Opinion
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Modern neuroscience typically teaches a history that begins with the ancient Greeks, skips nearly two thousand years, and resumes with European thinkers of the Renaissance. This narrative ignores non-Western discoveries entirely, and reinforces a Eurocentric story in which progress radiates outward from Europe. In reality, during those “silent” centuries, scholars across the Islamic world, India,…
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Most of the general public are familiar with brainwaves. However, a very small minority are aware of the uncertainty that prevails in the electrophysiology field. Ever since the first recorded signal by Hans Berger (Berger, 1929), alpha waves, most prominent in the visual cortex, we have been bewildered as to what they are. Mathematically minded…
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Opinion, You see your dog whine when you leave. Does he feel sadness, or is he just reacting? And how could you possibly know? If you would attempt to answer that question empirically, you would struggle greatly. Because emotions are a concept defined by humans to describe experiences we believe are universal. However, experiences may…
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Religious traditions tend to rest on a dualistic basis with some variations. They posit an agent that is independent of the body but temporarily resides within it. This accounts for the human soul and a God that does not always have a body. While the gods are usually also bestowed with higher powers (however defined).…
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Opinion, Western psychiatry insists to a great extent on a reductionist, micro-categorical framework that can still lead to viewing mental and physical health as distinct entities. Although psychiatry is gradually shifting from this view, I argue for a systemic reconfiguration toward a unified, systemic view of human health, hypothesizing that chronic stress sensitivity, neurodivergence, affective…
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Opinion, As I have previously discussed in a recent article, memories are highly dynamic and can be affected by external stimuli (Link).They can adapt to novel contexts and even be modified by others, to the extent that they become false, or inaccurate (Fandakova and Dennis, 2024). Sometimes, memories are formed that are associated to high…
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Opinion, Within neuroscience, I have taken part in the practice of reductionism during my work studying the hippocampus, trying to link circuit mechanisms to behaviour. Now that’s all well and good, but here is the question: How deep can we dig until we get lost in natural variation no longer relating to function? Let’s say…
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Opinion, As humans, we are not objective when investigating the capabilities of other species, especially regarding mental faculties. There is a tendency to view ourselves in a superior position. But the question remains: Is this due to our innate egocentric view, or is it an actual reality? I once had a casual conversation with fellow…