Existence of God: Antithetical Themes in “Dr. Faustus” and “Waiting for Godot”

This paper is about the antithetical themes regarding the existence of God in two plays “Doctor Faustus” by Christopher Marlow and “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Backett. Both the plays represent two different ages and religious orientations. The former is a tragedy of a doctor of philosophy who pledges his soul with the Devil for the sake of attaining the power of necromancy in a flagrant disregard to God’s commandments and is damned to hellfire whereas the latter is tragicomedy that projects meaninglessness of life through characters questioning the very significance of God’s existence. Hence it is presumed that heterogeneous themes running parallel to each other might arouse different emotions in the reader. In order to examine whether such opposing themes in two different dramas exist or not, textual excerpts were analyzed, literature was reviewed, critics views were collected, and opinion of the experts in teaching literature were gathered. Finally, it is concluded that both the plays do have themes which run into opposite directions regarding the existence of God leading to the arousal of unlike emotions

Common Fronto-temporal Effective Connectivity in Humans and Monkeys

Cognitive pathways supporting human language and declarative memory are thought to have uniquely evolutionarily differentiated in our species. However, cross-species comparisons are missing on site-specific effective connectivity between regions important for cognition. We harnessed a new approach using functional imaging to visualize the impact of direct electrical brain stimulation in human neurosurgery patients. Applying the same approach with macaque monkeys, we found remarkably comparable patterns of effective connectivity between auditory cortex and ventro-lateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and parahippocampal cortex in both species. Moreover, in humans electrical tractography revealed rapid evoked potentials in vlPFC from stimulating auditory cortex and speech sounds drove vlPFC, consistent with prior evidence in monkeys of direct projections from auditory cortex to vocalization responsive regions in vlPFC. The results identify a common effective connectivity signature that from auditory cortex is equally direct to vlPFC and indirect to the hippocampus (via parahippocampal cortex) in human and nonhuman primates

Common Fronto-temporal Effective Connectivity in Humans and Monkeys

Human brain pathways supporting language and declarative memory are thought to have differentiated substantially during evolution. However, cross-species comparisons are missing on site-specific effective connectivity between regions important for cognition. We harnessed functional imaging to visualize the effects of direct electrical brain stimulation in macaque monkeys and human neurosurgery patients. We discovered comparable effective connectivity between caudal auditory cortex and both ventro-lateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC, including area 44) and parahippocampal cortex in both species. Human-specific differences were clearest in the form of stronger hemispheric lateralization effects. In humans, electrical tractography revealed remarkably rapid evoked potentials in VLPFC following auditory cortex stimulation and speech sounds drove VLPFC, consistent with prior evidence in monkeys of direct auditory cortex projections to homologous vocalization-responsive regions. The results identify a common effective connectivity signature in human and nonhuman primates, which from auditory cortex appears equally direct to VLPFC and indirect to the hippocampus

Reconstructing Speech from Human Auditory Cortex

Direct brain recordings from neurosurgical patients listening to speech reveal that the acoustic speech signals can be reconstructed from neural activity in auditory cortex