cognitive neuroscience in europe

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Cognitive Neuroscience in Europe Author(s): Richard F. Thompson Source: Psychological Science, Vol. 1, No. 5 (Sep., 1990), p. 287 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of the Association for Psychological Science Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40062740 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 02:31 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Sage Publications, Inc. and Association for Psychological Science are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Psychological Science. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 185.44.77.146 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 02:31:58 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: Cognitive Neuroscience in Europe

Cognitive Neuroscience in EuropeAuthor(s): Richard F. ThompsonSource: Psychological Science, Vol. 1, No. 5 (Sep., 1990), p. 287Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of the Association for Psychological ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40062740 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 02:31

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Sage Publications, Inc. and Association for Psychological Science are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to Psychological Science.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.44.77.146 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 02:31:58 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Cognitive Neuroscience in Europe

Brain and Behavior: Paradigms for Research in Neural Mecha- nisms, by Jan Bures, Olga Buresova, and Jiri Krivanek. New York: Wiley, 1988. 304 pp. $64.95.

Neural Computers, edited by Rolf Eckmiller and Christoph von der Malsburg. Berlin and New York: Springer-Verlag, 1989. 566 pg. + xiii. $54.50.

From Neuropsychology to Men- tal Structure, by Tim Shallice. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988. 462 pp. + xv. $59.50 (he); $24.95 (pb).

PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE

Feature Review

PS reviews three

strands of European cognitive/behavioral neuroscience.

-2-

A review by Mark A. Gluck, Stanford University, Gabor T. Bartha, University of Southern California, Eric S. Reifsnider, New York University and Margaret M. Shiffrar, Universite de Paris V

Neural Computers is a compilation of papers presented at the NATO Ad- vanced Research Workshop on Neural Computation, held near Dusseldorf, W. Germany, in October of 1987. The 50 contributors to this volume come prima- rily from Europe, with additional papers by several American and Japanese re- searchers.

(GLUCK, continued on p. 289)

VOL. 1, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER 1990 Copyright © 1990 American Psychological Society 287

Cognitive Neuroscience in Europe

PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE

Feature Review

PS reviews three

strands of European cognitive/ behavioral neuroscience.

Here are reviews of three recent volumes from Europe representing three major traditions or fields that have led to the currently emerging field of "cognitive neuroscience" ': brain and behavior, neural networks and neuropsychology .

In Brain and Behavior, Bures and his co-authors remind us that in spite of its current glamour, molecular neurobiological approaches can never lead to an understanding of the brain substrates of behavior. Bures and Buresovd are pioneering and leading scien- tists in the study of brain bases of learning and memory. They are now approaching the end of their careers and possess great wisdom - this book must be read by anyone pro- fessing an interest in brain and behavior.

Neural Computers is edited by two members of the new generation of workers in the field of neural networks, Rolf Eckmiller and Christoph von der Malsburg. This volume surveys the current state of the field, primarily in Europe, but also in the US and Japan. Europe is launching a major new multinational initiative in neural networks (ESPRIT). To date, the US, and to a somewhat lesser extent Japan, have dominated the field. Judging by this volume, however, the Europeans are not far behind. It remains true that the major thrust of this field is computational rather than biological, but several pieces in Neural Computers represent attempts to bridge to more realistic biological neural networks. To me this is the fundamental problem yet to be solved in the field of neural networks.

In From Neuropsychology to Mental Structure, Tim Shallice overviews progress in the past two decades in the field that can claim to be the cornerstone of cognitive neuro- science, namely the characterization and analysis of the structures of the human mind from the study of humans with brain damage. A major issue in the book is the current controversy over use of individual case studies vs group studies. But the conceptual focus is on the modularity of mental structure, a notion very comfortable to those who work at a more analytical level on brain systems and functions in animal models.

Richard F. Thompson University of Southern California

Brain and Behavior: Paradigms for Research in Neural Mecha- nisms, by Jan Bures, Olga Buresova, and Jiff Krivanek. New York: Wiley, 1988. 304 pp. $64.95.

Neural Computers, edited by Rolf Eckmiller and Christoph von der Malsburg. Berlin and New York: Springer-Verlag, 1989. 566 pg. + xiii. $54.50.

From Neuropsychology to Men- tal Structure, by Tim Shallice. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988. 462 pp. + xv. $59.50 (he); $24.95 (pb).

A review by William T. Greenough, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign .

The goal of the authors of this appro- priately titled volume is to redirect the attention of behavioral neuroscience re- searchers to older paradigms in which the authors have been involved that rep- resent "promising lines of enquiry" into the neural mechanisms underlying be- havior. There is an explicit call to return to research that attacks the important questions, as opposed to ". . . elegant technically perfect experiments [that] do not contribute much to real knowledge of

(GREENOUGH, continued on p. 288)

VOL. 1, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER 1990 Copyright © 1990 American Psychological Society 287

Brain and Behavior: Paradigms for Research in Neural Mecha- nisms, by Jan Bures, Olga Buresova, and Jiri Krivanek. New York: Wiley, 1988. 304 pp. $64.95.

Neural Computers, edited by Rolf Eckmiller and Christoph von der Malsburg. Berlin and New York: Springer-Verlag, 1989. 566 pg. + xiii. $54.50.

From Neuropsychology to Men- tal Structure, by Tim Shallice. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988. 462 pp. + xv. $59.50 (he); $24.95 (pb).

A review by Kathleen Baynes, Dartmouth Medical School

PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE

Feature Review

PS reviews three

strands of European cognitive/behavioral neuroscience.

In the 1970s, Tim Shallice was one of the first to suggest that case studies are the soundest source of empirical data with which to test neuropsychological models. Since that time the controversy over whether and when group or case studies provide appropriate or even ad- missible evidence for theory construc- tion has occupied many symposiums and at least one entire journal issue in this field. The strong view that single case studies are the only admissible evidence in neuropsychological research follows directly from certain assumptions about the nature of the enterprise (see Cara- mazza, 1984; Caramazza & Badecker, 1985 for a cogent treatment of this view). In From Neuropsychology to Mental Structure, Shallice examines these and other methodological assumptions, and, in doing so, reviews the progress in neuropsychological research in the past two decades. He presents a thorough and scholarly review of this work with an eye to making more explicit which meth- ods and levels of explanation have been most fruitful in the past. His discussions yield clear and useful methodological cri-

(BAYNES, continued on p. 292)

VOL. 1, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER 1990 Copyright © 1990 American Psychological Society 287

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