ModularExperience : How the modularization of the mind unfolds in the brain. (ModularExperience)

The mind is not an unitary entity, nor is its physical substrate, the brain. Both can be divided into multiple components, some of which have been referred to as modules. Many controversies exist in cognitive science, psychology, and philosophy about the properties and the status of these modules. A compromise view is offered by an hypothesis of modularization which has two central tenets: (i) Genetic influences determine a weak non-modular organization of the mind and (ii) this map develops into a set of module-like compartments. The combined behavioral and imaging experiments will characterize the properties of non-modular maps and module-like regions in sighted and congenitally blind adults and in children, and test specific hypotheses about how experience affects non-modular maps and the degree of modularization. The findings will reveal how the structure of the adult mind is the dynamic end point of a process of modularization in the brain.

Keywords:Functional brain imaging, Learning and development, Visual object and face perception, Cognitive Neuroscience

Disciplines:Medical imaging and therapy, Other paramedical sciences, Neurosciences, Biological and physiological psychology, Cognitive science and intelligent systems, Developmental psychology and ageing, Animal experimental and comparative psychology, Applied psychology, Human experimental psychology