Author: Marco Iacoboni
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1429990759
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 341
Book Description
What accounts for the remarkable ability to get inside another person's head—to know what they're thinking and feeling? "Mind reading" is the very heart of what it means to be human, creating a bridge between self and others that is fundamental to the development of culture and society. But until recently, scientists didn't understand what in the brain makes it possible. This has all changed in the last decade. Marco Iacoboni, a leading neuroscientist whose work has been covered in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal, explains the groundbreaking research into mirror neurons, the "smart cells" in our brain that allow us to understand others. From imitation to morality, from learning to addiction, from political affiliations to consumer choices, mirror neurons seem to have properties that are relevant to all these aspects of social cognition. As The New York Times reports: "The discovery is shaking up numerous scientific disciplines, shifting the understanding of culture, empathy, philosophy, language, imitation, autism and psychotherapy." Mirroring People is the first book for the general reader on this revolutionary new science.
Mirroring People
Author: Marco Iacoboni
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1429990759
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 341
Book Description
What accounts for the remarkable ability to get inside another person's head—to know what they're thinking and feeling? "Mind reading" is the very heart of what it means to be human, creating a bridge between self and others that is fundamental to the development of culture and society. But until recently, scientists didn't understand what in the brain makes it possible. This has all changed in the last decade. Marco Iacoboni, a leading neuroscientist whose work has been covered in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal, explains the groundbreaking research into mirror neurons, the "smart cells" in our brain that allow us to understand others. From imitation to morality, from learning to addiction, from political affiliations to consumer choices, mirror neurons seem to have properties that are relevant to all these aspects of social cognition. As The New York Times reports: "The discovery is shaking up numerous scientific disciplines, shifting the understanding of culture, empathy, philosophy, language, imitation, autism and psychotherapy." Mirroring People is the first book for the general reader on this revolutionary new science.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1429990759
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 341
Book Description
What accounts for the remarkable ability to get inside another person's head—to know what they're thinking and feeling? "Mind reading" is the very heart of what it means to be human, creating a bridge between self and others that is fundamental to the development of culture and society. But until recently, scientists didn't understand what in the brain makes it possible. This has all changed in the last decade. Marco Iacoboni, a leading neuroscientist whose work has been covered in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal, explains the groundbreaking research into mirror neurons, the "smart cells" in our brain that allow us to understand others. From imitation to morality, from learning to addiction, from political affiliations to consumer choices, mirror neurons seem to have properties that are relevant to all these aspects of social cognition. As The New York Times reports: "The discovery is shaking up numerous scientific disciplines, shifting the understanding of culture, empathy, philosophy, language, imitation, autism and psychotherapy." Mirroring People is the first book for the general reader on this revolutionary new science.
The Mirror Book
Author: Charlotte Grimshaw
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 9780143776000
Category : Authors
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
"Brave, explosive, and thought-provoking, this is a powerful memoir. 'It's material, make a story out of it,' was the mantra Charlotte Grimshaw grew up with in her literary family. But when her life suddenly turned upside-down, she needed to re-examine the reality of that material. The more she delved into her memories, the more the real characters in her life seemed to object. So what was the truth of 'a whole life lived in fiction'? This is a vivid account of a New Zealand upbringing, where rebellion was encouraged, where trouble and tragedy lay ahead. It looks beyond the public face to the 'messy reality of family life - and much more'."--Back cover.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 9780143776000
Category : Authors
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
"Brave, explosive, and thought-provoking, this is a powerful memoir. 'It's material, make a story out of it,' was the mantra Charlotte Grimshaw grew up with in her literary family. But when her life suddenly turned upside-down, she needed to re-examine the reality of that material. The more she delved into her memories, the more the real characters in her life seemed to object. So what was the truth of 'a whole life lived in fiction'? This is a vivid account of a New Zealand upbringing, where rebellion was encouraged, where trouble and tragedy lay ahead. It looks beyond the public face to the 'messy reality of family life - and much more'."--Back cover.
