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1
Giannetti, Laura. Food Culture and Literary Imagination in Early Modern Italy. NL Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.5117/9789463728034.
Full textAbstract:
As the long sixteenth century came to a close, new positive ideas of gusto/taste opened a rich counter vision of food and taste where material practice, sensory perceptions and imagination contended with traditional social values, morality, and dietetic/medical discourse. Exploring the complex and evocative ways the early modern Italian culture of food was imagined in the literature of the time, Food Culture and the Literary Imagination in Early Modern Italy reveals that while a moral and disciplinary vision tried to control the discourse on food and eating in medical and dietetic treatises of the sixteenth century and prescriptive literature, a wide range of literary works contributed to a revolution in eating and taste. In the process long held visions of food and eating, as related to social order and hierarchy, medicine, sexuality and gender, religion and morality, pleasure and the senses, were questioned, tested and overturned, and eating and its pleasures would never be the same.
2
Stoneley, Sarah, and Simon Rinald. Sensory loss. Edited by Patrick Davey and David Sprigings. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780199568741.003.0047.
Full textAbstract:
Sensory disturbance can either be a complete loss (anaesthesia) or a reduction (hypoaesthesia) in the ability to perceive the sensory input. Dysaesthesia is an abnormal increase in the perception of normal sensory stimuli. Hyperalgesia is an increased sensitivity to normally painful stimuli, and allodynia is the perception of usually innocuous stimuli as painful. A complete loss of sensation is likely to be due to a central nervous system problem, while a tingling/paraesthesia (large fibre) or burning/temperature (small fibre) sensation is likely due to an acquired peripheral nervous system problem. Shooting, electric-shock-like pains suggest radicular pathology, a tight-band spinal cord dysfunction. Positive sensory symptoms are usually absent in inherited neuropathies, even in the context of significant deficits on examination. This chapter describes the clinical approach to patients with sensory symptoms. Common patterns of sensory loss and their causes are described.
3
Merabet, Lotfi, and Alvaro Pascual-Leone. Studies of Crossmodal Functions with TMS. Edited by Charles M. Epstein, Eric M. Wassermann, and Ulf Ziemann. Oxford University Press, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198568926.013.0029.
Full textAbstract:
In the brain, information from all the senses interacts and is integrated in order to create a unified sensory percept. Some percepts appear unimodal, and some, cross modal. Unimodal percepts can be modified by crossmodal interactions given that our brains process multiple streams of sensory information in parallel and promote extensive interactions. TMS can provide valuable insights on the neural substrates associated with multisensory processing in humans. TMS is commonly described as a ‘relatively painless’ method of stimulating the brain noninvasively. However, TMS itself is strong multisensory and this should be considered while interpreting the results. With regard to the crossmodal sensory changes that follow sensory deprivation, these changes can be revealed using a variety of methods including the combination of TMS with neuroimaging.
4
Macpherson, Fiona, ed. Sensory Substitution and Augmentation. British Academy, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197266441.001.0001.
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Sensory substitution and augmentation devices are built to try to replace or enhance one sense by using another sense. For example, in tactile–vision, stimulation of the skin driven by input to a camera is used to replace the ordinary sense of vision that uses our eyes. The feelSpace belt aims to give people a magnetic sense of direction using vibrotactile stimulation driven by a digital compass. This volume brings together researchers—neuroscientists, psychologists and philosophers—who are developing these technologies, studying the minds and behaviour of subjects who use them. There is a particular focus on the nature of the perceptual experiences, the sensory interactions, and the changes that take place in the mind and brain over time that occur while using and training to use these technologies. Essays address the nature, limits and possibilities of sensory substitution and augmentation, how they might be used to help those with sensory impairments, and what they can tell us about perception and perceptual experience in general.
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Papineau, David. The Metaphysics of Sensory Experience. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198862390.001.0001.
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What are the materials of conscious perceptual experience? What is going on when we are consciously aware of a visual scene, or hear sounds, or otherwise enjoy sensory experience? In The Metaphysics of Sensory Experience David Papineau exposes the flaws in contemporary answers to this central philosophical question and defends a new alternative. Contemporary theories of perceptual experience all hold that conscious experiences reach out into the world beyond the mind. According to naïve realism, experiences literally incorporate perceived facts, while representationalism holds that experiences contain ordinary properties of the kind possessed by physical objects. These ideas might seem attractive at first sight, but Papineau shows that they do not stand up to examination. Instead Papineau argues for a purely qualitative account of sensory experience. Conscious sensory experiences are intrinsic states of people with no essential connection to external circumstances or represented properties. This might run counter to initial intuition, but Papineau shows that it is the only view that fits the facts. He develops this qualitative theory in detail, showing how it can accommodate the rich structure of sensory experience. Papineau’s qualitative account has respectable antecedents in the history of philosophy, and is also probably the view adopted by most non-specialists, be they reflective high school students, practising neuroscientists, or philosophers working outside the philosophy of perception. By placing the qualitative theory on a firm footing, Papineau shows all those curious about experience that they need not be restricted to the options on the contemporary philosophical menu.
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Hume, Lynne L., and Nevill Drury. The Varieties of Magical Experience. ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9798216031772.
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A rare combination of personal and academic, this book showcases the myriad avenues for transcending the boundaries of reality through direct sensory experience. The Varieties of Magical Experience: Indigenous, Medieval, and Modern Magic provides a comprehensive volume that examines magic in all its aspects. Through detailed case studies, verbatim accounts of personal experiences, and first-hand experience from the authors’ own active participation in many alternative religious rituals and ceremonies, this unique book reveals how magic can be a universal phenomenon that crosses cultural, historical, and spatial boundaries. The work is organized in five sections that embrace several broad themes: indigenous magical and shamanic practices; medieval witchcraft; sorcery and hermetic magic; and contemporary Western magical practices, including the role of sexuality, trance, and meditation. The introductory section explores the idea of magic, other realities, and the employment of all the senses, while the final section discusses contemporary issues of ecology and cybermagic. The authors give voice to the powerful emotions and feelings that result from a magical encounter, providing engaging and accessible information to general readers, while those well versed in the opaque world of magic and occultism, consciousness studies, and imaginal and disembodied realms will appreciate the book’s content at a deeper level.
