Evolutionary robotics and neuroscience

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Evaluating weaknesses of "perceptual-cognitive training" and "brain training" methods in sport: An ecological dynamics critique

The recent upsurge in "brain training and perceptual-cognitive training," proposing to improve isolated processes, such as brain function, visual perception, and decision-making, has created significant interest in elite sports practitioners, seeking to create an "edge" for athletes. The claims of these related "performance-enhancing industries" can be considered together as part of a process training approach proposing enhanced cognitive and perceptual skills and brain capacity to support performance in everyday life activities, including sport. For example, the "process training industry" promotes the idea that playing games not only makes you a better player but also makes you smarter, more alert, and a faster learner. In this position paper, we critically evaluate the effectiveness of both types of process training programmes in generalizing transfer to sport performance. These issues are addressed in three stages. First, we evaluate empirical evidence in support of perceptual-cognitive process training and its application to enhancing sport performance. Second, we critically review putative modularized mechanisms underpinning this kind of training, addressing limitations and subsequent problems. Specifically, we consider merits of this highly specific form of training, which focuses on training of isolated processes such as cognitive processes (attention, memory, thinking) and visual perception processes, separately from performance behaviors and actions. We conclude that these approaches may, at best, provide some "general transfer" of underlying processes to specific sport environments, but lack "specificity of transfer" to contextualize actual performance behaviors. A major weakness of process training methods is their focus on enhancing the performance in body "modules" (e.g., eye, brain, memory, anticipatory sub-systems). What is lacking is evidence on how these isolated components are modified and subsequently interact with other process "modules," which are considered to underlie sport performance. Finally, we propose how an ecological dynamics approach, aligned with an embodied framework of cognition undermines the rationale that modularized processes can enhance performance in competitive sport. An ecological dynamics perspective proposes that the body is a complex adaptive system, interacting with performance environments in a functionally integrated manner, emphasizing that the inter-relation between motor processes, cognitive and perceptual functions, and the constraints of a sport task is best understood at the performer-environment scale of analysis

Brain Dynamics and Plastic Deformation of Self Circuitries in the Dementia Patient

Despite improved medical care that has resulted in greatly extended life expectancies, significant increases in numbers of individuals suffering age related cognitive defects is expected, making the improved understanding of normal and pathological aging an important priority. Current studies indicating that brain activity requires a dynamical architecture to preserve functional order in the face of persistent and extraneous activity suggests that cognitive impairments are likely to be closely linked to dysfunctional dynamical activity of brain systems. Cognitive impairments such as those introduced by Alzheimer’s dementia (AD), that affect fundamental operational constructs like the self, are thus likely to implicate global dynamics that oversee whole brain operation. This paper explores plastic events associated with dynamical elements used in the normal construction of the self percept and the etiology of their deconstruction in the course of AD. It is proposed that the evolution of the disease involves the increasing impairment of a global dynamical operation that is normally engaged in forming a stable and coherent self image needed to flexibly engage task related, motor plans and effectors

In search of the person. Towards a real revolution

The discussion about a difference between brain and soul or mind is now at the center of the anthropological debate. It seems that the pioneers in this current polemic have a reductionistic view of human nature, inherited from the Cartesian solution to mind-body problem and the modern materialistic explanation of reality. This view – dualistic or monistic – about the opposition between material and immaterial structure of the person, claims that as a consequence of scientific progress, the human brain in the future could be completely explained in naturalistic terms. On the other hand, according to the new results of scientific research, this situation reveals the possibility to develop a new, more adequate paradigm of man as an incarnated person. This change was called by many researchers “the passage from the mind-body problem to the person-body problem”. It seems that the Aristotelian-Thomistic approach is the most suitable to describe this “paradigm shift”. Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy undoubtedly encourages lively dialogue between philosophy and contemporary sciences through its dual ontology. Thus, it can give suitable answers for questions about the nature of human reason (intentionality); unity of composition of the human brain and the role of causality in natural processes

Neural and Psychological Coordination in Social Communication and Interaction

Dynamic, naturalistic study of social interactions in humans is a small but growing literature. Emerging from this work is the theory that social interaction creates a “merged mind” between interlocutors – they come into psychological, behavioral, and neural alignment in order to better predict each other and coordinate as one social unit. However social interaction is diverse, so more work is needed to understand the specific nature of alignment between people in a variety of interactive contexts. In particular, it’s unclear how heterogeneities among members of an interaction impact their ability to align. This work aims to help address this gap by first evaluating and improving ways to collect neuroimaging data in naturalistic, social settings (Chapter 2). Then, empirical research is presented that examines how personal similarity factors impact the extent of alignment during personal disclosure interactions, where one person speaks and the other listens (Chapter 3). Finally, further empirical research investigates different types of alignment that may be present in a dyadic back-and-forth discussion in a joint decision-making paradigm. How this work contributes to a broader understanding of the ways people communicate and work together, and how this research can continue with improved methods, is discussed

