usuale uso denotativo, che ne manifesta la capacità di astrazione. Discuteremo queste caratteristiche del linguaggio umano come esempli-ficazione della nozione greca di paradeigma, originariamente studiata da Aristote-le, per riferirci ad una forma tipica di argomentazione retorica e per collegarla alla simulazione incarnata. La conoscenza paradigmatica connette il particolare al par-ticolare, passando da una particolare situazione contingente al caso esemplare. Al-lo stesso modo, la simulazione incarnata consiste nella sospensione dell'applicazione concreta di un processo: la riutilizzazione della conoscenza moto-ria in assenza di movimento che essa realizza è un esempio di "conoscenza paradig-matica". Questo nuovo approccio epistemologico all'intersoggettività consente la possibilità di previsioni circa la natura intrinsecamente funzionale delle nostre ope-razioni cognitive sociali, andando oltre e senza subordinazione ad una specifica ontologia della mente.
My Research aims to Analyze the Relationship between Language and Perception using Congenital Blindness as the experimental Key of my Hypothesis.
Truthteller sentences (e.g. “This sentence is true”) and sentences of the no-no paradox (e.g. “The following sentence is false” and “The previous sentence is false”), in contrast to Liar-like sentences (e.g. “This sentence is false”), have an excess of consistent unique truth values. This circumstance makes it possible to consider such sentences as examples of genuine semantic pathologies. The way to treat them can be found in the anaphoric prosentential theory of truth. This form of non-redundancy deflationism takes the notion of truth not as an ordinary predicate describing a certain real property, but as an anaphoric operator, which makes it possible to meaningfully substitute prosentences with its own antecedents. The anaphoric prosentential theory of truth interprets truthteller sentences and sentences of the no-no paradox as prosentences that lack propositional content. To treat semantic pathologies without imposing the ban on the use of any so-called “groundless” sentences, anaphoric existentialism should be supplemented with metalinguistic analysis. This way will make it possible to show that truthteller sentences and sentences of the no-no paradox actually do not ascribe any unique truth values, but they establish certain types of relations between the semantic content of such prosentences. The use of the words “is true” and “is false” has no purpose to tell us which unique truth values are possessed by these prosentences, but informs that between their possible antecedents there is a certain relation R; the relation determines whether or not these prosentences have the same value. Truthteller sentences can be consistent assumed only “is true”; sentences of the no-no paradox can take in only «is false». Therefore, the metalinguistic analysis of prosententional semantic content can serve as an effective way to eliminate excess of consistent unique truth values for truthteller sentences and sentences of the no-no paradox, and it does not require the ban of any so-called “groundless” sentences.
Change management process is fundamental for any organization. Actually people and organizations naturally resist changing. It is necessary to protect our solutions and traditions. Because people have fear to loose what they are. In this field anthropological studies on organizational culture are quite effective to understand changing process in cultures. Recently neurosciences studies on behavior added new issues in order to allow researchers to measure people's attitudes toward change. In this article we report about an experiment in neurometrical measurement trough electroencephalogram in 150 sales people during a convention. We decided to activate change through a rational dimension, an emotional dimension and a physical-body dimension. The result that we could measure by electroencephalogram was extraordinary.
This chapter addresses the notion of embodied simulation (ES), trying to show that a new understanding of intersubjectivity can benefit from a bottom-up study and characterization of the nonpropositional and non meta-representational aspects of social cognition. The chapter introduces some recent developments of ES in relation to language, proposing that ES instantiates a form of paradigmatic knowledge. For decades the main goal of the neurophysiological investigation of the cortical motor system was uniquely focused on the study of elementary physical features of movement such as force, direction, and amplitude. A further element of novelty about the cognitive properties of the cortical motor system concerns its role in perception, since one can now know that many motor neurons are endowed with sensory properties. Mirror neurons (MNs) boosted a renewed interest in simulation theories and also suggested an embodied approach to simulation.
Controversy surrounds the suggestion that recursion is a uniquely human computational ability that enables language. A study now finds this ability in a songbird and takes steps toward a model system for syntactic competence.
The parieto-frontal cortical circuit that is active during action observation is the circuit with mirror properties that has been most extensively studied. Yet, there remains controversy on its role in social cognition and its contribution to understanding the actions and intentions of other individuals. Recent studies in monkeys and humans have shed light on what the parieto-frontal cortical circuit encodes and its possible functional relevance for cognition. We conclude that, although there are several mechanisms through which one can understand the behaviour of other individuals, the parieto-frontal mechanism is the only one that allows an individual to understand the action of others 'from the inside' and gives the observer a first-person grasp of the motor goals and intentions of other individuals.