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Giannetti, Laura. Food Culture and Literary Imagination in Early Modern Italy. Amsterdam University Press, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9789048557547.
Full textAbstract:
As the long sixteenth century came to a close, new positive ideas of gusto/ taste opened a rich counter vision of food and taste where material practice, sensory perceptions and imagination contended with traditional social values, morality, and dietetic/medical discourse. Exploring the complex and evocative ways the early modern Italian culture of food was imagined in the literature of the time, Food Culture and the Literary Imagination in Early Modern Italy reveals that while a moral and disciplinary vision tried to control the discourse on food and eating in medical and dietetic treatises of the sixteenth century and prescriptive literature, a wide range of literary works contributed to a revolution in eating and taste. In the process long held visions of food and eating, as related to social order and hierarchy, medicine, sexuality and gender, religion and morality, pleasure and the senses, were questioned, tested and overturned, and eating and its pleasures would never be the same.
8
Nason, Bill. The Autism Discussion Page on Stress, Anxiety, Shutdowns and Meltdowns. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781805014690.
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Anxiety, meltdowns and emotional regulation can be hugely challenging for autistic people. This book is full of proactive strategies for understanding, accepting and respecting the processing differences in autism. It contains tools for reducing sensory, social and mental drain, and offers strategies to protect from ongoing stress and anxiety. These help minimize shutdowns and burnout, while maximizing self-esteem, autistic identity and mental health. Learn strategies for matching environmental demands to the person's processing needs, how to support vulnerabilities, and how to prevent and manage meltdowns while protecting the identify and self-esteem of the individual with autism.
9
Shaibani, Aziz. Facial Weakness. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190661304.003.0005.
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Unilateral or bilateral facial weakness is an important manifestation of many neuromuscular disorders; some of them are as simple as Bell’s palsy, while others are as serious as Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). Facial weakness can be easily mimicked, and therefore, psychogenic etiology should always be kept in mind. Peripheral facial weakness affects all functions and parts, while central weakness may save the upper face and may affect emotional and voluntary functions differentially. Botulinum toxin injection has become a common cause of facial palsy, therefore detailed history is crucial. Examination of the sensory and motor systems is important to define the type and cause. Imaging and electrodiagnostic testing are often needed in the diagnostic process.
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Thaisetthawatkul, Pariwat, and Eric Logigian. Guillain-Barré Syndrome and Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneuropathy in Pregnancy. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190667351.003.0026.
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Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) are both immune-mediated diseases of the peripheral nervous system that typically present with symmetric, progressive muscle weakness, areflexia, and sensory symptoms or signs. GBS evolves rapidly with a nadir at 2–4 weeks usually with an antecedent viral illness, while CIDP progresses more slowly over months to years. GBS is sometimes complicated by life-threatening respiratory failure or dysautonomia. Onset of GBS and relapse of CIDP can occur during pregnancy or postpartum. But with appropriate supportive care and immunotherapy, maternal and fetal outcome in both conditions is typically excellent. The exception is fetal outcome in GBS triggered by maternal CMV or Zika infection transmitted to the fetus. Full-term vaginal delivery and regional anesthesia are preferred in maternal GBS and CIDP, but if C-section and general anesthesia are indicated, non-depolarizing agents such as succinylcholine should be avoided.
11
Olsen AM, Penny, and Leo Joseph. Stray Feathers. CSIRO Publishing, 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/9780643103443.
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Stray Feathers showcases some of the remarkable adaptations of Australian birds. A brief introduction describes how evolution shapes form and function, followed by a series of vignettes illustrating the wondrous variety of forms and functions shaped by evolution. For example, did you know that Barn Owls can hunt in absolute darkness and that cuckoos commence incubation before their egg is laid?
Sections include anatomy and physiology; the senses; giving voice; tongues talking; plumage; getting around; finding and handling food; optimising foraging and feeding; reducing competition; using ‘tools’; communicating; quality vs quantity; courtship; nests; parental care; chicks; and living together.
The book is superbly illustrated with black and white drawings of a range of birds, making it a worthy addition to the bookshelves of bird lovers everywhere.
12
Casha, Steve, and Philippe Mercier. Normal anatomy and physiology of the spinal cord and peripheral nerves. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780199600830.003.0220.
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The spinal cord and peripheral nerves carry motor and autonomic efferents, as well as sensory afferents connecting the cerebrum with the body. Efferent and afferent fibres form predictable tracts within the spinal cord, forming spinal nerves as they exit the spinal canal. Peripheral nerves are often formed from complicated plexuses of spinal nerves in the cervical, lumbar, and sacral spine. Dermatomes are formed from spinal nerves that innervate specific areas of skin, while myotomes innervate a specific set of muscles. The detailed anatomy of these structures are discussed. Knowledge of the anatomy of these structures is relevant to many clinical situations encountered in the intensive care unit especially with caring for neurological, neurosurgical, orthopaedic, and trauma patients.
13
Butz, Martin V., and Esther F. Kutter. Behavioral Flexibility and Anticipatory Behavior. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198739692.003.0006.
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While reward-oriented learning can adapt and optimize behavior, this chapter shows how behavior can become anticipatory and selectively goal-oriented. Flexibility and adaptability are necessary when living in changing environmental niches. As a consequence, different locations in the environment need to be distinguished to enable selective and optimally attuned interactions. To accomplish this, sensorimotor learning is necessary. With sufficient sensorimotor knowledge, the progressively abstract learning of environmental predictive models becomes possible. These models enable forward anticipations about action consequences and incoming sensory information. As a consequence, our own influences on the environment can be distinguished from other influences, following the re-afference principle. Moreover, inverse anticipations enable the selection of the behavior that is believed to reach current goals most effectively. Coupled with motivations, goal-directed behavior can be generated self-motivatedly. Furthermore, curious, information seeking, epistemic behavior can be generated. The remainder of the book addresses how the brain accomplishes this goal-oriented, self-motivated generation of behavior and thought, where the latter can be considered mental behavior.
14
Cavanagh, Sheila T. Multisensory Shakespeare and Specialized Communities. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2024. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350296459.
