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LA CIENCIA DE DUELO

MURIÓ OUTES

El Director emérito de Electroneurobiología, profesor Dr. Diego Luis Outes, tras breve decaimiento ha fallecido en su modesto retiro de Salta, el siete de agosto de 2007. Nacido en esa ciudad del trópico argentino el 20 de enero de 1919, a sólo un día de diferencia con su entrañable amigo santiagueño el Prof. Dr. Arturo Carrillo, sucedió en el liderazgo de nuestra tradición al maestro de ambos, don Braulio Moyano, en años cruciales para nuestros desarrollos científicos. Outes trabajó en este Laboratorio durante cuarenta y tres años, desde 1943 hasta 1986, y hasta hace poco (2006), a veinte años de retirarse a su ciudad natal, continuaba desde allí sus investigaciones. Además de la jefatura del Laboratorio, donde esta foto de 1968 lo muestra entre el (luego) Prof. Dr. Juan Carlos Goldar a su izquierda y el Prof. Dr. Jacinto Carlos Or.lando a su derecha, se desempeñó como catedrático titular de Anatomía y Fisiología del Sistema Nervioso y profesor adjunto de Cínica Neurológica en la Universidad de Buenos Aires y desde 1973 hasta 1982 fue director del Centro de Investigaciones Neurobiológicas del Ministerio de Salud. Dentro del agotador esfuerzo que en las presentes circunstancias nos requiere producir Electroneurobiología, aún soñamos y hace mucho que tenemos programada la publicación de numerosos trabajos suyos, antiguos y recientes. Inauguraba cada día de laboratorio con una suerte de encantamiento, sin cuyo conjuro el esfuerzo diario no maduraría; y aun lo repetía a menudo -- abriendo grande sus ojos de niño, al zambullirse en la autopsia que clausuraba la amistad con un paciente o en los enigmas de una producción cerebral neuroemocional -- musitando "¡Qué misterio, la vida!". [Bueno, gran Dóctor, ahora ya lo resolvió; tras el rosal de la morgue parece oírsele reir ... (Crocco)]

Ontology of Consciousness: Percipient Action

The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.; 1st edition (Aug 31, 2007: A Bradford Book), hardcover & softcover: 656 pages + 73 illus;

US $38.00/£24.95 (PAPER) - US $85.00/£54.95 (CLOTH)

ISBN-10: 0-262-23259-6; ISBN-13: 978-0-262-23259-3

Helmut Wautischer (Editor), Robert A. F. Thurman (Foreword),

ya puede comprarse en las principales librerías de la Red con gran descuento (alrededor del 40%) por compra anticipada a la fecha de aparición…

Endorsements

"These percipient twenty essays [ by Antoine Courban from the Georges Canguilhem Ctr., Paris University; the Director of the Neurobiology Research Centre, Argentine Republic Ministry of Health, and Laboratory of Electroneurobiological Research at the Buenos Aires City Hospital 'J. T. Borda', Mario Crocco; the President of the Xavier Zubiri Foundation of North America, Thomas B. Fowler; Icelandic psychologist Erlendur Haraldsson; Moscow physicist Pavel B. Ivanov, Erasmus University Rotterdam's Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Hans-Georg Gadamer's disciple, Heinz Kimmerle, the President of Max Planck Society, Hubert Markl; Michael Polemis, philosopher at the University of Klagenfurt -Austria- and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece; anthropologist and vanishing cultures scholar E. Richard Sorenson; Laval University's Professor of Neuroscience Mircea Steriade; antipsychiatry movement founder and Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the State University of New York, Thomas Szasz; neuropharmacologist and Electroneurobiology journal's Executive editor Mariela Szirko, anthropologist Edith L. B. Turner, Tasmanian Kierkegaard specialist Julia Watkin, and Austrian-American Professor of Philosophy and Existenz journal's editor, Helmut Wautischer, among others ] are like detonating explosives, profoundly disturbing to various intellectual universes, and highly appropriate to be published by an institution famed for pushing frontiers in science and technology. They connect the dots between the seen and unseen worlds."

--Wilton S. Dillon, Senior Scholar Emeritus, Smithsonian Institution

"An essential source book for the study of consciousness and foundations of experience. This book provides comprehensive analyses of diverse philosophical, religious, anthropological, and scientific approaches to human experience. Scholars who study consciousness, whether they be behavioral, social or biological scientists, or just educated readers, will find in this volume a store of data necessary for the pursuit of this subject."

