Author: Ray Guillery Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0192529536 Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 289
Book Description
There are two distinct views about the functions of our brains and their origins. The standard view, taught in most neuroscience texts, has incoming messages about the world sent to the cerebral cortex, with the cortex then producing an appropriate motor output. The interactive view, largely expressed by philosophers and psychologists, stresses the continuous sensorimotor interactions of the brain with the world. The Brain as a Tool focuses on thalamo-cortical interactions on the basis of the interactive view, exploring the phylogenetically new transthalamic corticocortical pathways of mammals that link a hierarchy of cortical areas to each other and back to the phylogenetically older motor centres for control of action. The book demonstrates how messages in these pathways produce an anticipation of our own actions and perceptions. In relating neural events to conscious processing and our sense of self , Guillery summarizes important evidence which links neuroscience with psychology and philosophy. This book is essential reading for neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists and philosophers. Supplemented with a helpful glossary of neural terms and numerous illustrations of the brain, it is also an important resource for graduate and postdoctoral students interested in the neural bases of a sense of self and of cognitive functions.
Author: Marilee Sprenger Publisher: Corwin Press ISBN: 1452209081 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 145
Book Description
Synthesizing information from neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and child development, this reader-friendly guide explains the basics of early brain development and provides brain-compatible teaching practices.
Author: Rob DeSalle Publisher: Yale University Press ISBN: 0300183569 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 531
Book Description
“An engaging and complex examination of the development of the human brain throughout its evolutionary history” (Publishers Weekly). After several million years of jostling for ecological space, only one survivor from a host of hominid species remains standing: us. Human beings are extraordinary creatures, and it is the unprecedented human brain that makes them so. In this delightfully accessible book, the authors present the first full, step-by-step account of the evolution of the brain and nervous system. Tapping the very latest findings in evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and molecular biology, Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall explain how the cognitive gulf that separates us from all other living creatures could have occurred. They discuss • The development and uniqueness of human consciousness • How human and nonhuman brains work • The roles of different nerve cells • The importance of memory and language in brain functions, and much more Our brains, they conclude, are the product of a lengthy and supremely untidy history—an evolutionary process of many zigs and zags—that has accidentally resulted in a splendidly eccentric and creative product.
Author: Robert H. Blank Publisher: Georgetown University Press ISBN: 9781589012790 Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 212
Book Description
Neural grafting, virtual reality, gene therapy, psychotropic drugs ... As startling new treatments emerge for disorders of the brain, new concerns are arising along with them. In the first book to examine the implications of the full range of revolutionary interventions now possible in the human brain, Robert H. Blank warns that while these new techniques may promise medical wonders, they also raise profound political questions. Our rapidly unfolding knowledge about the brain and the accompanying applications have three main policy dimensions: funding research initiatives, controlling individual use, and assessing social consequences. But underlying these aspects, Blank argues, are more disturbing issues that pose fundamental challenges to our conceptions of equality, autonomy, freedom, responsibility, and human nature itself. Brain Policy makes the key facts from the technical literature readily accessible to social scientists and general readers and points out the implications for our society. Blank first explains the structure and function of the nervous system and current theories of brain operation; he then assesses the uses and potential abuses of various intervention techniques. He identifies the public policy issues raised by discoveries in the neurosciences and calls for intensified scrutiny of the advantages and disadvantages of new technologies. Warning that the risks and dangers of the dramatic developments in neuroscience are potentially large, Blank offers a means of understanding these scientific advances and the philosophical and political issues they entail. This book will be of interest to social scientists, policy analysts, policy makers, bioethicists, scientists who want to see the bigger picture, and the informed reader with an interest in the implications of neuroscience for themselves and society.
Author: D. Linden Publisher: Springer ISBN: 1137335335 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 201
Book Description
Interest in techniques to control the brain and thereby improve its function has surged, yet how realistic are these expectations and what are the ethical implications? This book reviews the main techniques of controlling brain processes for medical purposes, situating them within ethical and legal debates on autonomy and fairness.
Author: David L. Clark Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9781139445962 Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 298
Book Description
This new edition of The Brain and Behavior builds on the success of the previous edition and retains the core aim of providing an accessible introduction to behavioral neuroanatomy. Human behaviour directly reflects the anatomy of the central nervous system, and it is the goal of the behavioural neuroscientist to uncover the neuroanatomical basis of behaviour. Recent developments in neuroimaging technologies have led to significant advances on this front. The text is presented in a highly structured and organised format to help the reader distinguish between issues of anatomical, behavioural and physiological relevance. Simplified and clear diagrams are provided throughout the chapters to illustrate key points. Case examples are explored to set the neuroanatomy in the context of clinical experience. The book is written for behavioural clinicians, trainees, residents and students, and will also be of interest to psychiatrists, neurologists and neuroscientists seeking an accessible overview of behavioural neuroanatomy.