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How can theatre and Shakespearean performance be used with different communities to assist personal growth and development, while advancing social justice goals? Employing an integrative approach that draws from science, actor training, therapeutical practices and current research on the senses, this study reveals the work being done by drama practitioners with a range of specialized populations, such as incarcerated people, neurodiverse individuals, those with physical or emotional disabilities, veterans, people experiencing homelessness and many others. With insights drawn from visits to numerous international programs, it argues that these endeavors succeed when they engage multiple human senses and incorporate kinesthetic learning, thereby tapping into the diverse benefits associated with artistic, movement and mindfulness practices. Neither theatre nor Shakespeare is universally beneficial, but the syncretic practices described in this book offer tools for physical, emotional and collaborative undertakings that assist personal growth and development, while advancing social justice goals. Among the practitioners and companies whose work is examined here are programs from the Shakespeare in Prison Network, the International Opera Theater, Blue Apple Theatre, Flute Theatre, DeCruit and Feast of Crispian programs for veterans, Extant Theatre and prison programs in Kolkata and Mysore, India
15
Katirji, Bashar. Case 15. Edited by Bashar Katirji. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190603434.003.0019.
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Ulnar nerve lesions are the second most common mononeuropathies encountered in clinical practice. The majority of ulnar neuropathies are across the elbow, more specifically due to entrapment or compression of the ulnar nerve at the cubital tunnel or ulnar groove. This case highlights the clinical and electrodiagnostic findings of ulnar neuropathies across the elbow and discusses the challenges in making an accurate diagnosis. Focal slowing of conduction velocities and/or conduction block are the main findings that pinpoint the site of the lesion, while the needle electromyography is poor in accurate localization, mostly due to the limited number of ulnar innervated muscles in the forearm. Important additional testing that often is recommended to aid in the accurate diagnosis of ulnar nerve lesions across the elbow includes the dorsal ulnar sensory nerve action potential, ulnar motor conduction study recording the first dorsal interosseous, and inching studies across the elbow.
16
Weinel, Jonathan. Abstractions. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190671181.003.0009.
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The concluding chapter of Inner Sound: Altered States of Consciousness in Electronic Music and Audio-Visual Media consolidates the main arguments of the book. The journey taken is recapitulated, from shamanic rituals to psychedelic rock shows and raves; and from outdoor electroacoustic concerts to synaesthetic films and hallucinatory video games. Across these examples, similar underlying principles can be identified, revealing a continuity from ancient shamanism to modern ‘technoshamanism’. Yet while some imperatives have remained consistent, the technologies have evolved, yielding ever-more accurate and sophisticated representations of altered states in electronic music and audio-visual media. This finds us on the brink of ‘Altered States of Consciousness Simulations’, which replicate the sensory experience of altered states using immersive technologies such as fulldomes and virtual reality headsets. Looking forwards, the possible uses and ethical implications of these simulations are explored, at the frontiers of electronic music and art.
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Beebe, James R. Does Skepticism Presuppose Explanationism? Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198746904.003.0011.
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Explanationist (or abductivist) responses to skepticism maintain that our commonsense beliefs about the external world can be rationally preferred to skeptical hypotheses on the grounds that the former provide better explanations of our sensory experiences than the latter. This kind of response to radical skepticism has never enjoyed widespread acceptance in the epistemological community due to concerns about the epistemic merits of inference to the best explanation and appeals to the explanatory virtues. Against this tide of skepticism about explanationism, the chapter argues that traditional skeptical challenges rest upon central explanationist tenets and thus that one cannot harbor doubts about the general class of explanationist responses to skepticism while at the same time granting the force of the skeptical challenges they seek to answer. This chapter also shows how explanationist principles do a better job than epistemic closure and underdetermination principles in articulating the structure and force of skeptical challenges.
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Wright, John P. Hume’s Skeptical Realism. Edited by Paul Russell. Oxford University Press, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199742844.013.26.
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The author argues that the core of Hume’s Academic skepticism lies in his commitment to an external world and objective causal powers that are cognitively opaque to human understanding. Three central topics of Hume’s theory of the understanding are discussed—the existence of absolute space, the existence of a world external to our senses, and the existence of objective causal powers. In each case, Hume draws a Pyrrhonian opposition between judgments based on his “Copy Principle” and the “fictions” or “illusions” formed through association of ideas. While he suspends judgment concerning the existence of absolute space, he argues that the association-based beliefs in an external world and objective causal powers are necessary for human life and indispensible in science. In adopting such beliefs about external reality, while at the same time denying their intelligibility, Hume was following ancient Academic skepticism.
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Jurkevythz, Renata, Maura Campbell, and Lisa Morgan. Spectrum Women. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781805015345.
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This book looks at what it feels like to be an autistic parent, offering valuable insights, knowledge and wisdom on parenting autistic and non-autistic children. Three mothers reflect on their experiences of growing up as undiagnosed autistics, venturing into and embracing motherhood, and connecting with their children in a unique and powerful way. They offer advice on overcoming the challenges of parenting when you are autistic, such as socialising with other parents or sensory issues that come with excessive touch. Reflecting on their own experiences, they also emphasize the positives of being an autistic parent to an autistic child, such as understanding of why their child is struggling or the open-mindedness that can come from not being constrained by societal norms. They also explain how out-of-the-box thinking leads to creative parenting of non-autistic children, forming strong and loving bonds. Full of wit and warm advice, this book empowers autistic parents and reassures them that autism is a strength in raising their children with love, knowledge and experience, while also giving non-autistic parents and professionals a fresh perspective on helping autistic children to thrive.
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Dorsch, Fabian, and Fiona Macpherson, eds. Phenomenal Presence. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199666416.001.0001.
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Many different features figure consciously in our perceptual experiences, in the sense that they make a subjective difference to those experiences. These features range from colours and shapes to volumes and backsides, from natural or artefactual kinds to reasons for perceptual belief, and from the existence and externality of objects to the relationality and wakefulness of our perceptual awareness of them. The topic of this collection of essays is the different ways in which features like these can be phenomenally present in perceptual experience. In particular, the focus is on features that are less often discussed, and the perceptual presence of which is less obvious because they are out of view or otherwise easily overlooked, features given in a non-sensory manner, and features that are categorical in the sense that they pertain to all perceptual experiences alike (such as their justificatory power, their wakefulness, or the externality of their objects). The book is divided into four parts, each dealing with a different kind of phenomenal presence. The first addresses the nature of the presence of perceptual constancies and variations, while the second investigates the determinacy and ubiquity of the presence of spatial properties in perception. The third part deals with the presence of hidden or occluded aspects of objects, while the last part of the volume discusses the presence of categorical aspects of perceptual experience. Together, the contributions provide a thorough examination of which features are phenomenally present in perception, and what it is for them to figure in experience in this way.
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Griesemer, James. Individuation of Developmental Systems. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190636814.003.0007.
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The author views concepts of individuality and associated individuation criteria, as used in the sciences, as scientific-theoretical concepts that can have different, even conflicting meanings in different theoretical contexts. Focusing on biological individuality in evolutionary contexts, he argues that despite the variety of usage, evolutionary contexts typically involve two senses of process-relativity depending on (1) empirical processes taken to be operating in the world that humans talk about, try to understand, predict, explain, or control; and (2) tracking processes that humans perform while investigating empirical phenomena. He illustrates the process-relativity of biological individuality concepts by contrasting two different kinds of attempt to articulate concepts of evolutionary individuality, one based in natural selection theory, the other in a theory of biological reproduction. Also characterized is how the tracking activities of scientific practices are entwined with the empirical processes on which both individuation and individuality depend.
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Butz, Martin V., and Esther F. Kutter. Top-Down Predictions Determine Perceptions. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198739692.003.0009.
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While bottom-up visual processing is important, the brain integrates this information with top-down, generative expectations from very early on in the visual processing hierarchy. Indeed, our brain should not be viewed as a classification system, but rather as a generative system, which perceives something by integrating sensory evidence with the available, learned, predictive knowledge about that thing. The involved generative models continuously produce expectations over time, across space, and from abstracted encodings to more concrete encodings. Bayesian information processing is the key to understand how information integration must work computationally – at least in approximation – also in the brain. Bayesian networks in the form of graphical models allow the modularization of information and the factorization of interactions, which can strongly improve the efficiency of generative models. The resulting generative models essentially produce state estimations in the form of probability densities, which are very well-suited to integrate multiple sources of information, including top-down and bottom-up ones. A hierarchical neural visual processing architecture illustrates this point even further. Finally, some well-known visual illusions are shown and the perceptions are explained by means of generative, information integrating, perceptual processes, which in all cases combine top-down prior knowledge and expectations about objects and environments with the available, bottom-up visual information.
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MacDougall, David. The looking machine. Manchester University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9781526134097.001.0001.
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The looking machine calls for the redemption of documentary cinema, exploring the potential and promise of the genre at a time when it appears under increasing threat from reality television, historical re-enactments, designer packaging, and corporate authorship. The book consists of a set of essays each focused on a particular theme derived from the author’s own experience as a filmmaker. It provides a practice-based, critical perspective on the history of documentary, how films evoke space, time and physical sensations, questions of aesthetics, and the intellectual and emotional relationships between filmmakers and their subjects. It is especially concerned with the potential of film to broaden the base of human knowledge, distinct from its expression in written texts. Among its underlying concerns are the political and ethical implications of how films are actually made, and the constraints that may prevent filmmakers from honestly showing what they have seen. While defending the importance of the documentary idea, MacDougall urges us to consider how the form can become a ‘cinema of consciousness’ that more accurately represents the sensory and everyday aspects of human life. Building on his experience bridging anthropology and cinema, he argues that this means resisting the inherent ethnocentrism of both our own society and the societies we film.
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ife, fahima. Maroon Choreography. Duke University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/9781478021568.
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In Maroon Choreography fahima ife speculates on the long (im)material, ecological, and aesthetic afterlives of black fugitivity. In three long-form poems and a lyrical essay, they examine black fugitivity as an ongoing phenomenon we know little about beyond what history tells us. As both poet and scholar, ife unsettles the history and idea of black fugitivity, troubling senses of historic knowing while moving inside the continuing afterlives of those people who disappeared themselves into rural spaces beyond the reach of slavery. At the same time, they interrogate how writing itself can be a fugitive practice and a means to find a way out of ongoing containment, indebtedness, surveillance, and ecological ruin. Offering a philosophical performance in black study, ife prompts us to consider how we—in our study, in our mutual refusal, in our belatedness, in our habitual assemblage—linger beside the unknown. Duke University Press Scholars of Color First Book Award recipient
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Jackson, Patrick Thaddeus. What is Theory? Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.361.
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The concept of theory takes part in a conceptual network occupied by some of the most common subjects of European Enlightenment, such as “science” and “reason.” Generally speaking, a theory is a rational type of abstract or generalizing thinking, or the results of such thinking. Theories drive the exercise of finding facts rather than of reaching goals. To formulate a theory, or to “theorize,” is to assert something of a privileged epistemic status, manifested in the traditional scholarly hierarchy between theorists and those who merely labor among the empirical weeds. In so doing, a theory provides a fixed point upon which analysis can be founded and action can be performed. Scholar and author Kenneth W. Thompson describes a nexus of relations between and among three different senses of the word “theory:” normative theory, a “general theory of politics,” and the set of assumptions on the basis of which a given actor is acting. These three types of theory are somehow paralleled by Marysia Zalewski’s triad of theory as “tool,” theory as “critique,” and theory as “everyday practice.” While Thompson’s and Zalewski’s interpretations of theory are each inherently consistent, both signal a different philosophical ontology. Thompson’s viewpoint is dualist, presuming the existence of a mind-independent world to which knowledge refers; while Zalewski’s is more of a monist, rejecting the mind/world dichotomy in favor of a more complex interrelationship between observers and their objects of study.
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Millar, Alan. Knowing by Perceiving. Oxford University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198755692.001.0001.
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Epistemological discussions of perception usually focus on something other than knowledge. They consider how beliefs arising from perception can be justified. With the retreat from knowledge to justified belief there is a retreat from perception to the sensory experiences implicated by perception. On the most widely held approach, perception drops out of the picture other than as the usual means by which we are furnished with the experiences that are supposed to be the real source of justification—experiences that are conceived to be no different in kind from those we could have had if we had been perfectly hallucinating. In this book an alternative perspective is developed that explicates perceptual knowledge in terms of recognitional abilities, and perceptual justification in terms of perceptually known truths as to what we perceive to be so. Justified belief is regarded as belief founded on known truths. The treatment of perceptual knowledge is situated within a broader conception of epistemology and philosophical method. Attention is paid to contested conceptions of perceptual experience, to knowledge from perceived indicators, and to the standing of background presuppositions that inform our thinking. Throughout, the discussion is sensitive to ways in which key concepts figure in ordinary thinking, while being resolutely focused on what knowledge is, not just on how we think of it.
