Neuromusicology or Musiconeurology? “Omni-art” in Alexander Scriabin as a Fount of Ideas

Science can uncover neural mechanisms by looking at the work of artists. The ingenuity of a titan of classical music, the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915), in combining all the sensory modalities into a polyphony of aesthetical experience, and his creation of a chord based on fourths rather than the conventional thirds are proposed as putative points of departure for insight, in future studies, into the neural processes that underlie the perception of beauty, individually or universally. Scriabin’s Omni-art was a new synthesis of music, philosophy and religion, and a new aesthetic language, a unification of music, vision, olfaction, drama, poetry, dance, image and conceptualization, all governed by logic, in the quest for the integrative action of the human mind toward a higher reality of which music is only a component

POSLJEDNJA PUBLIKACIJA CONSTANTINA VON ECONOMA: KOMENTAR NA „ÉVOLUTION CÉRÉBRALE” CHARLESA FRAIPONTA

This paper highlights a commentary written by the neurologist Constantin von Economo on a book published by the Belgian paleontologist Charles Fraipont in 1931. The commentary appears to be Economo’s last opus, published posthumously in early 1933. The reviewed work deals with the evolution of the brain in primates, hominids and humans, presenting some interesting ideas about the phylogeny of the human cerebral hemispheres in conjunction with the living conditions of the genera in consideration.Ovaj rad ističe komentar koji je o knjizi belgijskoga paleontologa Charlesa Fraiponta objavljenoj 1931. godine napisao neurolog Constantin von Economo. Komentar je, kako se čini, Economovo posljednje djelo, objavljeno posthumno početkom 1933. godine. Spomenuto djelo bavi se evolucijom mozga u primata, hominida i ljudi, te predstavlja neke zanimljive ideje o razvoju ljudskih moždanih hemisfera u ovisnosti o životnim uvjetima

POSLJEDNJA PUBLIKACIJA CONSTANTINA VON ECONOMA: KOMENTAR NA „ÉVOLUTION CÉRÉBRALE” CHARLESA FRAIPONTA

This paper highlights a commentary written by the neurologist Constantin von Economo on a book published by the Belgian paleontologist Charles Fraipont in 1931. The commentary appears to be Economo’s last opus, published posthumously in early 1933. The reviewed work deals with the evolution of the brain in primates, hominids and humans, presenting some interesting ideas about the phylogeny of the human cerebral hemispheres in conjunction with the living conditions of the genera in consideration.Ovaj rad ističe komentar koji je o knjizi belgijskoga paleontologa Charlesa Fraiponta objavljenoj 1931. godine napisao neurolog Constantin von Economo. Komentar je, kako se čini, Economovo posljednje djelo, objavljeno posthumno početkom 1933. godine. Spomenuto djelo bavi se evolucijom mozga u primata, hominida i ljudi, te predstavlja neke zanimljive ideje o razvoju ljudskih moždanih hemisfera u ovisnosti o životnim uvjetima

Otto Marburg’s On the question of amusia : editorial

In 1919, Viennese neurologist Otto Marburg (1874–1948) reported the case of a patient with motor aphasia and preserved singing ability. He took the opportunity to discourse on the hemispheric lateralization of the functions of language and music, and also on the interaction of the two cerebral hemispheres in musical expression. “Zur Frage der Amusie” (1919) was published in Arbeiten aus dem Neurologischen Institute an der Wiener Universität, 22, 106-112. In tribute to Marburg’s neurological legacy and as an attempt to disseminate his neuroscientific ideas, an English translation of that essay is here presented by Dimitra Koniari, MA and Lazaros C. Triarhou, MD, PhD of the University of Macedonia, Greece

René-Édouard Claparède (1832–1871), Pioneer Protozoologist and Comparative Anatomist

The pioneer Swiss naturalist René-Édouard Claparède (1832–1871), professor at the University of Geneva, left important contributions to diverse areas of natural science, biology, and comparative anatomy, including the structure of infusoria, annelids, and earthworms, the evolution of arthropods, and the embryology of spiders. He also published observations on marine invertebrates. This essay presents a brief overview of his academic life and work and makes the distinction from his nephew with the same name, the neurologist and educational psychologist Édouard Claparède (1873–1840)

Soul, butterfly, mythological nymph: psyche in philosophy and neuroscience

ABSTRACT The term “psyche” and its derivatives – including “Psychology” and “Psychiatry” – are rooted in classical philosophy and in mythology. Over the centuries, psyche has been the subject of discourse and contemplation, and of fable; it has also come to signify, in entomology, the order of Lepidoptera. In the current surge of research on brain and mind, there is a gradual transition from the psyche (or the “soul”) to the specified descriptors defined by the fields of Behavioral, Cognitive and Integrative Neuroscience