Humans regularly produce new utterances that are understood by other members of the same language community. Linguistic theories account for this ability through the use of syntactic rules (or generative grammars) that describe the acceptable structure of utterances. The recursive, hierarchical embedding of language units (for example, words or phrases within shorter sentences) that is part of the ability to construct new utterances minimally requires a 'context-free' grammar that is more complex than the 'finite-state' grammars thought sufficient to specify the structure of all non-human communication signals. Recent hypotheses make the central claim that the capacity for syntactic recursion forms the computational core of a uniquely human language faculty. Here we show that European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) accurately recognize acoustic patterns defined by a recursive, self-embedding, context-free grammar. They are also able to classify new patterns defined by the grammar and reliably exclude agrammatical patterns. Thus, the capacity to classify sequences from recursive, centre-embedded grammars is not uniquely human. This finding opens a new range of complex syntactic processing mechanisms to physiological investigation.
The automatic translation of folk psychology into newly formed brain modules specifically dedicated to mind-reading and other social cognitive abilities should be carefully scrutinized. Searching for the brain location of intentions, beliefs and desires-as such-might not be the best epistemic strategy to disclose what social cognition really is. The results of neurocognitive research suggest that in the brain of primates, mirror neurons, and more generally the premotor system, play a major role in several aspects of social cognition, from action and intention understanding to language processing. This evidence is presented and discussed within the theoretical frame of an embodied simulation account of social cognition. Embodied simulation and the mirror neuron system underpinning it provide the means to share communicative intentions, meaning and reference, thus granting the parity requirements of social communication.
The now-classic Metaphors We Live By changed our understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind. Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by"--metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them.
In this updated edition of Lakoff and Johnson's influential book, the authors supply an afterword surveying how their theory of metaphor has developed within the cognitive sciences to become central to the contemporary understanding of how we think and how we express our thoughts in language.
We recorded electrical activity from 532 neurons in the rostral part of inferior area 6 (area F5) of two macaque monkeys. Previous data had shown that neurons of this area discharge during goal-directed hand and mouth movements. We describe here the properties of a newly discovered set of F5 neurons ("mirror neurons', n = 92) all of which became active both when the monkey performed a given action and when it observed a similar action performed by the experimenter. Mirror neurons, in order to be visually triggered, required an interaction between the agent of the action and the object of it. The sight of the agent alone or of the object alone (three-dimensional objects, food) were ineffective. Hand and the mouth were by far the most effective agents. The actions most represented among those activating mirror neurons were grasping, manipulating and placing. In most mirror neurons (92%) there was a clear relation between the visual action they responded to and the motor response they coded. In approximately 30% of mirror neurons the congruence was very strict and the effective observed and executed actions corresponded both in terms of general action (e.g. grasping) and in terms of the way in which that action was executed (e.g. precision grip). We conclude by proposing that mirror neurons form a system for matching observation and execution of motor actions. We discuss the possible role of this system in action recognition and, given the proposed homology between F5 and human Brocca's region, we posit that a matching system, similar to that of mirror neurons exists in humans and could be involved in recognition of actions as well as phonetic gestures.
An adaptationist programme has dominated evolutionary thought in England and the United States during the past 40 years. It is based on faith in the power of natural selection as an optimizing agent. It proceeds by breaking an oragnism into unitary 'traits' and proposing an adaptive story for each considered separately. Trade-offs among competing selective demands exert the only brake upon perfection; non-optimality is thereby rendered as a result of adaptation as well. We criticize this approach and attempt to reassert a competing notion (long popular in continental Europe) that organisms must be analysed as integrated wholes, with Baupläne so constrained by phyletic heritage, pathways of development and general architecture that the constraints themselves become more interesting and more important in delimiting pathways of change than the selective force that may mediate change when it occurs. We fault the adaptationist programme for its failure to distinguish current utility from reasons for origin (male tyrannosaurs may have used their diminutive front legs to titillate female partners, but this will not explain why they got so small); for its unwillingness to consider alternatives to adaptive stories; for its reliance upon plausibility alone as a criterion for accepting speculative tales; and for its failure to consider adequately such competing themes as random fixation of alleles, production of non-adaptive structures by developmental correlation with selected features (allometry, pleiotropy, material compensation, mechanically forced correlation), the separability of adaptation and selection, multiple adaptive peaks, and current utility as an epiphenomenon of non-adaptive structures. We support Darwin's own pluralistic approach to identifying the agents of evolutionary change.