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Hansen, Christine, and Tom Griffiths. Living with Fire. CSIRO Publishing, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/9780643104808.
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Within the Yarra River catchment area nestles the valley of Steels Creek, a small shallow basin in the lee of Kinglake plateau and the Great Dividing Range. The escarpment walls of the range drop in a series of ridges to the valley and form the south-eastern boundary of the Kinglake National Park. The gentle undulations that flow out from the valley stretch into the productive and picturesque landscape of Victoria’s famous wine growing district, the Yarra Valley.
Late on the afternoon of 7 February 2009, the day that came to be known as Black Saturday, the Kinglake plateau carried a massive conflagration down the fringing ranges into the Steels Creek community. Ten people perished and 67 dwellings were razed in the firestorm. In the wake of the fires, the devastated residents of the valley began the long task of grieving, repairing, rebuilding or moving on while redefining themselves and their community.
In Living with Fire, historians Tom Griffiths and Christine Hansen trace both the history of fire in the region and the human history of the Steels Creek valley in a series of essays which examine the relationship between people and place. These essays are interspersed with four interludes compiled from material produced by the community. In the immediate aftermath of the fire many people sought to express their grief, shock, sadness and relief in artwork. Some painted or wrote poetry, while others collected the burnt remains of past treasures from which they made new objects. These expressions, supplemented by historical archives and the essays they stand beside, offer a sensory and holistic window into the community’s contemporary and historical experiences.
A deeply moving book, Living with Fire brings to life the stories of one community’s experience with fire, offering a way to understand the past, and in doing so, prepare for the future.
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Epton, Nancy. The Sound of Silence. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2024. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9798765108062.
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The Sound of Silence, provides an in-depth analysis of the sensory elements that are integral to cinematic narratives, asserting that silence is a fruitful enigma which encourages activity in a contemporary audience that is often all too passive. The German Expressionist era may have been brief, but the shadows cast since its end nonetheless loom large. The silhouetted, cigar-wielding men of film noir and their respectively dark, doom-laden haunts mirror the angst-inducing atmospheres of their forebearers, while also introducing the now-familiar figure of the silent hero. Considering the numerous silent hero actors in film history, there’s one that stands out in the 21st century like no other: Ryan Gosling. His later career has seen some of the most iconic silent heroes of the past decade, with films such as Drive, Only God Forgives, Blade Runner 2049 and First Man cementing him as the go-to guy for a monosyllabic, taciturn and moody hero whose actions speak louder than words. This book argues that it is Gosling’s expressive capabilities that keep audiences compelled by his performances. With the use of non-verbal silence – combined with its counterbalance, sound – a more active, emotive audience response can be achieved. Looking further into this idea through theorists such as Michel Chion and Susan Sontag, the book demonstrates that the sound of silence is one of the most meaningful cinematic sounds of all.
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Caston, Victor, ed. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Volume 59. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198859000.001.0001.
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Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy provides, twice each year, a collection of the best current work in the field of ancient philosophy. Each volume features original essays that contribute to an understanding of a wide range of themes and problems in all periods of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, from the beginnings to the threshold of the middle ages. From its first volume in 1983, OSAP has been a highly influential venue for work in the field, and has often featured essays of substantial length as well as critical essays on books of distinctive importance. Volume LIX contains an examination of: Aristotle’s reception of Empedocles’ ideas about harmonia and love in developing his own conception of the soul; Plato’s portrayal of the disembodied soul and how it can be the subject of bodily desires; how the philosopher rulers in Plato’s Republic are motivated to rule through bonds of philia to their fellow citizens; how Aristotle, while denying that there are magnitudes that are actually infinite, allows that there are infinitely many things; Aristotle’s distinction between the many senses of being in MetaphysicsΔ. 7 and the relation between existence and predication; and the explanation of Carneades’ reasons for not writing philosophical works in Philodemus’ Index Academicorum (PHerc. 1021).
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Aquino, Frederick D., and Paul L. Gavrilyuk, eds. Perceiving Things Divine. Oxford University Press, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198802594.001.0001.
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Sensory language is commonly used to describe human encounters with the divine. Scripture, for example, employs perceptual language like ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’, ‘hear the word of the Lord’, and promises that ‘the pure in heart will see God’. Such statements seem to point to certain features of human cognition that make perception-like contact with divine things possible. But how precisely should these statements be construed? Can the elusive notion of ‘spiritual perception’ survive rigorous theological and philosophical scrutiny and receive a constructive articulation? Perceiving Things Divine seeks to make philosophical and theological sense of spiritual perception. Reflecting the results of the second phase of the Spiritual Perception Project, this volume argues for the possibility of spiritual perception. It also seeks to make progress towards a constructive account of the different aspects of spiritual perception while exploring its intersection with various theological and philosophical themes, such as biblical interpretation, aesthetics, liturgy, race, ecology, eschatology, and the hiddenness of God. The interdisciplinary scope of the volume draws on the resources of value theory, philosophy of perception, epistemology, philosophy of art, psychology, systematic theology, and theological aesthetics. However, spiritual perception is often distorted due to the general brokenness of the human condition. The volume explores such distortions as pornographic sensibility and racist prejudice. Since perceiving spiritually involves the whole person, the volume proposes that spiritual perception could be purified by ascetic discipline, healed by contemplative practices, trained in the process of spiritual direction and the pursuit of virtue, transformed by the immersion in the sacramental life, and healed by opening the self to the operation of divine grace.
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Novak, Peter. Autonomic Testing. Oxford University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190889227.001.0001.
