Notes for week 10

Barbara

Shimon

Martinez-Garcia et al.

• Did all the circuits in the amygdaloid complex evolve together?
• If yes, why does it look like such a mess?
• If not, why are the constituent nuclei clumped together into a relatively cohesive complex?

Pitkanen

• The summation metaphor (Fig.6) looks very enticing, but it only makes sense to sum representations that are commensurable (as in Kawato's model of the cerebellum; recall week 8).

LeDoux

• A couple of accessible extras:
  • A Scholarpedia article on the amygdala by Joseph LeDoux.
  • A NYT article on fear conditioning by LeDoux.
• LeDoux's speculations on consciousness are quite superficial. For a summary of the up-to-date views on phenomenal and access consciousness (respectively, qualia and awareness), see chapter 9 of my new book, or the summary in lectures 3, 4, and 5 of my Psych 531. The primary sources of the synthesis I offer are works by Thomas Metzinger and Bjorn Merker.

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