The Mirror
Author: Marlys Millhiser
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504010183
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 334
Book Description
In this twisting time-travel thriller, a woman faints on the eve of her wedding—and awakens at the turn of the century in her grandmother’s body . . . The night before she is supposed to get married, Shay Garrett has no idea that a glimpse into her grandmother’s antique Chinese mirror will completely transform her seemingly ordinary life. But after a bizarre blackout, she wakes up to find herself in the same house—but in the year 1900. Even stranger, she realizes she is now living in the body of her grandmother, Brandy McCabe, as a young woman. Meanwhile, Brandy, having looked into the same mirror, awakens in Shay’s body in the present day—and discovers herself pregnant. As Rachael—the woman who links these two generations, mother to one and daughter to another—weaves back and forth between two time periods, this imaginative thriller explores questions of family, identity, and love. Courageous, compassionate Shay finds herself fighting against the confines of a society still decades away from women’s liberation, while Brandy struggles to adapt to the modern world she has suddenly been thrust into. The truth behind this inexplicable turn of events is more complex than either woman can imagine—and The Mirror is a tribute to the triumph of the female spirit, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. “What happens will surprise you. In the meantime, settle down for a good read.” —The Denver Post
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504010183
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 334
Book Description
In this twisting time-travel thriller, a woman faints on the eve of her wedding—and awakens at the turn of the century in her grandmother’s body . . . The night before she is supposed to get married, Shay Garrett has no idea that a glimpse into her grandmother’s antique Chinese mirror will completely transform her seemingly ordinary life. But after a bizarre blackout, she wakes up to find herself in the same house—but in the year 1900. Even stranger, she realizes she is now living in the body of her grandmother, Brandy McCabe, as a young woman. Meanwhile, Brandy, having looked into the same mirror, awakens in Shay’s body in the present day—and discovers herself pregnant. As Rachael—the woman who links these two generations, mother to one and daughter to another—weaves back and forth between two time periods, this imaginative thriller explores questions of family, identity, and love. Courageous, compassionate Shay finds herself fighting against the confines of a society still decades away from women’s liberation, while Brandy struggles to adapt to the modern world she has suddenly been thrust into. The truth behind this inexplicable turn of events is more complex than either woman can imagine—and The Mirror is a tribute to the triumph of the female spirit, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. “What happens will surprise you. In the meantime, settle down for a good read.” —The Denver Post
The Practitioner's Guide to Mirroring Hands
Author: Ernest L. Rossi
Publisher: Crown House Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1785832913
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 405
Book Description
Richard Hill and Ernest L. Rossi's The Practitioner's Guide to Mirroring Hands: A Client-Responsive Therapy that Facilitates Natural Problem-Solving and Mind Body Healing describes in detail how Mirroring Hands is conducted, and explores the framework of knowledge and understanding that surrounds and supports its therapeutic process. Foreword by Jeffrey K. Zeig, Ph.D. In this instructive and illuminating manual, Hill and Rossi show you how Mirroring Hands enables clients to unlock their problem-solving and mind body healing capacities to arrive at a resolution in a way that many other therapies might not. The authors offer expert guidance as to its client-responsive applications and differentiate seven variations of the technique in order to give the practitioner confidence and comfort in their ability to work within and around the possibilities presented while in session. Furthermore, Hill and Rossi punctuate their description of how Mirroring Hands is conducted with a range of illustrative casebook examples and stage-by-stage snapshots of the therapy in action: providing scripted language prompts and images of a client's hand movement that demonstrate the processes behind the technique as it takes the client from disruption into the therapeutic; and from there to integration, resolution, and a state of well-being. This book begins by tracing the emergence of the Mirroring Hands approach from its origins in Rossi's studies and experiences with Milton H. Erickson and by presenting a transcription of an insightful discussion between Rossi and Hill as they challenge some of the established ways in which we approach psychotherapy, health, and well-being. Building upon this exchange of ideas, the authors define and demystify the nature of complex, non-linear systems and skillfully unpack the three key elements of induction to therapeutic consciousness focused attention, curiosity, and nascent confidence in a section dedicated to preparing the client for therapy. Hill and Rossi supply guidance for the therapist through explanation of therapeutic dialogue's non-directive language principles, and through exploration of the four-stage cycle that facilitates the client's capacity to access their natural problem-solving and mind body healing. The advocate Mirroring Hands as not only a therapeutic technique, but also for all practitioners engaged in solution-focused therapy. Through its enquiry into the vital elements of client-cue observation, symptom-scaling, and rapport-building inherent in the therapist/client relationship, this book shares great wisdom and insight that will help the practitioner become more attuned to their clients' inner worlds and communication patterns. Hill and Rossi draw on a wealth of up-to-date neuroscientific research and academic theory to help bridge the gap between therapy's intended outcomes and its measured neurological effects, and, towards the book's close, also open the door to the study of quantum field theory to inspire the reader's curiosity in this fascinating topic. An ideal progression for those engaged in mindfulness and meditation, this book is the first book on the subject specially written for all mental health practitioners and is suitable for students of counseling, psychotherapy, psychology, and hypnotherapy, as well as anyone in professional practice.
