Re: Religion center in the brain


"Kali" <kali@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:MPG.1f6df34596b8a549896bb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In <45037985$0$24201$9a6e19ea@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Wolf K
El_Lobo_Viejo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx said:
: Kali wrote:
: > In <4502c56b$0$24175$9a6e19ea@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Wolf K
: > El_Lobo_Viejo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx said:
[...]

: > : It's not an assumption, it's a tentative inference, based on your
: > : apparent support of the notion that "different aspects of perception
are
: > : localised in certain regions of the brain." This language usually goes
: > : along with notions of perception happening in the brain, which in turn
: > : leads to notions of perception being what the brain does. Or even what
: > : individual neurons do.
: >
: > End cells and stop cells are rather distinctive from one
: > another, as are rods and cones, bipolar cells and ganglion
: > cells, cellular layers in the lateral geniculate nucleus...
: >
: > And yes, some functional aspects of perception are consistently
: > correlated to neural activity in certain brain structures. We
: > know this not just through neuroimaging (subtraction method)
: > studies or lesioning but also through valid and reliable
: > reaction time studies; Ann Treisman's work comes readily to
: > mind.
: >
: > We do seem to speak different languages.
: >
: > Visual perception, as a functional process, physically occurs in
: > the brain. Entirely. Present contradictory evidence and I'll
: > consider it.
: >
: > [...]
: >
: > Kali
:
: This seems to be partly a semantic argument, but there is one
: substantive point that must be made:
:
: When I say the whole organism perceives, I mean that we attribute
: perceiving to an organism only because it behaves in a certain way in
: the presence of certain environmental entities (say light reflecting off
: stop sign.) If you, as driver of the car, slow down and stop before
: proceeding across the intersection, I infer that you have perceived the
: stop sign. I infer this even if you cannot, later, recall that you did
: in fact slow down and stop. If you recall that action, I infer that you
: "consciously perceived" the stop sign. But it was _you_, not your brain
: that did that.

The process of visual perception occurs entirely in the brain. I
have no idea what term you would prefer science to use to label
this neurological process, and it doesn?t matter. One can say
(or hypothesize or infer) that an organism has perceived a
visual stimulus because its behavior correlates temporally with
the presentation of the stimulus. Or one can actually read the
published research and understand that visual perception is a
functional process that occurs entirely within the brain of a
living organism. The organism perceives a visual stimulus, and
the process of perceiving the visual stimulus has occured
entirely in the brain.

GS: No, perception is an activity of an animal and it occurs in the world.
The behavior that we call perception is mediated by physiology as is
shooting pool, having sex, informing people that they don't know what they're
talking about, saying "who's your daddy," etc.



Cordially, Your Daddy,

Glen



: Now you may, if you wish, talk about the brain processes implicated in
: seeing the stop sign, etc, as "perception." etc. But IMO that is a)
: confusing; and b) likely to mislead. What the organism does, and what
: its parts do, are not the same. The trouble with using the same
: terminology for both levels of analysis is that, whether we like it or
: not, hidden and implicit assumptions associated with the terminology
: will influence conceptualisation of both levels of analysis. That can
: only lead to error, and IMO will do so sooner rather than later.

We simply disagree on the importance of your linguistic
preferences.

Kali
--
There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former
begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.
Hippocrates (c460-c.377 BCE) Greek physician. Law


.

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