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The drawing on the left side represents an early attempt to explain how visual and motor systems cooperate during a pointing act. Light rays coming from an object enter the lenses of the eyes, then proceed via the retinas to the pineal gland. Impulses of this gland activate the muscles of the arm, which generate the pointing posture. Descartes proposed that this gland -a small structure deep in the brain- was unique in man, permitting him to be aware of his connection to God, that is, his soul.
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In Descartes's view, the intellect was God's special gift to mankind. He thought that the mind existed outside the body and was independent of it, although mind and body could interact through the medium of the pineal gland.
René Descartes, De corpore humano, 1664
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Postal address:
Universität Düsseldorf
Department of Psychology / Institut of Experimental Psychology
Motor Control Unit
Universitätsstr. 1
Geb. 23.03
40225 Düsseldorf
Germany
Tel. +49 (0)211-811-5629 (Petra Jansen)
Tel. +49-211-81-13484 (Karl-Theodor Kalveram)
Tel. +49 (0)211-811-5629 (Stefanie Richter)
Tel. +49 (0)211-811-1318 (Thomas Schinauer, Dana Prentki, Arne W. Tietz)
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Cooperations
- Abteilung für Klinische Neurochemie, Universität Würzburg
- Chirurgische Universitätsklinik und Poliklinik Würzburg, Würzburg
- Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Klinische Psychologie, Arbeitsgruppe Sprache und Kognition, Prof. Dr. H.-G. Bosshardt
- GI Physiology & Motility Laboratories, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA
- Institute of Radiology and Neurology, Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston
- Klinik für Gastroenterologie, Hepatologie und Infektiologie, Medizinische Einrichtungen der Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf
- Medizinisches Institut für Umwelthygiene an der Heinrich-Heine-Universität
- Neurologische Klinik der Heinrich-Heine-Universität
- Research Laboratories of Schering AG
- Universitätsklinik Bergmannsheil, Abtlg. für Gastroenterologie, Bochum
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