Publisher: Crown House Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1785832913
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 405
Book Description
Richard Hill and Ernest L. Rossi's The Practitioner's Guide to Mirroring Hands: A Client-Responsive Therapy that Facilitates Natural Problem-Solving and Mind Body Healing describes in detail how Mirroring Hands is conducted, and explores the framework of knowledge and understanding that surrounds and supports its therapeutic process. Foreword by Jeffrey K. Zeig, Ph.D. In this instructive and illuminating manual, Hill and Rossi show you how Mirroring Hands enables clients to unlock their problem-solving and mind body healing capacities to arrive at a resolution in a way that many other therapies might not. The authors offer expert guidance as to its client-responsive applications and differentiate seven variations of the technique in order to give the practitioner confidence and comfort in their ability to work within and around the possibilities presented while in session. Furthermore, Hill and Rossi punctuate their description of how Mirroring Hands is conducted with a range of illustrative casebook examples and stage-by-stage snapshots of the therapy in action: providing scripted language prompts and images of a client's hand movement that demonstrate the processes behind the technique as it takes the client from disruption into the therapeutic; and from there to integration, resolution, and a state of well-being. This book begins by tracing the emergence of the Mirroring Hands approach from its origins in Rossi's studies and experiences with Milton H. Erickson and by presenting a transcription of an insightful discussion between Rossi and Hill as they challenge some of the established ways in which we approach psychotherapy, health, and well-being. Building upon this exchange of ideas, the authors define and demystify the nature of complex, non-linear systems and skillfully unpack the three key elements of induction to therapeutic consciousness focused attention, curiosity, and nascent confidence in a section dedicated to preparing the client for therapy. Hill and Rossi supply guidance for the therapist through explanation of therapeutic dialogue's non-directive language principles, and through exploration of the four-stage cycle that facilitates the client's capacity to access their natural problem-solving and mind body healing. The advocate Mirroring Hands as not only a therapeutic technique, but also for all practitioners engaged in solution-focused therapy. Through its enquiry into the vital elements of client-cue observation, symptom-scaling, and rapport-building inherent in the therapist/client relationship, this book shares great wisdom and insight that will help the practitioner become more attuned to their clients' inner worlds and communication patterns. Hill and Rossi draw on a wealth of up-to-date neuroscientific research and academic theory to help bridge the gap between therapy's intended outcomes and its measured neurological effects, and, towards the book's close, also open the door to the study of quantum field theory to inspire the reader's curiosity in this fascinating topic. An ideal progression for those engaged in mindfulness and meditation, this book is the first book on the subject specially written for all mental health practitioners and is suitable for students of counseling, psychotherapy, psychology, and hypnotherapy, as well as anyone in professional practice.
The Mirroring of Life before Birth in the Seven-Year Periods of Human Life on Earth
Author: Roland Schrapp
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3743124580
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 179
Book Description
Between death and a new birth on earth, the human being lives through a long cosmic existence in the higher worlds. This is mirrored in the earthly life. Rudolf Steiner described its division into seven-year periods and the connection with the pre-birth existence in the planetary spheres. Apart from this, there is another division including higher spheres of the fixed stars. Rudolf Steiner only gave us a hint. In line whith this and based on his own experiences on the path of spirit discipleship, the author of this book gives examples how these different stages of life between death and rebirth can express themselves in the course of earthly life. He also explains in which of the seven-year periods the conditions for learning something about one's own previous incarnation are particularly favourable. In addition, he describes the connection of the later seven-year periods of earthly life with the Life Spirit (Budhi), as well as the preparation of mankind for receiving it by a development which Rudolf Steiner called the gradual "getting-younger" of mankind, and which started at the times of the primeval Semites in ancient Atlantis. For everyone who follows or aspires to the path of spiritual discipleship or is interested in biography work, a highly recommended book.