--Douglass Price-Williams, Professor Emeritus, Departments of Psychiatry and Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles

"This collection provides a rich tableau of research on the nature of consciousness by twenty internationally recognized scholars and researchers who draw on perspectives from archaic traditions in religion and culture to contemporary neuroscience to the testimony of personal experience. Masterfully edited by Helmut Wautischer, Ontology of Consciousness answers questions such as: what kind of being is the being to which we refer as consciousness? How long have humans been perplexed by the awareness of being? Are the questions of being and consciousness one and the same?"

--Alan M. Olson, Professor, Department of Philosophy, Boston University

"One does not realize how painfully narrow is our dataset concerning 'conscious phenomena' until one works one's way through this book. The astounding spectrum of human beliefs about and experiences of consciousness is here carefully organized, analyzed, and categorized. Many chapters, even as they evoke skepticism, make for spellbinding reading. Ambitiously interdisciplinary, this text will be superb for classroom use and could significantly influence the philosophy of mind--if this field is willing to expand the range of its data in the ways here suggested."

--Philip Clayton, Ingraham Professor, Claremont School, and author of Mind and Emergence: From Quantum to Consciousness

Book Description

The "hard problem" of today's consciousness studies is subjective experience: understanding why some brain processing is accompanied by an experienced inner life. Recent scientific advances offer insights for understanding the physiological and chemical phenomenology of consciousness. But by leaving aside the internal experiential nature of consciousness in favor of mapping neural activity, such science leaves many questions unanswered. In Ontology of Consciousness, scholars from a range of disciplines go beyond these limits of current neuroscience research to explore insights offered by other intellectual approaches to consciousness. These scholars focus their attention on such philosophical approaches to consciousness as Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, North American Indian insights, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilization, and the Byzantine Empire. Some draw on artifacts and ethnographic data to make their point. Others translate cultural concepts of consciousness into modern scientific language using models and mathematical mappings. Many consider individual experiences of sentience and existence, as seen in African communalism, Hindi psychology, Zen Buddhism, Indian vibhuti phenomena, existentialism, philosophical realism, and modern psychiatry. Some reveal current views and conundrums in neurobiology to comprehend sentient intellection.

Contributors:

Karim Akerma, Matthijs Cornelissen, Antoine Courban, Mario Crocco, Christian de Quincey, Thomas B. Fowler, Erlendur Haraldsson, David J. Hufford, Pavel B. Ivanov, Heinz Kimmerle, Stanley Krippner, Armand J. Labbé, James Maffie, Hubert Markl, Graham Parkes, Michael Polemis, E Richard Sorenson, Mircea Steriade, Thomas Szasz, Mariela Szirko, Robert A. F. Thurman, Edith L. B. Turner, Julia Watkin, and Helmut Wautischer.

Areas:

Cognition, Brain, & Behavior - Cognition & Psychology – Consciousness - Philosophy of Mind - Humanities – Philosophy – Psychology - Neuroscience - Consciousness - Philosophy - Consciousness- Philosophy of Mind

New: Brain & Language 2007 {Auguat 16; E-pub ahead of print)

'Does Broca's area exist?' : Christofredo Jakob's 1906 response to Pierre Marie's holistic stance.

Tsapkini, K., Vivas, A. B., Triarhou, L. C.

Department of Psychology, Aristotelian University, Thessaloniki 54124, Greece; Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.

En 1906, Pierre Marie desencadenó áspera controversia e intercambio de artículos con Jules Déjerine acerca de la localización, en el cerebro humano, de las funciones relacionadas con la intelección operativa lingüística y la producción de operaciones del lenguaje. El debate se extendió internacionalmente. Una de las primeras intervenciones, publicada sólo un mes después del trabajo de Marie, provino de Christfried Jakob, neurobiólogo bávaro que investigaba en Buenos Aires. El presente artículo incluye la traducción al inglés de esa respuesta de Jakob en 1906 y un estudio de las ideas de Jakob sobre las aproximaciones localizacionistas y holistas respecto al rol del área de Broca - cuestión, esta, que aún permanece en el centro del debate cieníifico, ahora también alumbrado por los descubrimientos actuales en neuropsicología y neuroimágenes. (En inglés).

In 1906, Pierre Marie triggered a heated controversy and an exchange of articles with Jules Déjerine over the localization of language functions in the human brain. The debate spread internationally. One of the timeliest responses, that appeared in print one month after Marie's paper, came from Christofredo Jakob, a Bavarian-born neuropathologist working in Buenos Aires. The present study comprises an English translation of Jakob's 1906 paper and a discussion of Jakob's ideas on the localizationist-holistic approach regarding the role of Broca's area. This issue is still at the core of scientific debate in the light of current neuropsychological and neuroimaging findings.