A key text for Psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, as well as trainees in the area. Presenting a clinical model which has close connections with American constructivist psychotherapy and Bowlby's Attachment Theory. • Delineates a set of principles in the study of consciousness that place the first-person perspective at the heart of the analysis of emotional disorders • Differentiates six personality styles, describing the origin of the subjective emotional experience; the ordering and the regulation of the emotional domain, and the psychopathological disorders • Provides neuroscientific evidence showing that brain activity could be related to personality styles Praise for Selfhood, Identity and Personality Styles: "Arciero and Bondolfi show in fine detail how the sense of self emerges in first- and second-person experiences, forming a dynamic, emotive and narrative identity; they then brilliantly demonstrate how this self-identity gets distorted and disrupted in the pathologies that directly undermine this process. This is a landmark study that brings together materials from multiple disciplines. Their analysis provides a clear account of how our existential being-in-the-world is modulated by narrative practices. They show how the ongoing construction of personality delineated by the various emotional tendencies that are sedimented in the individual's life comes to be reflected in personal narrative. Arciero and Bondolfi continuously make insightful connections between research in developmental psychology, neuroscience, and emotion studies and then carry these basic insights into the realm of psychiatry. The psychiatric analyses offered here are thus enriched by clinical vignettes and enlightened by the integration of philosophical (especially phenomenological and hermeneutical), psychological, neuroscientific, and literary dimensions". Shaun Gallagher, Professor of Philosophy, University of Central Florida "Arciero and Bondolfi have written a timely, thought-provoking and challenging book, providing the reader with a refreshingly new account of Self-identity and its disorders. A cogent and novel contribution to psychiatric thought that wonderfully integrates philosophy, psychopathology and contemporary neuroscience. This book will push psychiatry in new directions. A must read!." Vittorio Gallese, Professor of Human Physiology, University of Parma, Italy "Selfhood, Identity, and Personality Styles is a highly ambitious work of theoretical synthesis: neuroscience, phenomenology, and social constructionism are joined together with the study of both literature and psychopathology. Arciero and Bondolfi offer sophisticated and intriguing discussions not only of mirror neurons and developmental psychology, but also of ideas from Aristotle, Kant, and Heidegger, of characters from Dostoevsky, Kleist, and Pessoa, and of patients from clinical practice. A ground-breaking, first attempt to show the relevance of the interdisciplinary study of basic self-experience for our understanding of character styles and personality disorders." Louis A. Sass, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Rutgers University "This is a scholarly book which will provide the reader with plenty to chew on. This book will make you think, will illuminate how people function and will help you understand how self disordered experience, such as the feeling that one disappears or doesn't exist when another leaves, occurs. The authors tackle with great sophistication, the big questions of how sameness, changing experience and temporality are woven together by language and narrative. Refusing to be reduced to the simplicity of objectivist account of functioning they offer profound phenomenological views on identity and emotion that show a deep appreciation of the complexity of what it is to be a person. Their analysis of functioning leads to the specification of inward and outward dispositional dimensions and using clinical and literary examples they provide descriptions of different styles of personality along this continuum ranging from eating disorder prone personalities, focused on the other at one end of the continuum and depression prone personalities focused excessively inwardly, at the other end." Leslie Greenberg,Professorof Psychology, York University, Canada.
In area F5 of the monkey premotor cortex there are neurons that discharge both when the monkey performs an action and when he observes a similar action made by another monkey or by the experimenter. We report here some of the properties of these 'mirror' neurons and we propose that their activity 'represents' the observed action. We posit, then, that this motor representation is at the basis of the understanding of motor events. Finally, on the basis of some recent data showing that, in man, the observation of motor actions activate the posterior part of inferior frontal gyrus, we suggest that the development of the lateral verbal communication system in man derives from a more ancient communication system based on recognition of hand and face gestures.
We live in a meaningful world. Our capacity to deal with the external world is constituted by the possibility of modifying the world by means of our actions; by the possibility of representing the world as an objective reality; and by the possibility of experiencing phenomenally this same objective reality, from a situated, self-conscious perspective. It is tempting to address these different articulations of the sense of being related to the world', of our intentional relation to the world, by using different languages, different methods of investigations, perhaps even different ontologies. In the present paper I will start to explore the possibility of reconciling some of these different articulations of intentionality from a neurobiological perspective
The same neural structures involved in the unconscious modeling of our acting body in space also contribute to our awareness of the lived body and of the objects that the world contains. Neuroscientific research also shows that there are neural mechanisms mediating between the multi-level personal experience we entertain of our lived body, and the implicit certainties we simultaneously hold about others. Such personal and body-related experiential knowledge enables us to understand the actions performed by others, and to directly decode the emotions and sensations they experience. A common functional mechanism is at the basis of both body awareness and basic forms of social understanding: embodied simulation. It will be shown that the present proposal is consistent with some of the perspectives offered by phenomenology.
