Linda Palmer Research Scientist, Philosophy Carnegie Mellon University Email: lpalmer@cmu.edu

Ph.D., University of California, Irvine Research Interests My work is two-pronged: one side addresses the philosophy of Immanuel Kant; the other side attempts to test if Kant’s theories can be used to shape novel approaches to understanding how the brain generates cognitive phenomena. The philosophical project centers on Kant’s philosophy of mind, which was produced in response to David Hume's skeptical challenge regarding causation and to contemporary developments in natural science. In particular, I am interested in Kant's theory of aesthetics, in relation to his theory of cognition (including the categorization of empirical objects) and to his theory of science and the nature of scientific discovery. In parallel to these philosophical inquiries, I am experimenting using rodents intending to test a hypothesis springing from a specific proposal of Kant's: that an internal signal is generated when an 'appropriate' organization of sensory inputs is produced. If such exists, can this signal's location in the brain be identified? Brain mapping techniques used to approach this question include: (1) The brain-wide and cellular resolution 'long-exposure' view of neuronal activity provided by expression of fast-response, activity-dependent genes, and (2) A newly developed marker which identifies synapses recently strengthened by neuronal activity in a learning animal, that is, the neuronal connections involved in the encoding of new memories. Generally speaking, work at many different levels is required to investigate brain functions; I believe that philosophical arguments and insights regarding the nature of mental operations may usefully inform the cognitive neurosciences. Recent Publications Palmer LC: A universality not based on concepts: Kant's key to the critique of taste. Kantian Review, 13(1), forthcoming. Fedulov V, Rex CS, Simmons DA, Palmer L, Gall CM, Lynch G: Evidence that long-term potentiation occurs within individual hippocampal synapses during learning. J Neuroscience 27(30): 8031-9, 2007. Palmer L, Jarrett K, Gall CM, Lynch G: Differential activation of rat hippocampal subfields in an unsupervised learning task. Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, 2007. Lynch G, Colgin LL, Palmer LC: Spandrels of the night? Sleep and dreaming. Scientific Advances and Reconsiderations, 178, 2003. Palmer LC: The epistemological norm in taste: The need for a new principle. Kant und die Berliner Aufklärung: Akten des IX. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses, Band 3: 434-442, 2001. Palmer LC, Hess US, Larson J, Rogers GA, Gall CM, Lynch G: Comparison of the effects of an ampakine with those of methamphetamine on aggregate neuronal activity in cortex vs. striatum. Molecular Brain Research, 46: 127-135, 1997. Palmer LC: Beauty and the possibility of coherent experience. Conceptus, 70: 97-148, 1994.