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3743124580
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 179
Book Description
Between death and a new birth on earth, the human being lives through a long cosmic existence in the higher worlds. This is mirrored in the earthly life. Rudolf Steiner described its division into seven-year periods and the connection with the pre-birth existence in the planetary spheres. Apart from this, there is another division including higher spheres of the fixed stars. Rudolf Steiner only gave us a hint. In line whith this and based on his own experiences on the path of spirit discipleship, the author of this book gives examples how these different stages of life between death and rebirth can express themselves in the course of earthly life. He also explains in which of the seven-year periods the conditions for learning something about one's own previous incarnation are particularly favourable. In addition, he describes the connection of the later seven-year periods of earthly life with the Life Spirit (Budhi), as well as the preparation of mankind for receiving it by a development which Rudolf Steiner called the gradual "getting-younger" of mankind, and which started at the times of the primeval Semites in ancient Atlantis. For everyone who follows or aspires to the path of spiritual discipleship or is interested in biography work, a highly recommended book.
The Mirror and the Palette
Author: Jennifer Higgie
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1643138049
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
A dazzlingly original and ambitious book on the history of female self-portraiture by one of today's most well-respected art critics. Her story weaves in and out of time and place. She's Frida Kahlo, Loïs Mailou Jones and Amrita Sher-Gil en route to Mexico City, Paris or Bombay. She's Suzanne Valadon and Gwen John, craving city lights, the sea and solitude; she's Artemisia Gentileschi striding through the streets of Naples and Paula Modersohn-Becker in Worpswede. She's haunting museums in her paint-stained dress, scrutinising how El Greco or Titian or Van Dyck or Cézanne solved the problems that she too is facing. She's railing against her corsets, her chaperones, her husband and her brothers; she's hammering on doors, dreaming in her bedroom, working day and night in her studio. Despite the immense hurdles that have been placed in her way, she sits at her easel, picks up a mirror and paints a self-portrait because, as a subject, she is always available. Until the twentieth century, art history was, in the main, written by white men who tended to write about other white men. The idea that women in the West have always made art was rarely cited as a possibility. Yet they have - and, of course, continue to do so - often against tremendous odds, from laws and religion to the pressures of family and public disapproval. In The Mirror and the Palette, Jennifer Higgie introduces us to a cross-section of women artists who embody the fact that there is more than one way to understand our planet, more than one way to live in it and more than one way to make art about it. Spanning 500 years, biography and cultural history intertwine in a narrative packed with tales of rebellion, adventure, revolution, travel and tragedy enacted by women who turned their back on convention and lived lives of great resilience, creativity and bravery.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1643138049
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
A dazzlingly original and ambitious book on the history of female self-portraiture by one of today's most well-respected art critics. Her story weaves in and out of time and place. She's Frida Kahlo, Loïs Mailou Jones and Amrita Sher-Gil en route to Mexico City, Paris or Bombay. She's Suzanne Valadon and Gwen John, craving city lights, the sea and solitude; she's Artemisia Gentileschi striding through the streets of Naples and Paula Modersohn-Becker in Worpswede. She's haunting museums in her paint-stained dress, scrutinising how El Greco or Titian or Van Dyck or Cézanne solved the problems that she too is facing. She's railing against her corsets, her chaperones, her husband and her brothers; she's hammering on doors, dreaming in her bedroom, working day and night in her studio. Despite the immense hurdles that have been placed in her way, she sits at her easel, picks up a mirror and paints a self-portrait because, as a subject, she is always available. Until the twentieth century, art history was, in the main, written by white men who tended to write about other white men. The idea that women in the West have always made art was rarely cited as a possibility. Yet they have - and, of course, continue to do so - often against tremendous odds, from laws and religion to the pressures of family and public disapproval. In The Mirror and the Palette, Jennifer Higgie introduces us to a cross-section of women artists who embody the fact that there is more than one way to understand our planet, more than one way to live in it and more than one way to make art about it. Spanning 500 years, biography and cultural history intertwine in a narrative packed with tales of rebellion, adventure, revolution, travel and tragedy enacted by women who turned their back on convention and lived lives of great resilience, creativity and bravery.