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Autonomic testing is an important addition to neurological evaluations. While there are many excellent textbooks on autonomic disorders, only a few texts focus on how to perform and interpret autonomic tests. This manual fills the gap, dealing mainly with the practical aspects of autonomic testing. In accord with the maxim that “a good picture is worth a thousand words,” signal drawings are heavily used throughout the text to explain and illuminate test results. This book has two parts. The first part describes in detail the Brigham protocol of autonomic tests, which includes cardiovascular tests (deep breathing, Valsalva maneuver, tilt tests), sudomotor assessment (quantitative sudomotor axonal reflex test and electrochemical skin conductance), and skin biopsies for assessment of epidermal and sweat gland small fibers. The cardiovascular tests use heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory parameters (respiratory rate and end tidal CO2), and cerebral blood flow velocity. All tests are graded with an updated quantitative scale for cardiovascular reflex tests and transcranial Doppler—the Quantitative Sudomotor Axon Reflex Test (QASAT)—and small fiber (epidermal sensory and sweat gland) densities from skin biopsies. The second part of the book describes 100 cases covering a variety of autonomic disorders. The cases are thematically grouped into orthostatic intolerance syndromes (neurally mediated syncope, orthostatic hypotension, postural tachycardia syndrome, inappropriate sinus tachycardia, orthostatic cerebral hypoperfusion syndrome, hypocapnic cerebral hypoperfusion, and pseudosyncope), dysautonomia in neurodegenerative disorders, small fiber neuropathies (idiopathic, secondary, inflammatory), and autonomic overactivity. The case descriptions are presented in a consistent format featuring pertinent clinical information, autonomic tests results, interpretation of testing, conclusions, and recommendations. This text is intended to be a guide for autonomic fellows, and for residents in neurology, general medicine, and other specialties, and for anyone who is interested in performing and interpreting autonomic tests.
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Trousdale, Rachel. Humor, Empathy, and Community in Twentieth-Century American Poetry. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192895714.001.0001.
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Humor, Empathy, and Community in Twentieth-Century American Poetry argues that American poets of the last hundred years use laughter to promote recognition of shared humanity across difference. Freud and Bergson argue that laughter patrols the boundary between in-group and out-group, but laughter can also help us cross or re-draw that boundary, creating a more democratic understanding of shared experience. Poets’ uses of humor reveal and reinforce deep-seated beliefs about the possibility of empathic mutual understanding among unlike interlocutors. These beliefs also shape poets’ senses of audience and their attitudes toward the notion that poets are somehow exceptional. When poets use humor to promote empathy, they make a claim about the basic ethical function of poetry, because humor and poetry share fundamental structures: both combine disparate subjects into newly meaningful wholes. Taking W. H. Auden and Marianne Moore on one side and Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot on the other as competing models of how humor can embrace, exclude, and transform, the book charts a developing poetics of laughter in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries through the work of Sterling Brown, Elizabeth Bishop, Stephanie Burt, Cathy Park Hong, and Lucille Clifton, among others. Poets whose race, gender, sexual orientation, or experimentalism place them outside the American mainstream are especially interested in humor’s potential to transcend the very differences it demarcates. Such writers increasingly replace mockery, satire, and other humorous attacks with comic forms that heighten readers’ understanding of and empathy with individuals, while revealing the failures of dominant hierarchical moral and logical systems.
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Guss-West, Clare. Attention and Focus in Dance. Human Kinetics, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781718212718.
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The Western approach to dance is largely focused on control and mastery of technique, both of which are certainly necessary skills for improving performance. But mindful attention, despite its critical role in high performance, has gotten short shrift—until now. Attention and Focus in Dance, a how-to book rooted in the 20 years of attentional focus findings of researcher Gabriele Wulf, will help dancers unlock their power and stamina reserves, enabling efficient movement, heightening their sensory perception and releasing their dance potential. Author Clare Guss-West—a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and holistic practitioner—presents a systematic, science-based approach to the mental work of dance. Her approach helps dancers hone the skills of attention, focus and self-cueing to replenish energy and enhance their physical and artistic performance. A Unique, Research-Based Approach Here is what Attention and Focus in Dance offers readers: • A unique approach, connecting the foundations of Eastern movement with Western movement forms • Research-based teaching practices in diverse contexts, including professional dance companies, private studios, and programmes for dancers with special needs or movement challenges • Testimonies and tips from international professional dancers and dance educators who use the book's approach in their training and teaching • A dance-centric focus that can be easily integrated into existing training and teaching practice, in rehearsal, or in rehabilitation contexts to provide immediate and long-term benefits Guss-West explores attentional focus techniques for dancers, teachers and dance health care practitioners, making practical connections between research, movement theory and day-to-day dance practice. “Many dancers are using excessive energy deployment and significant counterproductive effort, and that can lead to a global movement dysfunction, lack of stamina and an increased risk of injury,” says Guss-West. “Attentional focus training is the most relevant study that sport science and Eastern-movement practice can bring to dance.” Book Organisation The text is organised into two parts. Part I guides dancers in looking at the attentional challenges and information overload that many professional dancers suffer from. It outlines the need for a systematic attention and focus strategy, and it explains how scientific research on attentional focus relates to dance practice. This part also examines the ways in which Eastern-movement principles intersect with and complement scientific findings, and it examines how the Eastern and scientific concepts can breathe new life into basic dance elements such as posture, turnout and port de bras. Attention and focus techniques are included for replenishing energy and protecting against energy depletion and exhaustion. Part II presents attention and focus strategies for teaching, self-coaching and cueing. It addresses attentional focus cues for beginners and for more advanced dancers and professionals, and it places attentional focus in the broader context of holistic teaching strategies. Maximising Dance Potential “Whether cueing others or yourself, cueing for high performance is an art,” Guss-West says. “Readers will discover how to format cues and feedback to facilitate effective neuromuscular response and enhance dancer recall of information and accessibility while dancing.” Attention and Focus in Dance offers an abundance of research-backed concepts and inspirational ideas that can help dancers in their learning and performance. This book aids readers in filtering information and directing their focus for optimal physical effect. Ultimately, it guides dancers and teachers in being the best version of themselves and maximising their potential in dance.
