Bjorn Merker (also: Björn Merker), Swedish citizen born May 15, 1943, in Tetschen (now

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

), is a

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist specializing in neuroscience that deals with the anatomy and function of neurons, Biological neural network, neural circuits, and glia, and their Behavior, behavioral, biological, and psycholo ...

and an independent interdisciplinary scholar educated in the USA, now living in southern

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. Merker studied psychology and brain science in the U.S., receiving a B.A. in psychology at Queens College of the City University of New York (1975), and a PhD in psychology and brain science at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

in 1980 for work on midbrain orienting mechanisms. He then worked on oculomotor physiology in cats at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

and on the primary visual cortex of macaques at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. An interest in comparative behavioral biology led him to study song development and mirror self-recognition in gibbons, and eventually to research on the biological roots and evolutionary background of human music and language. With Nils Wallin and Steven Brown he edited the interdisciplinary volume ''The Origins of Music''. In retirement, he continues active work on theoretical topics that include the analysis of brain macrosystems and their interaction, countercurrent modelling of cortical memory, the subcortical foundations of brain mechanisms of attention and consciousness, and the biological background to human music and language.Curriculum Vitae by Björn Merker, 5 pages, June 2010 - read Jan 21, 2011 Merker's theory is featured at online websites, such as by McGill University.

Entrepreneurship

Bjorn is the chief scientist at a Swedish deep-tech neuroscience company, Mother. AB, designing VR and biofeedback mental health tools.

Authored

Books

*B. Merker (2012): From probabilities to percepts. A subcortical "global best estimate buffer" as locus of phenomenal experience". In: S. Edelman, T. Fekete and N. Zach (Eds.): ''Being in Time. Dynamical models of phenomenal experience.'' (pp. 37–79). Amsterdam. John Benjamins Publishing Company. *B. Merker (in press): "The vocal learning constellation: imitation, ritual culture, encephalization." In: N. Bannan & S. Mithen (Eds.). ''Music, language and human evolution''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. *N.L. Wallin, B. Merker & S. Brown (Eds.)(2000): ''The origins of music''. The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass. *B. Merker (1980): "The Sentinel Hypothesis - A role for the mammalian superior colliculus." Doctoral Dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, Mass.

Selected articles

*B. Merker, K. Williford & D. Rudrauf (2021): "The Integrated Information Theory of consciousness: A case of mistaken identity". In: Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1-72. doi:10.1017/S0140525X21000881 *B. Merker (2013): "Cortical gamma oscillations: the functional key is activation, not cognition". In: Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 37 (2013) 401–417 *B. Merker, G. Madison & P. Eckerdal (2009): "On the role and origin of isochrony in human rhythmic entrainment." In: ''Cortex'' 45: 4-17. *B. Merker (2007): "Consciousness without a cerebral cortex: a challenge for neuroscience and medicine." Target article, commentaries and author's response. In: ''The Behavioral and Brain Sciences'' 30: 63-134 *B. Merker (2006): "The Conformal Motive in Birdsong, Music, and Language: An Introduction.", The Neurosciences and Music II: From Perception to Performance. In: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 1060, December 2005: 17-28. *B. Merker (2004). "Cortex, countercurrent context, and dimensional integration of lifetime memory." ''Cortex'', 40: 559-576. Preprint at: http://cogprints.org/6456/ *M. Ujhelyi, B. Merker, P. Buk & T. Geissmann (2000). "Observations on the behavior of gibbons in the presence of mirrors." ''Journal of Comparative Psychology'', 114: 253-262. *B. Merker & C. Cox (1999): "Development of the female great call in Hylobates gabriellae: A case study." ''Folia Primatologica'', 70: 96-106. *E. Schwartz & B. Merker (1986). "Computer aided neuroanatomy: Differential geometry of cortical surfaces and an optimal flattening algorithm." ''IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications'', 6: 36-44. *B. Merker & J. Schlag (1985): "Role of intralaminar thalamus in gaze mechanisms: Evidence from electrical stimulation and fiber sparing lesions in cats." In: ''Experimental Brain Research'', 59: 388-394.

External links

MIT Press PhilPapers
- online research in philosophy

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merker, Bjorn 1943 births Living people Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Swedish neuroscientists Queens College, City University of New York alumni