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Browsing Bilişsel Bilim by Subject "Cognitive neuroscience."
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Item Modeling the human mind as an information processor :|a Heideggerian critique(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Alpagut, Emre.; Denizhan, Yağmur.; Sidiropoulou, Chryssi.Research efforts seeking to construct a scientific study of mind became institutionalized as cognitive science after World War II. These research efforts were inspired by the technological developments of that era in three domains: cybernetics, Turing computation and information theory. Although originally designed for engineering applications in controlled environments, these technological frameworks and concepts were adopted by researchers to give an account of the human mind. Consequently, “mind is an information processor” emerged as the central premise of cognitive science. Despite this information-related premise, cognitive science lacks a rigorous definition of the term information. Furthermore, the information processor approach necessitates a conception of mind consisting of discrete, enumerable constituents whose relations are well-defined. Such a conception recognizes mental capabilities insofar as they can be portrayed as a computational process and explains away metaphysical conceptualizations of subjectivity by portraying mental processes as emergent effects produced from complex interactions among simple entities. This relationship between technology and science during cognitive science’s proliferation can be examined from a Heideggerian perspective. Heidegger conceptualizes technology as a mode of being and argues that technology uses science to fulfill its essence. The technological mode of being conceives all entities as standing reserve (Bestand), resources to be extracted and ordered. Cognitive science models mental processes as computational operations and thereby represents the human mind as an orderable resource.Item The role of ventral pallidal gabaergic neurons in affective and cognitive processes(Thesis (M.S.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Science and Engineering, 2022., 2022.) Akmeşe, Cemal.; Ünal, Güneş.; Thorpe, Lucas.GABAergic projections from the ventral pallidum (VP) and the associated substantia innominata (SI) are relayed to two limbic structures respectively associated with acute and chronic forms of fear: the amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). This implicates a key role for VP GABAergic neurons in affective processing. I carried out selective lesion experiments to identify the role of VP GABAergic neurons in several implicit and explicit processes. To reveal the functional role of these neurons, bilateral injections of GAT1-Saporin or vehicle (saline) injections were made into the VP of adult male Wistar rats (n = 16). The animals were then assessed in the forced swim test (FST), open field test (OFT), elevated plus maze (EPM), Morris water maze (MWM) and Pavlovian fear conditioning. I found that VP GAT1-Saporin lesions reduced behavioral despair while not altering general locomotor activity. The experimental animals also exhibited a reduced freezing response and increased darting behavior through the fear conditioning acquisition trials. This indicates that selectively inactivating the GABAergic neurons in the VP have an antidepressant effect while active coping mechanisms are promoted. Despair and fear memory-related differences observed in the GAT1-Saporin group may be related to the local inhibition in the basal forebrain as well as long-range GABAergic projections to the amygdala and the extended amygdala. Silencing these long-range VP GABAergic neurons may prove useful in the treatment of depressive and fear-related disorders.