Ernst Pöppel – författare

The neuropsychological rehabilitation of patients with brain in­ juries presents a new challenge for medicine and psychology. In any society patients who have suffered a stroke or a traumatic brain lesion constitute a large group requiring special therapy; even nowadays only a small group of these patients obtain adequate rehabilitational support. Brain injuries may lead to loss or impair­ ment of functions like language, sight, memory, attention, emo­ tional control, or movement, and such impairments are usually ac­ companied by handicaps in the patient's daily life. Every attempt should be made to improve functional competence and the pa­ tient's capacity to cope with their disability and handicap. In recent years, the aim of much research in the basic sciences has been to gain insight into the mechanisms of restitution of function, partly by trying to understand the pathophysiological mechanisms that are initiated by a traumatic event. However, in spite of this broad research initiative into recovery of function and the possibilities of cognitive remediation, our knowledge is still rather limited, with respect to both the neurobiological mecha­ nisms that may underlie functional plasticity and the factors that may account for neuropsychological rehabilitation. In spite of these shortcomings, we would like to stress that progress can only be expected if an intense research effort is made to unite the con­ cepts and results from the basic sciences with the practical demands of neuropsychological rehabilitation.

The advances in neuroimaging technologies have led to substantial progress in understanding the neural mechanisms of cognitive functions. Thinking and reasoning have only recently been addressed by using neuroimaging techniques. The present book comprehensively explores current approaches and contributions to understanding the neural mechanisms of thinking in a concise and readable manner. It provides an insight into the state of the art and the potentials, but also the limitations of current neuroimaging methods for studying cognitive functions. The book will be a valuable companion for everyone interested in one of the most fascinating topics of cognitive neuroscience.

The advances in neuroimaging technologies have led to substantial progress in understanding the neural mechanisms of cognitive functions. Thinking and reasoning have only recently been addressed by using neuroimaging techniques. The present book comprehensively explores current approaches and contributions to understanding the neural mechanisms of thinking in a concise and readable manner. It provides an insight into the state of the art and the potentials, but also the limitations of current neuroimaging methods for studying cognitive functions. The book will be a valuable companion for everyone interested in one of the most fascinating topics of cognitive neuroscience.

Cultural neuroscience combines brain imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related brain potentials with methods of social and cultural psychology to investigate whether and how cultures influence the neural mechanisms of perception, attention, emotion, social cognition, and other human cognitive processes. The findings of cultural neuroscience studies improve our understanding of the relation between human brain function and sociocultural contexts and help to reframe the “big question” of nature versus nurture. This book is organized so that two chapters provide general views of the relation between biological evolution, cultural evolution and recent cultural neuroscience studies, while other chapters focus on several aspects of human cognition that have been shown to be strongly influenced by sociocultural factors such as self-concept representation, language processes, emotion, time perception, and decision-making. The main goal of this work is to address how thinking actually takes place and how the underlying neural mechanisms are affected by culture and identity.

Cultural neuroscience combines brain imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related brain potentials with methods of social and cultural psychology to investigate whether and how cultures influence the neural mechanisms of perception, attention, emotion, social cognition, and other human cognitive processes. The findings of cultural neuroscience studies improve our understanding of the relation between human brain function and sociocultural contexts and help to reframe the “big question” of nature versus nurture. This book is organized so that two chapters provide general views of the relation between biological evolution, cultural evolution and recent cultural neuroscience studies, while other chapters focus on several aspects of human cognition that have been shown to be strongly influenced by sociocultural factors such as self-concept representation, language processes, emotion, time perception, and decision-making. The main goal of this work is to address how thinking actually takes place and how the underlying neural mechanisms are affected by culture and identity.

Neuroaesthetics has become an important new field in the sciences bringing together researchers from cognitive science (as a general term including brain science, psychology, anthropology, ethology, artificial intelligence), the humanities (including linguistics, philosophy), and the arts (artists from the visual arts, music and poetry). Thus, neuroaesthetics is a prime example of successful interdisciplinarity. In the book Neuroaesthetics: Exploring Beauty Within and Around Us we distinguish and represent in several articles two different kinds of interdisciplinarity: "Horizontal interdisciplinarity" brings together in a complementary way different fields like (as an example) psychology, linguistics and poetry. "Vertical interdisciplinarity" refers to research on data generating mechanisms like (as an example) neural activities in the brain being associated with subjective experiences of "beauty". In the book articles refer to the visual arts ("art in space"), to "faces in art", to poetry and music ("art in time"), and to general ideas (bridging art and science). This is a unique collection of articles with a broad scope.