Temporal judgements of internal and external events in persons with and without autism

When participants make judgments about the onset of self-initiated movements they typically report the movement occurred earlier than it had [Obhi, S. S., & Haggard, P. (2004). Free will and free won't. American Scientific, 92, 358-365.]. One interpretation is that feed-forward processes lead to awareness of the movement prior to execution. Because individuals with autism experience reduced preparatory activity prior to a voluntary movement, the present study sought to determine whether these anticipatory biases are exhibited by persons with autism. Participants watched a dot move in a circle and pressed the spacebar any time after one revolution. A tone either followed the participants' voluntary movement or was computer generated. Participants in both groups made anticipatory judgements regarding movement initiation ( approximately 100 ms). When the movement and tone occurred together this anticipatory bias was also present, regardless of which event participants focused on. Individuals with autism appear to have access to a similar representation of voluntary movements, however this representation may be more variable.     

How Working With a Helpful Versus Less Helpful Confederate Influences Joint-Action in a Pegboard Task

Actors change their movement strategies to complement a coactor's movements when performing cooperative tasks. To further investigate this topic, the authors designed a pegboard task whereby a participant-confederate pair worked together to move a peg from one side of the board to the other. The authors examined how the experience of working with a helpful confederate versus less helpful confederate influenced the participant's movement behavior. Results provide evidence that participants change their movement behaviors in response to the actions of the confederate. Here the human capacity to act in such a manner exemplifies an individual's ability to utilize his or her own action system to understand others and interact to complete joint action tasks. Individuals appear to adapt their behavior to their experiences, and thus may be helpful in some contexts and less helpful in others.     

Heidegger and scientific realism

This paper describes Heidegger as a robust scientific realist, explains why his view has received such conflicting treatment, and concludes that the special significance of his position lies in his insistence upon linking the discussion of science to the question of its relation with technology. It shows that Heidegger, rather than accepting the usual forced option between realism and antirealism, advocates a realism in which he embeds the antirealist thesis that the idea of reality independent of human understanding is unintelligible. This reading is defended against Rorty's antirealist interpretation, as well as Dreyfus' depiction of him as a deflationary realist, and his assessment of background realism is contrasted with Fine's. Further, the robustness of Heidegger's realism is laid out across several texts from 1912 to 1976, in order to show that he is neither an instrumental realist nor an internal realist. Finally, the point is made that the development of his view concerning realism gives rise to a critique of objectivity that is now being similarly advocated by numerous thinkers from a variety of disciplines, and that this critique is inevitably ethical and political.     

A Non-Abelian, Categorical Ontology of Spacetimes and Quantum Gravity

A non-Abelian, Universal SpaceTime Ontology is introduced in terms of Categories, Functors, Natural Transformations, Higher Dimensional Algebra and the Theory of Levels. A Paradigm shift towards Non-Commutative Spacetime structures with remarkable asymmetries or broken symmetries, such as the CPT-symmetry violation, is proposed. This has the potential for novel applications of Higher Dimensional Algebra to SpaceTime structure determination in terms of universal, topological invariants of ‘hidden’ symmetry. Fundamental concepts of Quantum Algebra and Quantum Algebraic Topology, such as Quantum Groups, von Neumann and Hopf Algebras are first considered with a view to their possible extensions and future applications in Quantum Field theories. New, non-Abelian results may be obtained through Higher Homotopy, General van Kampen Theorems, Lie Groupoids/Algebroids and Groupoid Atlases, possibly with novel applications to Quantum Dynamics and Local-to-Global Problems, Quantum Logics and Logic Algebras. Many-valued Logics, ?ukasiewicz–Moisil Logics lead to Generalized LM-Toposes as global representations of SpaceTime Structures in the presence of intense Quantum Gravitational Fields. Such novel representations have the potential to develop a Quantum/General Relativity Theory in the context of Supersymmetry, Supergravity, Supersymmetry Algebras and the Metric Superfield in the Planck limit of spacetime. Quantum Gravity and Physical Cosmology issues are also considered here from the perspective of multiverses, thus leading also to novel types of Generalized, non-Abelian, Topological, Higher Homotopy Quantum Field Theories (HHQFT) and Non-Abelian Quantum Algebraic Topology (NA-QAT) theories.     

The influence of advance information about target location and visual feedback on movement planning and execution.

This study was designed to determine if movement planning strategies incorporating the use of visual feedback during manual aiming are specific to individual movements. Advance information about target location and visual context was manipulated using precues. Participants exhibited a shorter reaction time and a longer movement time when they were certain of the target location and that vision would be available. The longer movement time was associated with greater time after peak velocity. Under conditions of uncertainty, participants prepared for the worst-case scenario. That is, they spent more time organizing their movements and produced trajectories that would be expected from greater open-loop control. Our results are consistent with hierarchical movement planning in which knowledge of the movement goal is an essential ingredient of visual feedback utilization.     

Categorical Ontology of Complex Spacetime Structures: The Emergence of Life and Human Consciousness

A categorical ontology of space and time is presented for emergent biosystems, super-complex dynamics, evolution and human consciousness. Relational structures of organisms and the human mind are naturally represented in non-abelian categories and higher dimensional algebra. The ascent of man and other organisms through adaptation, evolution and social co-evolution is viewed in categorical terms as variable biogroupoid representations of evolving species. The unifying theme of local-to-global approaches to organismic development, evolution and human consciousness leads to novel patterns of relations that emerge in super- and ultra- complex systems in terms of colimits of biogroupoids, and more generally, as compositions of local procedures to be defined in terms of locally Lie groupoids. Solutions to such local-to-global problems in highly complex systems with ‘broken symmetry’ may be found with the help of generalized van Kampen theorems in algebraic topology such as the Higher Homotopy van Kampen theorem (HHvKT). Primordial organism structures are predicted from the simplest metabolic-repair systems extended to self-replication through autocatalytic reactions. The intrinsic dynamic ‘asymmetry’ of genetic networks in organismic development and evolution is investigated in terms of categories of many-valued, ?ukasiewicz–Moisil logic algebras and then compared with those obtained for (non-commutative) quantum logics. The claim is defended in this essay that human consciousness is unique and should be viewed as an ultra-complex, global process of processes. The emergence of consciousness and its existence seem dependent upon an extremely complex structural and functional unit with an asymmetric network topology and connectivities—the human brain—that developed through societal co-evolution, elaborate language/symbolic communication and ‘virtual’, higher dimensional, non-commutative processes involving separate space and time perceptions. Philosophical theories of the mind are approached from the theory of levels and ultra-complexity viewpoints which throw new light on previous representational hypotheses and proposed semantic models in cognitive science. Anticipatory systems and complex causality at the top levels of reality are also discussed in the context of the ontological theory of levels with its complex/entangled/intertwined ramifications in psychology, sociology and ecology. The presence of strange attractors in modern society dynamics gives rise to very serious concerns for the future of mankind and the continued persistence of a multi-stable biosphere. A paradigm shift towards non-commutative, or non-Abelian, theories of highly complex dynamics is suggested to unfold now in physics, mathematics, life and cognitive sciences, thus leading to the realizations of higher dimensional algebras in neurosciences and psychology, as well as in human genomics, bioinformatics and interactomics.