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414From a sensorimotor account of perception to an interactive approach to psychopathologyIn Rocco J. Gennaro (ed.), Disturbed Consciousness, Mit Press. 2015.
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386We have been observing how infants between 3 and 21 months react when a vibrotactile stimulation (a buzzer) is applied to different parts of their bodies. Responses included in particular movement of the stimulated body part and successful reaching for and removal of the buzzer. Overall, there is a pronounced developmental progression from general to specific movement patterns, especially in the first year. In this article we review the series of studies we conducted and then focus on possible m…Read more
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521The Explanatory Status of the Sensorimotor Approach to Phenomenal Consciousness, and Its Appeal to CognitionIn John Mark Bishop & Andrew Martin (eds.), Contemporary Sensorimotor Theory, 23 Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, Springer International Publishing Switzerland. pp. 23-35. 2014.This paper starts by providing a succinct overview of the sensorimotor approach to phenomenal consciousness, describing its two parts: the part that concerns the quality of sensations, and the part that concerns whether or not such qualities are (consciously) experienced. The paper goes on to discuss the explanatory status of the approach, claiming that the approach does not simply “explain away” qualia, but that on the contrary, it provides a way of thinking about qualia that explains why they …Read more
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385Rewired animals and sensory substitution: the cause is not cortical plasticityProceedings of the British Academy 219. 2018.Cortical plasticity is often invoked to explain changes in the quality or location of experience observed in rewired animals, in sensory substitution, in extension of the body through tool use, and in the rubber hand illusion. However this appeal to cortical plasticity may be misleading, because it suggest that the cortical areas that are plastic are themselves the loci of generation of experience. This would be an error, I claim, since cortical areas do not generate experience. Cortical areas p…Read more
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50Humour production may enhance observational learning of a new tool-use action in 18-month-old infantsCognition and Emotion 30 (4). 2016.
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642Wackenroder and the Doctrine of the SoulNineteenth-Century Music Review 5 (1): 67-88. 2008.Advances a novel theory of how paradoxes evident in Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder's essay on instrumental music evoke specific religious dichotomies and that these in turn propose an aesthetic interpretation of autonomous instrumental music concordant with the importance attached to religion in early German Romantic thought.
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729Is music conscious? The argument from motion, and other considerationsPsychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain 27 (4): 327-333. 2017.Music is often described in anthropomorphic terms. This paper suggests that if we think about music in certain ways we could think of it as conscious. Motional characteristics give music the impression of being alive, but musical motion is conventionally taken as metaphorical. The first part of this paper argues that metaphor may not be the exclusive means of understanding musical motion – there could also be literal ways. Discussing kinds of consciousness, particularly “access consciousness” (B…Read more