GLOSSARY
Business Anthropology
A discipline which views commerce as a fundamental aspect of human groups, a means by which people thrive together, and the basis of human communities.
Business Anthropology has a number of practical applications, including: observing and modifying organizational culture, modeling successful enterprise practices, studying the concerns of various market segments for the purpose of product development and communication.
Exchanges - Exchanging
Refers to the fundamental unit of commerce [drop in icon: two jumping figures with arrows], in which parties make tangible and intangible promises, deliver, and assess their value [drop in icon: two jumping figures with arrows and thought bubbles.
Neuroplasticity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Neuroplasticity challenges the idea that brain functions are fixed in certain locations. Neuroplasticity (variously referred to as brain plasticity, cortical plasticity or cortical re-mapping) refers to the changes that occur in the organization of the brain as a result of experience. The coining of the term plasticity in regards to neuronal process is attributed to Polish neuroscientist Jerzy Konorski.
The concept of neuroplasticity pushes the boundaries of the brain areas that are still re-wiring in response to changes in environmentÉ According to the theory of neuroplasticity; thinking, learning, and acting actually change both the brain's physical structure (anatomy) and functional organization (physiology) from top to bottom.
Brain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A chimpanzee brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate, and the majority of invertebrate, animals. Some primitive animals such as jellyfish and starfish have a decentralized nervous system without a brain, while sponges lack any nervous system at all. In vertebrates, the brain is located in the head, protected by the skull and close to the primary sensory apparatus of vision, hearing, balance, taste, and smell.
From a philosophical point of view, it might be said that the most important function of the brain is to serve as the physical structure underlying the mind. From a biological point of view, though, the most important function is to generate behaviors that promote the welfare of an animal. Brains control behavior either by activating muscles, or by causing secretion of chemicals such as hormones. Even single-celled organisms may be capable of extracting information from the environment and acting in response to it. Sponges, which lack a central nervous system, are capable of coordinated body contractions and even locomotion. In vertebrates, the spinal cord by itself contains neural circuitry capable of generating reflex responses as well as simple motor patterns such as swimming or walking. However, sophisticated control of behavior on the basis of complex sensory input requires the information-integrating capabilities of a centralized brain.
Despite rapid scientific progress, much about how brains work remains a mystery. The operations of individual neurons and synapses are now understood in considerable detail, but the way they cooperate in ensembles of thousands or millions has been very difficult to decipher. Methods of observation such as EEG recording and functional brain imaging tell us that brain operations are highly organized, but these methods do not have the resolution to reveal the activity of individual neurons. Thus, even the most fundamental principles of neural network computation may to a large extent remain for future investigators to discover.