Simulation theories of social cognition abound in the literature, but it is often unclear what simulation means and how it works. The discovery of mirror neurons, responding both to action execution and observation, suggested an embodied approach to mental simulation. Over the past few years this approach has been hotly debated and alternative accounts have been proposed. We discuss these accounts and argue that they fail to capture the uniqueness of embodied simulation (ES). ES theory provides a unitary account of basic social cognition, demonstrating that people reuse their own mental states or processes represented with a bodily format in functionally attributing them to others.
Whether the computational systems in language perception involve specific abilities in humans is debated. The vocalizations of songbirds share many features with human speech, but whether songbirds possess a similar computational ability to process auditory information as humans is unknown. We analyzed their spontaneous discrimination of auditory stimuli and found that the Bengalese finch (Lonchura striata var. domestica) can use the syntactical information processing of syllables to discriminate songs). These finches were also able to acquire artificial grammatical rules from synthesized syllable strings and to discriminate novel auditory information according to them. We found that a specific brain region was involved in such discrimination and that this ability was acquired postnatally through the encounter with various conspecific songs. Our results indicate that passerine songbirds spontaneously acquire the ability to process hierarchical structures, an ability that was previously supposed to be specific to humans.
Concepts are the elementary units of reason and linguistic meaning. They are conventional and relatively stable. As such, they must somehow be the result of neural activity in the brain. The questions are: Where? and How? A common philosophical position is that all concepts-even concepts about action and perception-are symbolic and abstract, and therefore must be implemented outside the brain's sensory-motor system. We will argue against this position using (1) neuroscientific evidence; (2) results from neural computation; and (3) results about the nature of concepts from cognitive linguistics. We will propose that the sensory-motor system has the right kind of structure to characterise both sensory-motor and more abstract concepts. Central to this picture are the neural theory of language and the theory of cogs, according to which, brain structures in the sensory-motor regions are exploited to characterise the so-called "abstract" concepts that constitute the meanings of grammatical constructions and general inference patterns.
An emerging class of theories concerning the functional structure of the brain takes the reuse of neural circuitry for various cognitive purposes to be a central organizational principle. According to these theories, it is quite common for neural circuits established for one purpose to be exapted (exploited, recycled, redeployed) during evolution or normal development, and be put to different uses, often without losing their original functions. Neural reuse theories thus differ from the usual understanding of the role of neural plasticity (which is, after all, a kind of reuse) in brain organization along the following lines: According to neural reuse, circuits can continue to acquire new uses after an initial or original function is established; the acquisition of new uses need not involve unusual circumstances such as injury or loss of established function; and the acquisition of a new use need not involve (much) local change to circuit structure (e.g., it might involve only the establishment of functional connections to new neural partners). Thus, neural reuse theories offer a distinct perspective on several topics of general interest, such as: the evolution and development of the brain, including (for instance) the evolutionary-developmental pathway supporting primate tool use and human language; the degree of modularity in brain organization; the degree of localization of cognitive function; and the cortical parcellation problem and the prospects (and proper methods to employ) for function to structure mapping. The idea also has some practical implications in the areas of rehabilitative medicine and machine interface design.
The evolution of language and its mechanisms has been a topic of intense speculation and debate, particularly considering the question of innate endowment. Modern biological sciences - neurobiology and neuroethology - have made great strides in understanding proximate and ultimate causes of behavior. These insights are generally ignored in the debate regarding linguistic knowledge, especially in the realm of syntax where core theoretical constructs have been proposed unconstrained by evolutionary biology. The perspective of organismal biology offers an approach to the study of language that is sensitive to its evolutionary context, a growing trend in other domains of cognitive science. The emergence of a research program in the comparative biology of syntax is one concrete example of this trend.
The now-classic Metaphors We Live By changed our understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind. Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by"âmetaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them. In this updated edition of Lakoff and Johnson's influential book, the authors supply an afterword surveying how their theory of metaphor has developed within the cognitive sciences to become central to the contemporary understanding of how we think and how we express our thoughts in language.
This paper discusses the relevance of the discovery of mirror neurons in monkeys and of the mirror neuron system in humans to a neuroscientific account of primates' social cognition and its evolution. It is proposed that mirror neurons and the functional mechanism they underpin, embodied simulation, can ground within a unitary neurophysiological explanatory framework important aspects of human social cognition. In particular, the main focus is on language, here conceived according to a neurophenomenological perspective, grounding meaning on the social experience of action. A neurophysiological hypothesis--the "neural exploitation hypothesis"--is introduced to explain how key aspects of human social cognition are underpinned by brain mechanisms originally evolved for sensorimotor integration. It is proposed that these mechanisms were later on adapted as new neurofunctional architecture for thought and language, while retaining their original functions as well. By neural exploitation, social cognition and language can be linked to the experiential domain of action.