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Butz, Martin V., and Esther F. Kutter. How the Mind Comes into Being. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198739692.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
For more than 2000 years Greek philosophers have thought about the puzzling introspectively assessed dichotomy between our physical bodies and our seemingly non-physical minds. How is it that we can think highly abstract thoughts, seemingly fully detached from actual, physical reality? Despite the obvious interactions between mind and body (we get tired, we are hungry, we stay up late despite being tired, etc.), until today it remains puzzling how our mind controls our body, and vice versa, how our body shapes our mind. Despite a big movement towards embodied cognitive science over the last 20 years or so, introductory books with a functional and computational perspective on how human thought and language capabilities may actually have come about – and are coming about over and over again – are missing. This book fills that gap. Starting with a historical background on traditional cognitive science and resulting fundamental challenges that have not been resolved, embodied cognitive science is introduced and its implications for how human minds have come and continue to come into being are detailed. In particular, the book shows that evolution has produced biological bodies that provide “morphologically intelligent” structures, which foster the development of suitable behavioral and cognitive capabilities. While these capabilities can be modified and optimized given positive and negative reward as feedback, to reach abstract cognitive capabilities, evolution has furthermore produced particular anticipatory control-oriented mechanisms, which cause the development of particular types of predictive encodings, modularizations, and abstractions. Coupled with an embodied motivational system, versatile, goal-directed, self-motivated behavior, learning becomes possible. These lines of thought are introduced and detailed from interdisciplinary, evolutionary, ontogenetic, reinforcement learning, and anticipatory predictive encoding perspectives in the first part of the book. A short excursus then provides an introduction to neuroscience, including general knowledge about brain anatomy, and basic neural and brain functionality, as well as the main research methodologies. With reference to this knowledge, the subsequent chapters then focus on how the human brain manages to develop abstract thought and language. Sensory systems, motor systems, and their predictive, control-oriented interactions are detailed from a functional and computational perspective. Bayesian information processing is introduced along these lines as are generative models. Moreover, it is shown how particular modularizations can develop. When control and attention come into play, these structures develop also dependent on the available motor capabilities. Vice versa, the development of more versatile motor capabilities depends on structural development. Event-oriented abstractions enable conceptualizations and behavioral compositions, paving the path towards abstract thought and language. Also evolutionary drives towards social interactions play a crucial role. Based on the developing sensorimotor- and socially-grounded structures, the human mind becomes language ready. The development of language in each human child then further facilitates the self-motivated generation of abstract, compositional, highly flexible thought about the present, past, and future, as well as about others. In conclusion, the book gives an overview over how the human mind comes into being – sketching out a developmental pathway towards the mastery of abstract and reflective thought, while detailing the critical body and neural functionalities, and computational mechanisms, which enable this development.
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Ojeda, Almerindo E., ed. The Trauma of Psychological Torture. Praeger, 2008. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9798216027362.
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It is, in some circles, called No-Touch Torture. Yet it brings pain and damage that can last a lifetime. Psychological torture techniques - which have a history of use by U.S. forces globally trailing far into the past beyond Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib - include a variety of methods from mock executions, severe humiliation, and mind-altering drugs, to forced self-induced pain, sensory disorientation including loud music and light control, and exploitation of personal or cultural phobias. It is no accident, for example, that Private Lynndie England was seen in Abu Ghraib pictures, which shocked the world, with Arab prisoners forced naked into a pile or led like dogs by leash. Arabs have strong spiritual beliefs about the humiliation of public nudity, and also have a strong cultural fear of dogs. These techniques are neither surprising nor particular to England if one has fair knowledge of the U.S. history of sanctioned psychological torture techniques, say the experts behind this book. Having reached a joint crescendo of intolerance and horror, scholars from across the nation met in 2006 for a conference on psychological torture and what can be done to stop the practice. They agree with Alberto Mora, the U.S. Navy's general counsel, who fought to stop the Pentagon-sanctioned psychological torture at Guantanamo. Cruelty disfigures our national character. Where cruelty exists, law does not, Mora said. This book is the joint effort of those scholars, from the University of California Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, to Harvard Medical School, to paint a clear picture of psychological torture, its longterm affects, and spur action to stop the practice. The distinctly American form of psychological torture has four characteristics that make it attractive to the CIA and other supporters, say the authors. It is elusive - lacks the clear signs of physical abuse so eludes detection and complicates investigation, prosecution, or attempts at prohibition. It is shrouded - in scientific patina that makes it appeal to policy makers and avoids the obvious physical brutality unpalatable to the general public. It is adaptable - as shown by searing innovations by the CIA across 40 years. And it is destructive - can cause psychosis and other psychological disorders or, in more severe cases, death. While, in public, U.S. officials spotlight and support legislation that has banned physical torture, far more clandestine political, military, and CIA activities are refining and increasing the use of psychological torture. This book includes a brief history of sanctioned psychological experiments and actions to torture, as well as CIA research outsourced to leading U.S. universities that produced what the authors call key findings that led to the first real revolution in the cruel science of pain in centuries. Historical information here includes a summary of a decade of mind-control research by the CIA that in 1963 resulted in the KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation manual. This volume represents a striking collaboration of distinguished psychologists, psychiatrists, neurobiologists, lawyers, historians, and a semanticist. The book closes with case studies of the psychological torture of Mohammed al-Qahtani, the alleged 20th hijacker in the 9/11 attacks, and of Salim Hamdan, the alleged driver of Osama bin Laden. This work will be absorbing to any reader interested in human rights, covert politics now and across history, military science, psychology, or psychiatry.
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Gage, Greg, and Tim Marzullo. How Your Brain Works. The MIT Press, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/12429.001.0001.
