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Mathematics and Cognition Seminar Fall 2009 Tuesdays 12:15 Psych 161 Seminar Schedule: <http://math.la.asu.edu/~tom/cognition/math+cogsched.html> Cookies and Coffee Starting at 12:00 Note the New Location! Map ("X" marks the spot) |
On Tuesday, November 20, at 12:15 in Psych 161, |
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On the topic: |
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"The Curmudgeon's Tale: |
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Abstract Both classic and modern cognitive neuroscience attack what is generally agreed to be the most important question in modern scienceÑhow does the brain make the mind and control behavior? However, for many reasons, some obvious and some obscure, there is a massive disconnect between what we think we know and what we actually know about this relationship. Modern empirical research with brain imaging systems such as the fMRI are often misinterpreted in surprising ways under the influence of obsolete governing assumptions. This talk considers some of the conceptual, empirical, and technical challenges to simplistic theories of brain organization that help us to understand this disconnect. Current brain imaging studies, while helping us to disconfirm some long standing beliefs, are also suggesting a different kind of metaphor for the brain. Unfortunately, this new metaphor implies that the brain mechanisms for higher cognitive processes are not accessible with brain imaging techniques. Bio Bill Uttal has been a physicist, an engineer, a psychologist, and a neuroscientist and looks forward to deciding what he will be when he grows up. He received his BS in physics from The University of Cincinnati and his PhD from The Ohio State University in experimental psychology and biophysics. He served as an USAF RADAR systems officer during the Korean War. His first postdoctoral position was at the IBM Watson research center after which he moved to the University of Michigan and eventually to ASU following a three year hiatus at the Naval Ocean Systems Center in Hawaii. He is professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Michigan and Professor Emeritus of Engineering at ASU. He has had visiting appointments as the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, University of Western Australia, The University of Freiberg, the University of Padua, the University of Auckland, the University of Sydney, and, for over a forty year span, the University of Hawaii where, for the last seven years, he has spent summers at Bekesy Laboratory of Neurobiology. Bill has been appointed a fellow of APA, APS, AAAS, and the Society of Experimental Psychologists, as well as a visiting scientist of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. He has held a NIMH Special Post Doctoral Fellowship, a NIMH Research Scientist Award, and was a Scholar-in Residence at the Rockefeller Bellagio study center. Since his retirement from ASU in 1999, Bill has concentrated on topics that might be classified within the rubric of philosophy of cognitive neuroscience. His goal is to uncover the implicit assumptions underlying research in this field. He has written 13 of his 28 books during this happy post retirement period. |