Author: Louann Brizendine, MD Publisher: Harmony ISBN: 0767927540 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 306
Book Description
From the author of the groundbreaking New York Times bestseller The Female Brain, here is the eagerly awaited follow-up book that demystifies the puzzling male brain. Dr. Louann Brizendine, the founder of the first clinic in the country to study gender differences in brain, behavior, and hormones, turns her attention to the male brain, showing how, through every phase of life, the "male reality" is fundamentally different from the female one. Exploring the latest breakthroughs in male psychology and neurology with her trademark accessibility and candor, she reveals that the male brain: -is a lean, mean, problem-solving machine. Faced with a personal problem, a man will use his analytical brain structures, not his emotional ones, to find a solution. -thrives under competition, instinctively plays rough and is obsessed with rank and hierarchy. -has an area for sexual pursuit that is 2.5 times larger than the female brain, consuming him with sexual fantasies about female body parts. -experiences such a massive increase in testosterone at puberty that he perceive others' faces to be more aggressive. The Male Brain finally overturns the stereotypes. Impeccably researched and at the cutting edge of scientific knowledge, this is a book that every man, and especially every woman bedeviled by a man, will need to own.
Author: Michael A. Arbib Publisher: OUP USA ISBN: 0199896682 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 436
Book Description
Unlike any other species, humans can learn and use language. This book explains how the brain evolved to make language possible, through what Michael Arbib calls the Mirror System Hypothesis. Because of mirror neurons, monkeys, chimps, and humans can learn by imitation, but only "complex imitation," which humans exhibit, is powerful enough to support the breakthrough to language. This theory provides a path from the openness of manual gesture, which we share with nonhuman primates, through the complex imitation of manual skills, pantomime, protosign (communication based on conventionalized manual gestures), and finally to protospeech. The theory explains why we humans are as capable of learning sign languages as we are of learning to speak. This fascinating book shows how cultural evolution took over from biological evolution for the transition from protolanguage to fully fledged languages. The author explains how the brain mechanisms that made the original emergence of languages possible, perhaps 100,000 years ago, are still operative today in the way children acquire language, in the way that new sign languages have emerged in recent decades, and in the historical processes of language change on a time scale from decades to centuries. Though the subject is complex, this book is highly readable, providing all the necessary background in primatology, neuroscience, and linguistics to make the book accessible to a general audience.
Author: Kenneth L. Davis Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 1461329345 Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 592
Book Description
Recent years have witnessed a resurgence of interest in the possible role of brain acetylcholine in neuropsychiatric disease. Research in this area has involved the renewed investigation of the cholinomimetics physostigmine and arecoline, and has been facilitated by the development of new potential cholinomimetics such as dimethylaminoethanol (Deanol) and choline chloride. Current investigators also have taken advantage of new approaches to neurochemical studies. Increasingly sensitive assay techniques such as gas chromatography/mass spectrometry have allowed investigators to measure low concentra tions of choline and acetylcholine in brain tissues. Improved neuroanatomical procedures such as immunohistochemical staining and the use of microelectrodes and micropipets have enabled skilled investigators to begin to map central acetylcholine pathways and to dissect the component parts of the complex interactions between brain acetylcholine and other neurotransmitters. The convergence of data from both clinical and basic studies now suggest that brain acetylcholine may be involved in affective illness, several movement disorders, and some cognitive disturbances. The purpose of this book is to summarize recent clinical and pre-clinical investigations on the possible role of brain acetylcholine in several neurological and psychiatric disorders. The volume is divided into six major sections: (1) Brain Acetylcholine and Psychiatric Disorders; (2) Brain Acetylcholine and Movement Disorders; (3) Brain Acetylcholine and Cognitive Function; (4) The Electrophysiology of Cholinergic Agents; (5) Interactions of Brain Acetylcholine and Other Neurotransmitters; (6) Biochemical and Pharmacological Aspects of CholinergiC Treatment Strategies.
Author: Gerald E. Schneider Publisher: MIT Press ISBN: 0262026732 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 725
Book Description
An introduction to the brain's anatomical organization and functions with explanations in terms of evolutionary adaptations and development. This introduction to the structure of the central nervous system demonstrates that the best way to learn how the brain is put together is to understand something about why. It explains why the brain is put together as it is by describing basic functions and key aspects of its evolution and development. This approach makes the structure of the brain and spinal cord more comprehensible as well as more interesting and memorable. The book offers a detailed outline of the neuroanatomy of vertebrates, especially mammals, that equips students for further explorations of the field. Gaining familiarity with neuroanatomy requires multiple exposures to the material with many incremental additions and reviews. Thus the early chapters of this book tell the story of the brain's origins in a first run-through of the entire system; this is followed by other such surveys in succeeding chapters, each from a different angle. The book proceeds from basic aspects of nerve cells and their physiology to the evolutionary beginnings of the nervous system to differentiation and development, motor and sensory systems, and the structure and function of the main parts of the brain. Along the way, it makes enlightening connections to evolutionary history and individual development. Brain Structure and Its Origins can be used for advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate classes in neuroscience, biology, psychology, and related fields, or as a reference for researchers and others who want to know more about the brain.
Author: Ray Guillery
Author: Marilee Sprenger
Author: Rob DeSalle
Author: Robert H. Blank
Author: D. Linden
Author: David L. Clark
Author: Louann Brizendine, MD
Author: Michael A. Arbib
Author: Kenneth L. Davis
Author: Gerald E. Schneider