Coordination dynamics in the sensorimotor loop

The last two decades have witnessed radical changes of perspective about the nature of intelligence and cognition, leaving behind some of the assumptions of computational functionalism. From the myriad of approaches seeking to substitute the old rule-based symbolic perception of mind, we are especially interested in two of them. The first is Embodied and Situated Cognition, where the advances in modeling complex adaptive systems through computer simulations have reconfigured the way in which mechanistic, embodied and interactive explanations can conceptualize the mind. We are particularly interested in the concept of sensorimotor loop, which brings a new perspective about what is needed for a meaningful interaction with the environment, emphasizing the role of the coordination of effector and sensor activities while performing a concrete task. The second one is the framework of Coordination Dynamics, which has been developed as a result of the increasing focus of neuroscience on self-organized oscillatory brain dynamics. It provides formal tools to study the mechanisms through which complex biological systems stabilize coordination states under conditions in which they would otherwise become unstable. We will merge both approaches and define coordination in the sensorimotor loop as the main phenomena behind the emergence of cognitive behavior. At the same time, we will provide methodological tools and concepts to address this hypothesis. Finally, we will present two case studies based on the proposed approach: 1. We will study the phenomenon known as “intermittent behavior”, which is observed in organisms at different levels (from microorganisms to higher animals). We will propose a model that understands intermittent behavior as a general strategy of biologica organization when an organism has to adapt to complex changing environments, and would allow to establish effective sensorimotor loops even in situations of instable engagement with the world. 2. We will perform a simulation of a phonotaxis task performed by an agent with an oscillator network as neural controller. The objective will be to characterize robust adaptive coupling between perceptive activity and the environmental dynamics just through phase information processing. We will observe how the robustness of the coupling crucially depends of how the sensorimotor loop structures and constrains both the emergent neural and behavioral patterns. We will hypothesize that this structuration of the sensorimotor space, in which only meaningful behavioral patterns can be stabilized, is a key ingredient for the emergence of higher cognitive abilities

Overview of Network Analysis in Systems Medicine

Systems Medicine (SM) is an interdisciplinary research paradigm, that heavily relieson complex systems theory, and emphasizes on the studies the human body in termsof systems and the interactions among them, incorporating biochemical,physiological, and environment interactions. The article presents developments in SMresearch, focusing specifically on the network analysis approaches. Network analysisis fundamental for the study of interactions among systems at different levels withinthe human body. The background knowledge is established: the basic concepts ofnodes and edges, and network metrics as well as existing computational tools aredescribed. Different applications in health research are discussed, includingdescriptive and predictive approaches. The use of network analysis in temporal dataand data coming from digital health technologies is further highlighted. Finally, thecurrent challenges are discussed and the foreseen development

Participatory sense-making in psychotherapy

250 p.La presente tesis propone un enfoque enactivo de la psiquiatría y la psicoterapia que va más allá de una concepción puramente ¿mentalista¿ de la empatía y la alianza terapéutica hacia una perspectiva de segunda persona, destacando el papel constitutivo de la interacción corporal pre-reflectiva entre terapeutas y pacientes en el proceso terapéutico. La tesis se cimienta en la teoría de la intersubjetividad entendida como participatory sense-making, que describe la coordinación de actividades intencionales y no intencionales como vehículo de la emergencia de significados compartidos en las interacciones interpersonales. Se presentan tres trabajos aplicando el marco enactivo a la investigación en psicoterapia: (1) un comentario sobre estudios correlacionales de coordinación no verbal y resultado psicoterapéutico, donde se sugieren nuevas hipótesis de trabajo e interpretaciones de datos empíricos, (2) un análisis interpretativo-fenomenológico de los mecanismos intercorporales pre-reflectivos implicados en la transición de la terapia presencial al formato online, y (3) un análisis y clasificación fenomenológico-enactivo de las intervenciones corporales en los procesos terapéuticos. Estos trabajos demuestran que el marco enactivo promueve una forma particular de investigar psicoterapia

Consciousness as an emergent phenomenon: A tale of different levels of description

One of the biggest queries in cognitive sciences is the emergence of consciousness from matter. Modern neurobiological theories of consciousness propose that conscious experience is the result of interactions between large-scale neuronal networks in the brain, traditionally described within the realm of classical physics. Here, we propose a generalized connectionist framework in which the emergence of "conscious networks" is not exclusive of large brain areas, but can be identified in subcellular networks exhibiting nontrivial quantum phenomena. The essential feature of such networks is the existence of strong correlations in the system (classical or quantum coherence) and the presence of an optimal point at which the system's complexity and energy dissipation are maximized, whereas free-energy is minimized. This is expressed either by maximization of the information content in large scale functional networks or by achieving optimal efficiency through the quantum Goldilock effect.Fil: Guevara, Ramón. Università di Padova; Italia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Francia. Universite de Paris; FranciaFil: Mateos, Diego Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Matemática Aplicada del Litoral. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Matemática Aplicada del Litoral; Argentina. Universidad Autónoma de Entre Ríos; ArgentinaFil: Pérez Velázquez, José Luis. Ronin Institute; Estados Unido

Deterministic chaos theory and forecasting in Social Sciences. Contribution to the discussion

Forecasting social phenomena may be hampered in many ways. This is because in nature of these phenomena lies strong and multilateral connection with other social phenomena; but not only – also physical and biological (natural) ones. The content of this publication constitutes presentation of chosen problems of forecasting in social sciences. The attention in the article was focused among others on deterministic chaos theory, on the attempt of its implementation to phenomena from the scope (or from borderline) of social sciences: economy, logistics, science about safety etc. Moreover, one of the threads of ponderation was the attempt to consider whether it’s possible to create so-called final theory. The aim of the publication is to signalize possibilities of taking advantage of seemingly exotic for “political scientists” methodology of modeling and explaining phenomena, having its source in exact sciences (in chaos theory) to study social phenomena and processes