New: Brain Development 2007 {April 30; E-pub ahead of print)

'Anatomo-biological considerations on the centers of language' : An Argentinian contribution to the 1906 Paris debate on aphasia.

Vivas, A. B., Tsapkini, K., Triarhou, L. C.

Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; Department of Psychology, City Liberal Studies, Affiliated Institution of University of Sheffield, and Department of Psychology, Aristotelian University, Thessaloniki 54124, Greece.

En 1906, año crítico en la célebre controversia "localizationismo versus holismo de la función cerebral" entre los neurólogos Pierre Marie y Jules Déjèrine en París, Christofredo Jakob, neurobiólogo de protagónico papel en las investigaciones del cortex cerebral que por entonces ya trabajaba en la Argentina, publicó dos relevantes comunicaciones, tituladas "¿Existe el área de Broca?" y "Consideraciones anátomo-biológicas sobre los centros del lenguaje". Ambos artículos abordan aspectos neuropsicológicos y del desarrollo de las funciones del lenguaje en la normalidad y la patología en relación a las áreas cerebrales que las sirven. El presente trabajo provee una traducción al inglés del segundo artículo de Jakob, sobre el desarrollo embrional y postnatal de las regiones cerebrales vinculadas al lenguaje. La información brindada y las ideas expresadas por Jakob pueden arrojar aún, un siglo después, útil claridad sobre nuestra comprensión de las relaciones cerebro-lenguaje. (En inglés).

"... it is so impressive how with a Weigert stain, thinking, and clear logic, he could see and say things that today one needs complicated neuroimaging technology to corroborate ..." - Prof. L. C. Triarhou, Thessaloniki Univ.

In 1906, the year of the renowned holistic-localizationist controversy between neurologists Pierre Marie and Jules Déjèrine in Paris, Christfried Jakob, a protagonist researcher of the cerebral cortex at the time working in Argentina, published two relevant articles entitled 'Does Broca's area exist?' and 'Anatomo-biological considerations on the centers of language'. The two articles addressed neuropsychological and developmental aspects of language functions in normality and pathology with regard to the brain areas that subserve them. The present article provides an English translation of Jakob's second paper, on the embryonic and postnatal development of brain areas related to language. The information given and the views expressed may still shed, a century later, useful light on our understanding of brain-language relationships.

Notice: A new book from Paul Bains,

The Primacy of Semiosis: An Ontology of Relations

(Toronto Studies in Semiotics and Communication, 2006)

How do things come to stand for something other than themselves? An understanding of the ontology of relations allows for a compelling account of the action of signs. But also the relationship between your mind and your body and brain is a relationship: one, whose ontology is an essential constituent of your reality. What have in common these two kinds of relations, namely, signs and the psychophysical nexus?

The Primacy of Semiosis is concerned with the ontology of relations and semiosis, the action of signs. Drawing upon the work of Gilles Deleuze, John Deely, and John Poinsot, Paul Bains focuses on the claim that relations are 'external' to their terms, and seeks to give an ontological account of this purported externality of relations.

Bains develops the proposition, first made in 1632 by John Poinsot, that, ontologically, signs are relations whose whole being is in esse ad (`being-toward'). Is your mind also constituted by a 'being-toward' your body, rather than toward any other? Is your changing body also constituted by a 'being-toward' your psyche, rather than toward any other? Is thus personal unity, i.e. every instance of an existentiality-body unchangeable relationship, akin to semiotic ontology?

Furthermore, relations are found to be univocal in their being as relations. This univocity of being is antecedent to the division between 'ens rationis' and 'ens reale'. The ontology of relations Bains presents is thus neither mind-dependent nor mind-independent insofar as the rationale of the relation is concerned. Whence it becomes key to the ontology of consciousness: the special relationship between psyche and body (mind-brain, brain-mind), a sign of what is technically called cadacualtez, can be also explored through semiotic studies.

The Primacy of Semiosis provides a semiotic that subverts the opposition between realism and idealism; one in which what have been called 'nature' and `culture' interpenetrate in an expanding collective of human and non-human. Bains' work promises to be a touchstone for semiotic discussion for years to come.

Paul Bains is an independent scholar now living in New Zealand and affiliated with the Natl. Acad. of Screen and Sound, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia. He published with Isabelle Stengers, "Power and Invention: Situating Science (Theory Out of Bounds)", and "Chaosmosis: An Ethno-aesthetic Paradigm" with Felix Guattari and Julian Pefanis. He is also on Electroneurobiology 's Editorial Committee. His work is relevant to semiosis, consciousness studies, brain-mind or mind-brain relationships, philosophy, philosophical anthropology, history and sociology of semiotics and sign studies, and psychoanalysis.