Thresholds of Body and Mind

Neuropsychiatry: grasping the body-mind and mind-body problems.

I f the brain is the most complicated material object in the known universe, the mind is its most wondrous product (1). Precisely how the brain generates mental events is an unsolved mystery. The field of neuropsychiatry concerns itself with psychopathology caused by structural brain disease, brain electrical malfunction, and extrinsic toxic metabolic disturbances. As such, neuropsychiatry is i...

Mind and Body

We are still far from full understanding of the precise relations of mind and body in health or in illness : and as often in medicine, the study of the latter may lead to more knowledge of the former. Developments in this field are therefore of interest not only to the doctor, but to the student of sociology, and certainly to anyone concerned with mental health. Work has been proceeding for yea...

Mind and Body

Taking a bite of a Granny Smith apple releases a torrent of sensory experiences—a tart tang on the tongue, a savory smell in the nose, a crisp crunch at the ear, a firm feel in the hand, a chartreuse color at the eye. This bite also releases a torrent of neural activity in multiple areas of the brain. It is natural to ask: What is the relation between sensory experiences and neural activity? Th...

Of sound, mind, and body:

Mind-, Body- and Emotion-Reading

A core requirement of human-like intelligent agents is the ability to create and dynamically maintain mental models of other agents. We suggest that such modeling capabilities must extend beyond traditional notions of “mindreading” to include inferring unobservable features of other agents’ bodies and emotions as well. We describe the modeling of agents endowed with a mind, body and emotions wi...