From Gut to Gray Matter: The Surprising Links Between The Microbiome and Brain

The gut microbiome has been implicated in the pathogenesis of a wide array of immune-related neurological disorders, including psychiatric and neurological disorders. This fascinating journey from the gut to the gray matter reveals an astonishing dimension of scientific exploration. The intricate interconnectedness of the gut-brain axis and the microbiota's impact on brain function carries substantial implications for mental well-being. This burgeoning field not only holds great promise for insights into the prevention and treatment of neurological conditions but also underscores the significance of maintaining a well-balanced and nurtured microbiomes for overall cognitive health

Problem „nietoperza Nagel'a" w argumentacji Johna Hicka i Paula M. Churchlanda.

The article tries to show the relations between P. M. Churchland's and J. Hick's reference to T. Nagel's „bat argument" and is based on Nagel's, Mortal questions, Chuchralnd's The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul. A Philosophical Journey into the Brain and J. Hick's The New Frontier of Religion and Science. Religious experience, neuroscience and the transcendent. The clue is that Churchland and Hick beg the main point of the Nagel's argument about the difference between mind and brain. Churchland agrees with Nagel in assuming of the self and only self knowledge about mind states. But the former author and Hick misunderstand that indeed Nagel argues that it is still impossible to identify subjective states as objective. Moreover, Hick avoids Churchland's counter-argument. Therefore, not all of the dispute concerns the same problem.The article tries to show the relations between P. M. Churchland's and J. Hick's reference to T. Nagel's „bat argument" and is based on Nagel's, Mortal questions, Chuchralnd's The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul. A Philosophical Journey into the Brain and J. Hick's The New Frontier of Religion and Science. Religious experience, neuroscience and the transcendent. The clue is that Churchland and Hick beg the main point of the Nagel's argument about the difference between mind and brain. Churchland agrees with Nagel in assuming of the self and only self knowledge about mind states. But the former author and Hick misunderstand that indeed Nagel argues that it is still impossible to identify subjective states as objective. Moreover, Hick avoids Churchland's counter-argument. Therefore, not all of the dispute concerns the same problem

The epic of the thalamus in anatomical language

Understanding the origin of Greek and Latin words used as metaphors to label brain structures gives a unique window into how scientific and medical knowledge was produced, preserved, and transmitted through generations. The history of the term thalamus exemplifies the complex historical process that led to the current anatomical terminology. From its first mention by Galen of Pergamon in the 2nd century A.D. to its definitive and current use by Thomas Willis in 1664, the thalamus had an epical journey through 1500 years across Europe, the Middle East, and the North of Africa. The thalamus was confusingly described by Galen, in the Greek language, as a chamber to the brain ventricles. The term thalamus was transferred from Greek to Syriac through the translations of Galen’s books done in Baghdad and also from Syriac to Arabic. Then, it was translated in Europe during the Middle Ages from the Arabic versions of Galen’s books to Latin. Later, during the Early Renaissance, it was translated again to Latin directly from the Greek versions of Galen’s books. Along this epical journey through languages, the term thalamus switched from referring to a hollow structure connected to brain ventricles to naming a solid structure at the rostral end of the brainstem. Finally, the thalamus was translated from Latin to modern languages, where it is used, until today, to name a nuclear complex of subcortical gray matter in the lateral walls of the third ventricl

Why Everettians Should Appreciate the Transactional Interpretation

The attractive feature of the Everett approach is its admirable spirit of approaching the quantum puzzle with a Zen-like "beginner’s mind" in order to try to envision what the pure formalism might be saying about quantum reality, even if that journey leads to a strange place. It is argued that the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics (TI), appropriately interpreted, shares the same motivation and achieves much more, with far fewer conceptual perplexities, by taking into account heretofore overlooked features of the quantum formalism itself (i.e. advanced states). In particular, TI does not need to talk about brain states, consciousness, or observers (rational or otherwise). In its possibilist variant (“PTI”), it shares the realist virtues of treating state vector branches as genuine dynamical entities, without having to explain how or why all of their associated outcomes actually happen (they don’t), how to account for a plenitude of counterpart observers in some coherent notion of trans-temporal identity of the bifurcating observers (observers don’t bifurcate in TI), nor how the certainty of all outcomes could be consistent with any coherent theory of probability, let alone the Born probability (the Born probability emerges naturally in TI). In short, TI is precisely the one-world interpretation Kent is looking for in his (2010)

CO 625 Recognizing and Treating Addictive Disorders

REQUIRED READINGS Ross, G.R. (1994). Treating adolescent substance abuse: Understanding the fundamental elements, Boston: Allyn & Bacon. (214 pages) Meyer, J.S. & Quenzer, L.F. (2005) Psychopharmacology: Drugs, the brain, and behavior, Sunderland, MA:m Sinauer Associates, Inc (490 pages) McGee, R.S. (1998). The search for significance, Pasadena, TX: Robert S. McGee. (339 pages) McGee, R.S. & McCleskey, D. W. (1994) Conquering chemical dependency: A Christ-centered 12 step process, Roashville, TN: Lifeway Press. (224 pages) Weinberg, J.R. & Kosloske, D. (1977) Fourth step guide: Journey into growth, Minneapolis, MN: Comp Care Publishers. (46 pages)https://place.asburyseminary.edu/syllabi/2363/thumbnail.jp

CO 625 Recognizing and Treating Addictive Disorders

REQUIRED READINGS Ross, G.R. (1994). Treating adolescent substance abuse: Understanding the fundamental elements, Boston: Allyn & Bacon. (214 pages) Meyer, J.S. and Quenzer,LF (2005)Psychopharmacology: Drugs, the Brain, and Behavior Sinauer Associates, Inc. Sunderland, MA. (490 pages) McGee, R.S. (1998). The search for significance, Pasadena, TX: Robert S. McGee. (339 pages) McGee, R.S. & McCleskey, D. W. (1994) Conquering chemical dependency: A Christ-centered 12 step process, Roashville, TN: Lifeway Press. (224 pages) Weinberg, J.R. & Kosloske, D. (1977) Fourth step guide: Journey into growth, Minneapolis, MN: Comp Care Publishers. (46 pages)https://place.asburyseminary.edu/syllabi/3870/thumbnail.jp

Trying On—Being In—Becoming: Four Women’s Journey(s) in Feminist Poststructural Theory

This is the narrative of four women in academia spanning a ten-year relational journey. As a performance collaborative autoethnography, it explores and presents theories of subjectivity and transitional space. Through journals, emails, and dialogue we are trying on, being in, and becoming feminist poststructural thinkers/inquirers/teacher educators. In our work, we explore: How has theory changed our subjectivity, lived experiences and relationships, and moved us from comfortable spaces of knowing to uncomfortable places of becoming? In a series of poetry and performance narratives, we chart our own linked journey(s) in pursuing these questions. As autoethnographers, we grapple with meanings and moments of loss, desire, guilt, and love as a practice of hypomnemata. This study represents a reflective mining of such treasures, capturing moments of rereading and meditation, and a pause, even if an illusionary one, in our intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and embodied journey(s). Our work illustrates how the self looks in transitional space: in motion, contemporaneous, simultaneously in the making and in relation to others. We continue this practice as a pedagogy for being and living out the fictions of our lives