An adaptationist programme has dominated evolutionary thought in England and the United States during the past 40 years. It is based on faith in the power of natural selection as an optimizing agent. It proceeds by breaking an oragnism into unitary 'traits' and proposing an adaptive story for each considered separately. Trade-offs among competing selective demands exert the only brake upon perfection; non-optimality is thereby rendered as a result of adaptation as well. We criticize this approach and attempt to reassert a competing notion (long popular in continental Europe) that organisms must be analysed as integrated wholes, with Baupläne so constrained by phyletic heritage, pathways of development and general architecture that the constraints themselves become more interesting and more important in delimiting pathways of change than the selective force that may mediate change when it occurs. We fault the adaptationist programme for its failure to distinguish current utility from reasons for origin (male tyrannosaurs may have used their diminutive front legs to titillate female partners, but this will not explain why they got so small); for its unwillingness to consider alternatives to adaptive stories; for its reliance upon plausibility alone as a criterion for accepting speculative tales; and for its failure to consider adequately such competing themes as random fixation of alleles, production of non-adaptive structures by developmental correlation with selected features (allometry, pleiotropy, material compensation, mechanically forced correlation), the separability of adaptation and selection, multiple adaptive peaks, and current utility as an epiphenomenon of non-adaptive structures. We support Darwin's own pluralistic approach to identifying the agents of evolutionary change.
In area F5 of the monkey premotor cortex there are neurons that discharge both when the monkey performs an action and when he observes a similar action made by another monkey or by the experimenter. We report here some of the properties of these 'mirror' neurons and we propose that their activity 'represents' the observed action. We posit, then, that this motor representation is at the basis of the understanding of motor events. Finally, on the basis of some recent data showing that, in man, the observation of motor actions activate the posterior part of inferior frontal gyrus, we suggest that the development of the lateral verbal communication system in man derives from a more ancient communication system based on recognition of hand and face gestures.
We recorded electrical activity from 532 neurons in the rostral part of inferior area 6 (area F5) of two macaque monkeys. Previous data had shown that neurons of this area discharge during goal-directed hand and mouth movements. We describe here the properties of a newly discovered set of F5 neurons ("mirror neurons', n = 92) all of which became active both when the monkey performed a given action and when it observed a similar action performed by the experimenter. Mirror neurons, in order to be visually triggered, required an interaction between the agent of the action and the object of it. The sight of the agent alone or of the object alone (three-dimensional objects, food) were ineffective. Hand and the mouth were by far the most effective agents. The actions most represented among those activating mirror neurons were grasping, manipulating and placing. In most mirror neurons (92%) there was a clear relation between the visual action they responded to and the motor response they coded. In approximately 30% of mirror neurons the congruence was very strict and the effective observed and executed actions corresponded both in terms of general action (e.g. grasping) and in terms of the way in which that action was executed (e.g. precision grip). We conclude by proposing that mirror neurons form a system for matching observation and execution of motor actions. We discuss the possible role of this system in action recognition and, given the proposed homology between F5 and human Brocca's region, we posit that a matching system, similar to that of mirror neurons exists in humans and could be involved in recognition of actions as well as phonetic gestures.
It has been proposed that the capacity to code the ‘like me’ analogy between self and others constitutes a basic prerequisite and a starting point for social cognition. It is by means of this self/other equivalence that meaningful social bonds can be established, that we can recognize others as similar to us, and that imitation can take place.
In this article I discuss recent neurophysiological and brain imaging data on monkeys and humans, showing that the ‘like me’ analogy may rest upon a series of ‘mirror–matching’ mechanisms. A new conceptual tool able to capture the richness of the experiences we share with others is introduced: the shared manifold of intersubjectivity. I propose that all kinds of interpersonal relations (imitation, empathy and the attribution of intentions) depend, at a basic level, on the constitution of a shared manifold space. This shared space is functionally characterized by automatic, unconscious embodied simulation routines.
In this article we provide a unifying neural hypothesis on how individuals understand the actions and emotions of others. Our main claim is that the fundamental mechanism at the basis of the experiential understanding of others' actions is the activation of the mirror neuron system. A similar mechanism, but involving the activation of viscero-motor centers, underlies the experiential understanding of the emotions of others.
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