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Aiming at the shortcomings of EEG signals generated by brain's sensorimotor region activated tasks, such as poor performance, low efficiency and weak robustness, this paper proposes an EEG signals classification method based on multi-dimensional fusion features.

First, the improved Morlet wavelet is used to extract the spectrum feature maps from EEG signals. Then, the spatial-frequency features are extracted from the PSD maps by using the three-dimensional convolutional neural networks (3DCNNs) model. Finally, the spatial-frequency features are incorporated to the bidirectional gated recurrent units (Bi-GRUs) models to extract the spatial-frequency-sequential multi-dimensional fusion features for recognition of brain's sensorimotor region activated task.

In the comparative experiments, the data sets of motor imagery (MI)/action observation (AO)/action execution (AE) tasks are selected to test the classification performance and robustness of the proposed algorithm. In addition, the impact of extracted features on the sensorimotor region and the impact on the classification processing are also analyzed by visualization during experiments.

The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm extracts the corresponding brain activation features for different action related tasks, so as to achieve more stable classification performance in dealing with AO/MI/AE tasks, and has the best robustness on EEG signals of different subjects.

In response to recent calls to better understand the brain’s role in organizational behavior, we propose a series of theoretical tests to examine the question “can brains manage?” Our tests ask whether brains can manage without bodies and without extracranial resources, whether they can manage in social isolation, and whether brains are the ultimate controllers of emotional and cognitive aspects of organizational behavior. Our analysis shows that, to accomplish work-related tasks in organizations, the brain relies on and closely interfaces with the body, interpersonal and social dynamics, and cognitive and emotional processes that are distributed across persons and artifacts. The results of this “thought experiment” suggest that the brain is more appropriately conceived as a regulatory organ that integrates top-down (i.e., social, artifactual and environmental) and bottom-up (i.e., neural) influences on organizational behavior, rather than the sole cause of that behavior. Drawing on a socially situated perspective, our analysis develops a framework that connects brain, body and mind to social, cultural, and environmental forces, as significant components of complex emotional and cognitive organizational systems. We discuss the implications for the emerging field of organizational cognitive neuroscience and for conceptualizing the interaction between the brain, cognition and emotion in organizations.

Through a review of historically famous cases and a chronicle of neurotechnology development, this chapter discusses brain structure and brain function as two distinct yet interrelated paths to understand the relative contributions of anatomical and physiological mechanisms to the human brain–behavior relationship. From an organizational neuroscience perspective, the chapter describes over a dozen neuroimaging technologies that are classified under four groupings: morphologic, invasive metabolic, noninvasive metabolic, and electromagnetic. We then discuss neuroimaging variables that may be useful in social science investigations, and we underscore electroencephalography as a particularly useful modality for the study of individuals and groups in organizational settings. The chapter concludes by considering emerging science and novel brain technologies for the organizational researcher as we look to the future.

Purpose – In recent decades, some sociologists have turned to evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and cognitive science to support, modify, and reconfigure existing social psychological theory. In this chapter, we build on this momentum by considering the relevance of current work in affective and cognitive neuroscience for understanding emotions and the self. Our principal aim is to enlarge the range of phenomena currently considered by sociologists who study emotion while showing how affective dynamics play an important role across most outcomes and processes of interest to social scientists.

Approach – We focus on the ways external social objects become essential to, and emotionally significant for, the self. To that end, we draw on ideas from phenomenology, pragmatism, classic symbolic interactionism, and dramaturgy. We show how basic affective systems graft on, build from, and extend current social psychological usages of emotions as well as the important sociological work being done on self, from both symbolic interactionist (SI) and identity theory (IT) perspectives. Finally, we turn to the promising directions in studying emotional biographies and various aspects related to embodiment.

Findings – Affective systems consist of brain networks whose connections deepen when activated, with interesting variations observable at the neural, individual, and social levels in which one or more system is more salient than others. Affective systems may come to saturate the construction and maintenance of an autobiography or collective biography, with consequences for self-projection, self-other attunement, and embodied action. In turning to embodiment, however, we consider aspects of cognitive neuroscience that can contribute to ongoing work in neurosociology building on symbolic interactionism.

Practical Implications – The focus on affective systems suggests new research agendas in leveraging emerging neurosociological methods in the laboratory, while pushing for novel, naturalistic observational strategies. The latter, in particular, may be key to deepening sociology's contributions to neuroscience, better positioned to bring the full disciplinary toolkit to bear on these questions.

Social Implications – In considering the embodied and projective aspects of the self, we show how work examining convergence and divergence between embodied and linguistic pathways opens up new insights into how the self develops or acquires behavioral repertoires. As such, this chapter points to the need for holistic approach to understanding the social actor and, thereby, how political, economic, historical, and cultural factors shape self as much as biogenetic and psychological.

Originality of the Chapter – Sociologists think of emotions as either dependent or intervening variables: (1) signaling identity or situational incongruence, (2) states to be managed, and (3) structural dimensions of superordinate–subordinate relationships. Our integration of the theory of affective systems emphasizes the causal primacy emotions have over other behavioral and cognitive functions, clarifying how they play into the construction and maintenance of self and social experience.

