Mapping the Mind - Couverture rigide

Carter, Rita

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0520219376 ISBN 13 : 9780520219373

Editeur : University of California Press, 1999

Synopsis

Today a brain scan reveals our thoughts, moods, and memories as clearly as an X-ray reveals our bones. We can actually observe a person's brain registering a joke or experiencing a painful memory. Drawing on the latest imaging technology and the expertise of distinguished scientists, Rita Carter explores the geography of the human brain. Her writing is clear, accessible, witty, and the book's 150 illustrations - most in color - present an illustrated guide to that wondrous, coconut-sized, wrinkled gray mass we carry inside our heads. "Mapping the Mind" charts the way human behavior and culture have been molded by the landscape of the brain. Carter shows how our personalities reflect the biological mechanisms underlying thought and emotion and how behavioral eccentricities may be traced to abnormalities in an individual brain.Obsessions and compulsions seem to be caused by a stuck neural switch in a region that monitors the environment for danger. Addictions stem from dysfunction in the brain's reward system. Even the sense of religious experience has been linked to activity in a certain brain region. The differences between men and women's brains, the question of a "gay brain," and conditions such as dyslexia, autism, and mania are also explored. Looking inside the brain, writes Carter, we see that actions follow from our perceptions, which are due to brain activity dictated by a neuronal structure formed from the interplay between our genes and the environment. Without sidestepping the question of free will, Carter suggests that future generations will use our increasing knowledge of the brain to "enhance those mental qualities that give sweetness and meaning to our lives, and to eradicate those that are destructive."

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

'One of the clearest and best-illustrated attempts to explain the virtually inaccessible, the brain' SUNDAY TIMES

Brain scans reveal our thoughts, memories - even our moods - as clearly as an X-ray reveals our bones. We can watch a person's brain literally light up as it registers a joke, or glow dully when it recalls an unhappy memory.

MAPPING THE MIND shows how these cans can be used to help explain aspects of our behaviour and how behavioural eccentricities can be traced to abnormalities in an individual brain. Dyslexia, for example, may be caused by a short-circuit in the messages converting sound to visual cues; addiction, eating disorders and alcoholism stem from dysfunction in the brain's reward system. In this acclaimed book Rita Carter draws on the latest in brain imaging to give extraordinary insights into how the brain works.

Revue de presse

fascinating stuff (BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH)

It's fascinating to understand how much of our personality is directly related to brain function. (Daniel Johns, University Bookseller WESTERN MORNING NEWS)

Well researched...this is a good read for the specialist or general scientist, or anyone inetrested in things of or about the mind. (SCHOOL SCIENCE REVIEW)

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: University of California Press
• Date d'édition: 1999
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0520219376
• ISBN 13: 9780520219373
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 224
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible