FABBS

'FABBS' is the 'Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences', which sends news
to scientists every week or so; and thanks to Dr. Maria Malott, I happen to be on the mailing list.

Scientists all over the world believe they should look into the brain to explain why people behave.
A member of the Federation is 'ABA' - the Association for Behavior Analysis - and I don't know why
they don't make an issue of equating 'brain' science with 'mind' science' in FABBS publications.

Yesterday, FABBS sent this News Highlight:
________________________________________________________________
Pundits Exchange Views on Arizona Tragedy and What, If Any, Research is Needed
________________________________________________________________

" In the wake of the horrific shooting of twenty people -- in an Arizona shopping center this weekend, many people are asking the question: Who would perform such a horrible act of violence and why?
--- Scientists must understand - for both normal and abnormal behavior - what is happening in the brain, how the mind processes -- information, --- and the influence of social environment --
on cognition, emotion -- and biology.  Fortunately, this work is underway."

I argue for special research agenda and encourage everyone to think of the brain as an organ rather than a mind which processes information.
We might say a brain functions like an electro-magnetic battery.
Anyway, variables in the social environment - words, for example - affect individuals as well as the
brain cells plus the nerves and the glands.
I.P. Pavlov investigated the activation of salivary glands, as an example of conditioned reflexes.
The dog drooled over an audio-visual stimulus that activated one ... or more ... salivary glands.
Translated: dogs see and hear something and this affects the brain via the nerves in the head.
Animals mind, care, sense; a brain isn't an animal - not clever - much less, an intelligent Mind.

We - you and I - know that.
But we still talk of the brain as if we believe otherwise.
A habit we might easily drop; just like we no longer think of 'lily-livered' as causing cowardice.
We don't need to take the brain seriously as intelligent, perceptive, understanding. 
We can claim people are intelligent, perceptive etc; persons think, forget and remember; right?

The FABBS message ends with a call for "fundamental research" that will tell us how people decide
to behave in certain ways; and for "applied research" that ties this knowledge to real world settings.
My wishes, exactly.
I'd like to know what readers think.  Maybe personifying cells and organs is OK for young children.

July 5, 2012