Jay Schulkin

Jonathan D. Moreno

A Pragmatic Guide to Neuroscience

Brain in Context

Louis A. Schmidt

This volume represents a stellar group of researchers who discuss the origins, development, and outcomes of extreme fear and shyness. The editors provide a thorough and timely examination of the subject and present state-of-the-art research for psychologists, neuroscientists, and clinicians interested in the development and outcome of these emotions in mental health.

Origins, Biological Mechanisms, and Clinical Outcomes

Extreme Fear, Shyness, and Social Phobia

Matthew Crippen

Pragmatism—a pluralistic philosophy with kinships to phenomenology, Gestalt psychology, and embodied cognitive science—is resurging across disciplines. It has growing relevance to literary studies, the arts, and religious scholarship, along with branches of political theory, not to mention our understanding of science. But philosophies and sciences of mind have lagged behind this pragmatic turn, for the most part retaining a central-nervous-system orientation, which pragmatists reject as too narrow. Matthew Crippen, a philosopher of mind, and Jay Schulkin, a behavioral neuroscientist, offer an innovative interdisciplinary theory of mind. They argue that pragmatism in combination with phenomenology is not only able to give an unusually persuasive rendering of how we think, feel, experience, and act in the world but also provides the account most consistent with current evidence from cognitive science and neurobiology. Crippen and Schulkin contend that cognition, emotion, and perception are incomplete without action, and in action they fuse together. Not only are we embodied subjects whose thoughts, emotions, and capacities comprise one integrated system; we are living ecologies inseparable from our surroundings, our cultures, and our world. Ranging from social coordination to the role of gut bacteria and visceral organs in mental activity, and touching upon fields such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and plant cognition, Crippen and Schulkin stress the role of aesthetics, emotions, interests, and moods in the ongoing enactment of experience. Synthesizing philosophy, neurobiology, psychology, and the history of science, Mind Ecologies offers a broad and deep exploration of evidence for the embodied, embedded, enacted, and extended nature of mind.

Body, Brain, and World

Mind Ecologies

Michael L. Power

Everything you ever wanted to know about the substance that binds all mammals together. After drawing its first breath, every newborn mammal turns his or her complete attention to obtaining milk. This primal act was once thought to stem from a basic fact: milk provides the initial source of calories and nutrients for all mammalian young. But it turns out that milk is a much more complicated biochemical cocktail and provides benefits beyond nutrition. In this fascinating book, biologists Michael L. Power and Jay Schulkin reveal this liquid’s evolutionary history and show how its ingredients have changed over many millions of years to become a potent elixir. Power and Schulkin walk readers through the early origins of the mammary gland and describe the incredible diversification of milk among the various mammalian lineages. After revealing the roots of lactation, the authors describe the substances that naturally occur in milk and discuss their biological functions. They reveal that mothers pass along numerous biochemical signals to their babies through milk. The authors explain how milk boosts an infant’s immune system, affects an infant’s metabolism and physiology, and helps inoculate and feed the baby’s gut microbiome. Throughout the book, the authors weave in stories from studies of other species, explaining how comparative research sheds light on human lactation. The authors then turn their attention to the fascinating topic of cross-species milk consumption—something only practiced by certain humans who evolved an ability to retain lactase synthesis into adulthood. The first book to discuss milk from a comparative and evolutionary perspective, Power and Schulkin’s masterpiece reveals the rich biological story of the common thread that connects all mammals.

The Biology of Lactation

Milk

The decision making process that underlies ovarian hormone therapy (HT) is fallible. Thus, the decision for women to go on HT remains controversial. At a time when confusion still permeates the decision making with regard to HT, this book bridges diverse features that surround the decision making concerning HT. The book is written for both specialists and generalists in the field.

Medical Decisions, Estrogen and Aging

He then moves on to other domains, claiming that underlying the experience of aesthetics in at least some instances is the interplay between expectation and disappointment and suggesting that, among other things, repulsion and attraction to the cries and joys of others underlie moral responsiveness. This book should appeal to researchers in behavioral neuroscience, emotion, and psychophysiology, as well as cognitive and social psychologists and philosophers of the mind."--BOOK JACKET.

Intelligent Action

Bodily Sensibility

Research Professor of Physiology and Biophysics Jay Schulkin

The Search for a Salty Taste

Sodium Hunger

They review the various studies of human and animal fat use and storage, including those that examine fat deposition and metabolism in men and women; chronicle cultural differences in food procurement, preparation, and consumption; and consider the influence of sedentary occupations and lifestyles.A compelling and comprehensive examination of the causes and consequences of the obesity epidemic, The Evolution of Obesity offers fascinating insights into the question, Why are we getting fatter?

The Evolution of Obesity

For most of the past few million years, our evolutionary ancestors' survival depended on being able to consume as much as possible when food was available and to store the excess energy for periods when it was scarce. In the developed world today, high-calorie foods are readily obtainable, yet the propensity to store fat is part of our species' heritage, leaving an increasing number of the world's people vulnerable to obesity. In an environment of abundant food, we are anatomically, physiologically, metabolically, and behaviorally programmed in a way that makes it difficult for us to avoid gaining weight.

From identifying the biological clocks that govern behavior and physiology to observing the self-regulation of nutrient levels by the body, the cyclical nature of some mental illnesses, and the causes of hopelessness, Curt Richter's wide-ranging discoveries not only influenced the burgeoning field of psychobiology and paved the way for later researchers but also often had implications for the treatment of patients in the clinic. Here, Jay Schulkin presents an engaging portrait of a "laboratory artisan" in the context of his work.

Jay Schulkin

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