Of what value is philosophy to science? A review of Max R. Bennett and P. M. S. Hacker's Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience

The book Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience (2003) is an engaging criticism of cognitive neuroscience from the perspective of a Wittgensteinian philosophy of ordinary language. The authors' main claim is that assertions like "the brain sees" and "the left hemisphere thinks" are integral to cognitive neuroscience but that they are meaningless because they commit the mereological fallacy - ascribing to parts of humans, properties that make sense to predicate only of whole humans. The authors claim that this fallacy is at the heart of Cartesian dualism, implying that current cognitive neuroscientists are Cartesian dualists. Against this claim, we argue that the fallacy cannot be committed within Cartesian dualism either, for this doctrine does not allow for an intelligible way of asserting that a soul is part of a human being. Also, the authors' Aristotelian essentialistic outlook is at odds with their Wittgensteinian stance, and we were unconvinced by their case against explanatory reductionism. Finally, although their Wittgensteinian stance is congenial with radical behaviorism, their separation between philosophy and science seems less so because it is based on a view of philosophy as a priori. The authors' emphasis on the a priori, however, does not necessarily commit them to rationalism if it is restricted to conceptual or analytical (as opposed to synthetic) truths. © 2006 Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies

Pavlovian conditioning: Pigeon nictitating membrane

A new Pavlovian conditioning preparation was developed using the nictitating membrane of the restrained pigeon. Either visual or auditory stimuli served as conditioned stimuli (CSs) with an unconditioned stimulus (US) of a puff of air to the cornea. Movement of the nictitating membrane constituted the conditioned and unconditioned responses (CR and UR). Conditioning was studied with the Kamin blocking procedure. In agreement with findings from other conditioning preparations, responding to the redundant stimulus was attenuated relative to a stimulus that received the same number of CS-US pairings in a compound-conditioning procedure. Although response attenuation occurred, substantial individual variation was observed within the blocking procedure, a finding with some precedent in the experimental literature. Theoretical analysis and neural-network simulations indicate that inter-subject variation in response attenuation may result from differences in the extent to which contextual stimuli contribute to the functional CS. � 2010 Elsevier B.V

Evolution of Cooperation Within a Behavior-Based Perspective: Confronting Nature and Animats

We study the evolution of social behaviors within a behavioral framework. To this end, we define a "minimal social situation" that is experimented with both humans and simulations based on reinforcement learning algorithms. We analyse the dynamics of behaviors in this situation by way of operant conditioning. We show that the best reinforcement algorithm, based on Staddon-Zhang's equations, has a performance and a variety of behaviors that comes close to that of humans, and clearly outperforms the well-known Q-learning. Though we use here a rather simple, yet rich, situation, we argue that operant conditioning deserves much study in the realm of artificial life, being too often misunderstood, and confused with classical conditioning

Thermogenic effect of bronchodilators in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

BACKGROUND: Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are frequently malnourished and have increased resting energy expenditure (REE). An increase in the work of breathing is generally considered to be the main cause of this hypermetabolism, but other factors may also be implicated. Bronchodilators may decrease the work of breathing by reducing airway obstruction, but beta 2 adrenergic agents have a thermogenic effect. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of salbutamol and ipratropium bromide administration on REE in patients with COPD. METHODS: Thirteen patients (10 men) of mean (SD) age 68.3 (7.3) years and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) 39.0 (17.0)% predicted were studied on three consecutive days. The REE was measured by indirect calorimetry at 30, 60, 120, and 180 minutes after double blind nebulisation of either salbutamol, ipratropium bromide, or placebo in random order. RESULTS: FEV1 increased both after salbutamol and after ipratropium. The difference in the mean response between salbutamol and placebo over 180 minutes was +199 ml (95% CI +104 to +295). The difference in mean response between ipratropium and placebo was +78 ml (95% CI +2 to +160). REE increased after salbutamol but was not changed after ipratropium. The difference in mean response between salbutamol and placebo was +4.8% of baseline REE (95% CI +2.2 to +7.4). Heart rate increased after salbutamol but not after ipratropium. The difference in the mean response between salbutamol and placebo was +5.5 beats/ min (95% CI +2.6 to +8.4). CONCLUSION: Salbutamol, but not ipratropium bromide, induces a sustained increase in the REE of patients with COPD despite a reduction in airway obstruction

Análise da noção de variabilidade comportamental

O presente trabalho faz uma análise do conceito de variabilidade comportamental com o objetivo de padronizar as diferentes definições e usos do termo. Propomos: 1) uma definição que recorra ao ponto comum dentre os diversos conceitos de variabilidade existentes na literatura, e 2) a descrição e sistematização dos aspectos específicos de cada uso do termo, utilizando os seguintes critérios: conteúdo e estrutura de cada conceito, níveis de análise empírico/teórico, molar/molecular, e tipos de medida e códigos com que são especificados. Essa análise é uma tentativa inicial para a construção de uma taxonomia da variabilidade comportamental