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Information Project: Annotated Bibliography

Dave-

Attached is my annotated bibliography for the information phase of the project. My research is going well - I'm starting to find some interesting sources, and these have led me to even more great sources yet to be explored. I read two chapters of Steven Pinkert's The Language Instinct, but have not yet included it in the bibliography. I have also found two fantastic collections, Action to Language via the Mirror Neuron System and Mirror Neurons and the Evolution of Brain and Language, but both are extremely expensive and I've had to order them through interlibrary loan.

I am excited about the project and its progress.

Thanks,
Ryan

Submitted by Ryan on Thu, 2007-03-08 10:37.
Ryan's blog

Are the Mirror Neuronists Scientistic?
David Blakesley's picture
Submitted by David Blakesley on Tue, 2007-03-20 07:30.

This is an excellent set of citations and sources, Ryan. Very interesting. Seeing them all together like this makes me see more clearly just how much privileging there is of agency in the defining human action. Identification is not so much an assertion of will (act, or purpose) but the "result" of a process made possible by the presence of neural pathways, chemicals, whatever. In that scheme, as KB would be quick to point out, language is eliminated or ignored as a motive, and action is reduced to motion. This is just a general observation about some of these studies, so watch out for that.

A few notes:
Changeux, Jean-Pierre. “Creation, Art, and the Brain.”

He writes:
The almost infinite connections between the brain become more organized as they increase in hierarchy, resulting in more creative ability “as long as the system remain open to its environment” (378).

Isn't that interesting? The connections increase, leading to creation. How do those connection increase? Through exposure to new aspects of the environment. What's missing here is any sense that a terminology (or concept, even) has a role in shaping the nature of the creation (an active, assertive function). It's "the brain" doing this, or neurons, or some other physical process. It's not something grounded in an act (using or seeing with terms, for example).

Mirror Neurons (Rizzolatti and Craighero):

One claim:
"Mirror neurons fire both when a primate (monkey, chimpanzee, human, etc) is performing a task or watching another primate perform that same task. Mirror neurons are only activated by interaction between two members of the species. “The sight of an object alone, of an agent mimicking an action, or of an individual making intransitive (non object directed) gestures are all ineffective” (170).

Very interesting. I would bet that the mirror neurons fire when primates observe across species, too, or in any situation where identification is possible (watch America's Funniest Home Animal Videos, and you'll feel it). Not sure it this is that important. It would be interesting to see if the identification is stronger from humans to other animals than it is from chimpanzees to other animals. I would guess that it is, on the premise that the assertion of identification is to some degree a consequence of language.

Great article, though. Lots to chew on!

Keep up the great work!

Dave