mindcycle

Howdy!

Below you can find some papers I’ve written and slides of presentations I’ve given (most recent first). I also upload notes and class summaries that people studying or interested in Cognitive Science or related fields may find useful.

If you encounter any mistakes, have suggestions for improvements, or just want to give a comment please contact me.

Have fun!

• Here is an extremely short history of depression and its treatment. It is my last essay for the MSc.

• Cortical oscillations are currently a hot topic in cognitive neuroscience. What is their functional role? In this essay I discuss what is known about our brains’ “clocking mechanism” to date.

• What problems may occur when an acoustic signal is translated into a stream of words? And how might the brain overcome these problems? This paper discusses possible strategies.

• Here are my answers to some questions about neuroimiging methods and their application in cognitive neuroscience.

• Here are the slides from a presentation on EEG & MEG experimental design and preprocessing I gave with Thomas Ditye at the FIL’s methods Seminar.

• Is asymmetric baseline frontal alpha activity as measured by EEG related to, or even predictive of, exercise addiction? Here is a critical review of Gapin, Etnier and Tucker’s recent study.

• In 1972, Tulving described our knowledge about words, about their referents and meanings, and about the relations among them as semantic memory. Here is an essay discussing different models of semantic memory and its neurological basis.

• Here are my answers to three questions about lesion methods and how they are used in cognitive neuropsychology.

• Here is a neuropsychological report about a patient seen at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London.

• This takes you to a draft of a paper on “Historical Perspectives on the What and Where of Cognition” I have written together with Sven Walter for Csaba Pléh, Lilia Gurova, and László Ropolyi’s book on New Perspectives on the History of Cognitive Science.

• I have written a short review-like paper for Markus Quirin’s class on emotion regulation; it’s entitled “Cognition and Emotion”. It comes down to finding that we simply cannot say how two equally ill-defined phenomena interact; especially not if we don’t even know they’re distinct.

• Here are the slides of a presentation in Thomas Gruber’s seminar on memory and cortical oscillations given by Katharina Wilmes and myself (in German).

• Together with Tim Schröder, I’ve given a presentation on Dretske’s account of Laws of Nature in our philosophy of science seminar supervised by Vera Hoffmann-Kolss and Markus Eronen.

• Here is a paper on reidentification of particulars that I’ve written for a class on Peter Strawson’s “Individuals”.

• This takes you to the first draft of an entry on “Genetic Drift” (Genetische Drift) written by Sven Walter and myself for the Handbook of Evolution (Handbuch Evolution, in German) edited by P. Sarasin, M. Sommer & T.P. Weber.

• During a symposium on causal explanation I presented Max Kistler’s view on “Mechanisms and Downward Causation” together with some critical remarks.

• My second paper in Philosophy of Logic is a longer one. I’m trying to introduce my own view on “possible worlds”.

• “Could Columbus have discovered Australia?” — My last metaphysics paper in fall 2008 is about de re modal statements and the problem of transworld identity.

• “To What Degree Do Genes and Environment Influence Psychoactive Substance Use?” — K. Kendler et al. conducted a study in 1796 twins; here I review their paper.

• “Action .?. Perception” is a paper I have written for my class “Philosophy of Psychology”. It might need revision at some point; for now I guess this version will do.

• “When Does Knowledge about Gender-Stereotyped Activities Emerge in Infancy?” — Again, a short review of a journal paper. This one was about infant looking times.

• I’ve also written a short paper for my class “Philosophy of Logic”. Here I defend the view with which Donald Rumsfeld raised laughter and consider its consequences for epistemic logic.

• In my second metaphysics paper I argue that “Denial Is Not a Solution”. Where denial refers to the view that temporal parts do not exist (as put forward by presentists). What this is not a solution for, is the problem of change.

• “Is Human vmPFC Involved in Coding Emotional Significance of Complex Scenes?” — Another short paper review.

• “Where Does Your Brain Calculate Causal Effects of Your Actions?” — As it turns out, it’s happening in the medial prefrontal cortex. The paper reviewed here was probably one of the most interesitng ones I’ve read during fall 2008.

• “Meanings Ain’t Outside the Head” is my first paper for an introductory metaphysics class taught by Thomas Sattig.

• “Can Deficits in Mental Imagery occur without Visual Agnosia?” — A short review of a contemporary paper by V. Moro and her colleagues.

• If you are interested in human behavioral ecology, you might enjoy the slides of a presentation given by a colleague of mine and myself. It is on a paper by Napoleon A. Chagnon entitled “Male Yanomamö Manipulations of Kinship Classifications of Female Kin for Reproductive Advantage”. We have also written a brief summary of that paper.

• I have written a termpaper dealing with the question whether a language capacity enables beings to think. You can have a look at it here.

• This takes you to a collection of summarizing questions for the “Action and Cogniton I” lecture given by Peter König and my answers to them.

• You may also want to have a look at my recent answers to the Functional Neuroanatomy FAQ from this term’s lecture. I am still working on it, so please don’t hesitate to give comments and corrections.

• Here is a first summary of the topics covered in our Syntax class. It is a 12 page pdf based on the lecture slides and our textbook by Andrew Carnie.

• To give it a start, I just upload a summary of my Philosophy of Mind class containing the topics covered in the lecture of summer term 2007.