We know a good deal today about how our brains construct emotions. The new fields of interpersonal neurobiology and affective neuroscience are challenging many of our conventional understandings, particularly the notion that thinking and feeling are separate operations and that it is the teacher's primary task to engage students in the former. This chapter addresses some of the findings of recent research on basic emotion command systems, emotional style, neural resonance and neuroplasticity, arguing that we can no longer ignore the evidence that our students’ cognition, emotion and bodily health are fundamentally connected. The arguments for a holistic approach to education are exceedingly robust and have neuropsychological research findings to support them.

The purpose of this paper is to present a theory that applies Miller et al.’s (1960) Test-Operate-Test-Exit (TOTE) concept to the psychophysiology involved in electroencephalographic (EEG) biofeedback (BFB).

Six components are presented, namely, the teleological brain, attractors as the “test” in TOTEs, EEG production, positive and negative feedback, synaptogenesis and designated actor, and then integrated into a theoretical structure. Comparisons with the previous conceptualizations are discussed, and finally, suggestions for practical application and needed research are offered.

Previous theories neglected significant variables and promoted unverified conceptualizations. These issues are redressed with a psychophysiological, cybernetic theory.

The pursuit of substantive research needed to verify the theory would improve the scientific foundations for EEG BFB.

This theory shifts the designated actor in BFB to the participant’s brain, away from the BFB provider. EEG BFB is thus viewed as a means for neuronominalization driven by the brain’s attractor systems instead of as an intrusive intervention.

The theory proposes a much more participant-centric process than previous modes, which also promotes self-determination. The research validation needed for the theory could produce wider EEG BFB acceptance and application.

The theory is a complete departure from previous conceptualizations. It is the first instance of TOTE application to psychophysiological processes, and it is the first fully cybernetic conceptualization of EEG BFB.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to be as comprehensive as possible about what is known about mirror neurons at this time.

Design/methodology/approach – This chapter offers a comprehensive critique including Churchland's hesitations about findings on mirror neurons (2011) which are balanced by Ramachandran's conviction that much of the research on mirror neurons is valid (2011). Following this is a summary of the results of the Mirror Neuron Forum (2011) wherein leading mirror neuron researchers exchange their views and conclusions about this subject.

Findings – The few single cells measures that we have show that they are much wider distributed throughout the brain than we have previously imagined. It should be stressed that single measures of mirror neurons have occurred albeit in limited situations. This establishes once and for all their relevance to humans.

Originality/value – The work on mirror neurons is a critical contribution from neuroscience to bringing the social brain into sociology and refining our understandings of intersubjectivity and of our biologically driven connections with others.

The purpose of this paper is to advocate a change of perspective in the development of information science. At stake is whether this science will be able to make sense of both the astounding new practices in the world of knowledge and the even more astounding social transformations that revolve around information technologies. Tentatively a new way of thinking could be articulated along the guidelines herein discussed. An initial and important aspect concerns the definition of information itself. Rather than continuing with the endless discussions on what is information, it will be proposed, first, that information is indefinable per se; and second, that a consensus notion(s) might be established on how information should be handled in the core fields – or at least in the analysis of some prototypical “informational entities”.

The research strategy proposed, naturalistic and empirically oriented, is based on the intertwining of self-production and communication flows as fundamental characteristics of informational entities – about “being in the world” in the informational way. Living cells, organisms (nervous systems), individuals, enterprises-markets, and societies would manifest these characteristics. In all of these existential realms, it is the collective action of communicating, self-producing agents or entities (“informational” ones, for short), connected in multiple, flexible ways, what makes possible the unfathomable complexity and adaptability emerging at all functional scales.

Along this new perspective, meaning, knowledge, and intelligence may be approached rather consistently. The new conceptualizations may also be linked with the information revolution and the extraordinary expansion of knowledge in the times; a parallel with the knowledge-fundamentals of biological complexity will be suggested.

Among the many problems to tackle for a renewed information science, a relevant matter concerns the way to organize the dialogue among so many different disciplinary perspectives dealing with information: it becomes an open question, indeed.

Neuroarchitecture is a new interdisciplinary research field combining neuroscience and architecture that has developed and expanded since 2000. Neuroarchitecture originated from the divergence of previous multidisciplinary studies on the relationship between humans and the environment. However, scoping reviews of neuroarchitecture in relation to the experience of the built environment are lacking. Thus, this study aimed to provide the background and research trends of neuroarchitecture to contribute to discussions on the built environment.

A general form of scoping review was adopted, following the PRISMA-ScR checklist. For this scoping review emphasizing the embodied implication of neuroarchitecture for the built environment, an evaluation framework was developed consisting of four categories: health, performance, aesthetics and emotion.

This study explores objective techniques, including electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging, electrocardiogram, electrodermal activity and saliva cortisol, to measure neurophysiological impacts, adopting real, virtual and images of environmental settings. An in-depth review of 25 selected papers revealed the existing empirical research on neuroarchitecture using human physiological measurement tools and representational environment settings to examine the impact of human–environment relationships.

A meta-analysis of theoretical and intervention studies on neuroarchitecture that investigates the multisensory characteristics of the environment is lacking. In addition, the development and application of wearable tools to meet the needs of real environment settings can improve the effectiveness of neurophysiological measurement tools.