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Discover the hidden electrical world inside your nervous system using DIY, hands-on experiments, for all ages. No MD or PhD required! The workings of the brain are mysterious: What are neural signals? What do they mean? How do our senses really sense? How does our brain control our movements? What happens when we meditate? Techniques to record signals from living brains were once thought to be the realm of advanced university labs... but not anymore! This book allows anyone to participate in the discovery of neuroscience through hands-on experiments that record the hidden electrical world beneath our skin and skulls. In How Your Brain Works, neuroscientists Greg Gage and Tim Marzullo offer a practical guide—accessible and useful to readers from middle schoolers to college undergraduates to curious adults—for learning about the brain through hands-on experiments. Armed with some DIY electrodes, readers will get to see what brain activity really looks like through simple neuroscience experiments. Written by two neuroscience researchers who invented open-source techniques to record signals from neurons, muscles, hearts, eyes, and brains, How Your Brain Works includes more than forty-five experiments to gain a deeper understanding of your brain. Using a homemade scientific instrument called a SpikerBox, readers can see how fast neural signals travel by recording electrical signals from an earthworm. Or, turning themselves into subjects, readers can strap on some electrode stickers to detect the nervous system in their own bodies. Each chapter begins by describing some phenomenology of a particular area of neuroscience, then guides readers step-by-step through an experiment, and concludes with a series of open-ended questions to inspire further investigation. Some experiments use invertebrates (such as insects), and the book provides a thoughtful framework for the ethical use of these animals in education. How Your Brain Works offers fascinating reading for students at any level, curious readers, and scientists interested in using electrophysiology in their research or teaching. Example Experiments How fast do signals travel down a neuron? The brain uses electricity. . . but do neurons communicate as fast as lightning inside our bodies? In this experiment you will make a speed trap for spikes! Can we really enhance our memories during sleep? Strap on a brainwave-reading sweatband and test the power of cueing up and strengthening memories while you dream away! Wait, that's my number! Ever feel that moment of excitement when you see your number displayed while waiting for an opening at the counter? In this experiment, you will peer into your brainwaves to see what happens when the unexpected occurs and how the brain gets your attention. Using hip hop to talk to the brain. Tired of simply “reading” the electricity from the brain? Would you like to “write” to the nervous system as well? In this experiment you will use a smartphone and hack a headphone cable to see how brain stimulators (used in treating Parkinson's disease) really work. How long does it take the brain to decide? Using simple classroom rulers and a clever technique, readers can determine how long it takes the brain to make decisions.
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Cimbala, Stephen J. Strategic Impasse. Praeger, 1989. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9798216987789.
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There is probably no area of more crucial concern nor one more subject to possible misunderstanding and riddled with paradox than nuclear weapons and their use, not only in war, but as deterrents to war. In Strategic Impasse, Cimbala examines the critical issues, problems, and paradoxes inherent in the current nuclear situation. It is from a fundamental contradiction--the usefulness of nuclear weapons versus the undesirability of nuclear war--that nuclear deadlock arises. Their usefulness as deterrents is based on their destructive potential and the balance of power in Europe cannot be adjusted until the inflexible, bipolar balance of terror is addressed. Ironically, superpower sovereignty in nuclear first strike/retaliation capability, shared across the divided East-West political buffer zone, created the impetus for improvements in conventional warfare. To the extent war can be contained below the nuclear threshold, conventional weaponry contributes to deterrence by denial. One difficulty lies in the improbability of completely isolating the nuclear from the conventional battlefield in a European scenario. Also, a level of superpower force perceived to be adequate in peacetime might prove to be an inadequate intrawar deterrent. Because of the underdevelopment of conceptual frameworks, credible deterrence--the creation of nuclear campaigns designed to prevent war--remains conjectural. Highly usable weapons require a command system that can provide for simultaneous fighting and escalation, but escalation beyond a certain level conflicts with control and therefore usability. In turn, low expectations of weapon usability may weaken deterrence. In Gorbachev's defensive sufficiency, forces for aggression and surprise attack would be diminished, while forces for defense would be strengthened. The problem lies not only in differentiating between offensive and defensive weaponry but in achieving a consensus on such a definition by NATO's member countries. The book is divided into three parts: the first section, Issues of Theory and Strategy, scrutinizes the relationship between offense and defense and examines SDI and more inclusive strategic defense matters. It also questions the connection between policy objectives and force, and explores the complication of externalities, such as relations with allies. In section two, Stretching Deterrence, Cimbala reviews the operational art likely to be employed by the Soviets in a conventionally fought European war and defines and appraises the sensor-cyber revolution in technology and its impacts on preferred strategies. The final part, Beyond Deterrence, considers war termination scenarios and related issues, including sociopolitical aspects, surveys the part nuclear weapons play in superpower competition in the Third World, and explains how issues of sovereignty effect deterrence, avoidance, and future super power relations.Strategic Impassewill enable scholars and students of military affairs as well as political scientists and government officials to see beyond current nuclear rhetoric and to make informed judgments on an issue that fundamentally affects this nation's and the world's future.
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Krasnow, Donna H., and M. Virginia Wilmerding. Motor Learning and Control for Dance. Human Kinetics, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781718212749.
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As dance training evolves and becomes more complex, knowledge of motor behavior is foundational in helping dancers learn and master new skills and become more efficient in integrating the skills. Motor Learning and Control for Dance is the first resource to address motor learning theory from a dance perspective. Educators and students preparing to teach will learn practical ways to connect the science behind dance to pedagogy in order to prepare dancers for performance. Dancers interested in performance from the recreational to professional levels will learn ways to enhance their technical and artistic progress. In language accessible even to those with no science background, Motor Learning and Control for Dance showcases principles and practices for students, artists, and teachers. The text offers a perspective on movement education not found in traditional dance training while adding to a palette of tools and strategies for improving dance instruction and performance. Aspiring dancers and instructors will explore how to develop motor skills, how to control movement on all levels, and—most important—how motor skills are best taught and learned. The authors, noted experts on motor learning and motor control in the dance world, explore these features that appeal to students and instructors alike: • Dance-specific photos, examples, and figures illustrate how to solve common problems various dance genres. • The 16 chapters prepare dance educators to teach dancers of all ages and abilities and support the development of dance artists and students in training and performance. • An extensive bibliography of sports and dance science literature allows teachers and performers to do their own research. • A list of key terms is at the beginning of each chapter with an accompanying glossary at the back of the book. Part I presents an overview of motor behavior, covering motor development from birth to early adulthood. It provides the essential information for teaching posture control and balance, the locomotor skills underlying a range of complex dance skills, and the ballistic skills that are difficult to teach and learn, such as grand battement and movements in street dance. Part II explores motor control and how movement is planned, initiated, and executed. Readers will learn how the nervous system organizes the coordination of movement, the effects of anxiety and states of arousal on dance performance, how to integrate the senses into movement, and how speed and accuracy interact. Part III investigates methods of motor learning for dancers of all ages. Readers will explore how to implement a variety of instructional strategies, determine the best approaches for learning dance skills, and motivate and inspire dancers. This section also discusses how various methods of practice can help or hinder dancers, strategies for improving the recall of dance skills and sequences, and how to embrace somatic practice and its contribution to understanding imagery and motor learning. Motor Learning and Control for Dance addresses many related topics that are important to the discipline, such as imagery and improvisation. This book will help performers and teachers blend science with pedagogy to meet the challenge of artistry and technique in preparing for dance performaance.