The Mirroring
Author: Gaurav Jain
Publisher: Notion Press
ISBN: 1684668808
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 403
Book Description
Legend has it that Stanley Kubrick hid something important in his famous film The Shining. It may sound incredible but new evidence now suggests that there is indeed a treasure trove of secret information and hidden meaning encoded into this puzzling film. It can now be proved that what Kubrick has done is made several complete, full-length “secret films” and hidden them under the surface story of America’s favourite scary movie for those who can see it. The discovery of Stanley’s secret stories solves one of the greatest mysteries of the art world that has baffled moviegoers, Kubrick fans and experts alike for over forty years now. It cleanly unlocks probably the greatest puzzle and mind-maze ever built by man and confirms The Shining as perhaps the most innovative, meticulous and dense work of art ever conceived. We can easily see the first of Kubrick’s “secret movies” by simply watching The Shining again. But this time, we will watch it rationally and solve it logically like a puzzle. It seems the scariest thing about this film is that it contains no ghosts or paranormal activity—only unexplained events that can all be explained rationally. When we can see it, The Mirroring is perhaps the ultimate psychological thriller, murder mystery and dark comedy, all hidden in plain sight in a deceptively shallow blockbuster horror movie. Just beyond the ghost story for children is a profound drama rooted in reality for thinking adults that uses cinema brilliantly to shed light on the darkest parts of human behaviour and the human brain.
Publisher: Notion Press
ISBN: 1684668808
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 403
Book Description
Legend has it that Stanley Kubrick hid something important in his famous film The Shining. It may sound incredible but new evidence now suggests that there is indeed a treasure trove of secret information and hidden meaning encoded into this puzzling film. It can now be proved that what Kubrick has done is made several complete, full-length “secret films” and hidden them under the surface story of America’s favourite scary movie for those who can see it. The discovery of Stanley’s secret stories solves one of the greatest mysteries of the art world that has baffled moviegoers, Kubrick fans and experts alike for over forty years now. It cleanly unlocks probably the greatest puzzle and mind-maze ever built by man and confirms The Shining as perhaps the most innovative, meticulous and dense work of art ever conceived. We can easily see the first of Kubrick’s “secret movies” by simply watching The Shining again. But this time, we will watch it rationally and solve it logically like a puzzle. It seems the scariest thing about this film is that it contains no ghosts or paranormal activity—only unexplained events that can all be explained rationally. When we can see it, The Mirroring is perhaps the ultimate psychological thriller, murder mystery and dark comedy, all hidden in plain sight in a deceptively shallow blockbuster horror movie. Just beyond the ghost story for children is a profound drama rooted in reality for thinking adults that uses cinema brilliantly to shed light on the darkest parts of human behaviour and the human brain.
The Mirror in the Mirror
Author: Michael Ende
Publisher: hockebooks
ISBN: 395751374X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 220
Book Description
“The Mirror in the Mirror” – in the E-Book now also with illustrations by his father Edgar Ende, to whom Michael Ende dedicated this book. It is a fantastic story labyrinth of a very special kind. For the author himself, this work was of great importance: in interviews, he liked to call it his “never-ending story for adult readers.” The reader is taken into a mysterious narrative world, full of bizarre situations and mysterious fates, surreal images and philosophical thoughts. Those who open themselves in amazement to these enigmatic visions and allow themselves to be drawn into the fantastic stories will emerge from Michael Ende’s magic labyrinth with a new perspective. The core question is: What is reflected in a mirror that is reflected in a mirror? If two readers read the same book, they are still not reading the same thing. For both people immerse themselves into the reading. The book becomes a mirror in which the reader is reflected. But in the same way, the reader is also a mirror in which the book is reflected: The mirror in the mirror refers the reader back to himself. The FAZ, one of the major newspapers in Germany, writes that Michael Ende shows with the book “how much darkness, wildness and rawness is inherent in dreams. He does not trivialize. His dreams make reference to reality because in dreams, Cicero wrote, ‘the remnants of those objects roll and tumble about in the souls which we have thought and impelled while awake’.”
Publisher: hockebooks
ISBN: 395751374X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 220
Book Description
“The Mirror in the Mirror” – in the E-Book now also with illustrations by his father Edgar Ende, to whom Michael Ende dedicated this book. It is a fantastic story labyrinth of a very special kind. For the author himself, this work was of great importance: in interviews, he liked to call it his “never-ending story for adult readers.” The reader is taken into a mysterious narrative world, full of bizarre situations and mysterious fates, surreal images and philosophical thoughts. Those who open themselves in amazement to these enigmatic visions and allow themselves to be drawn into the fantastic stories will emerge from Michael Ende’s magic labyrinth with a new perspective. The core question is: What is reflected in a mirror that is reflected in a mirror? If two readers read the same book, they are still not reading the same thing. For both people immerse themselves into the reading. The book becomes a mirror in which the reader is reflected. But in the same way, the reader is also a mirror in which the book is reflected: The mirror in the mirror refers the reader back to himself. The FAZ, one of the major newspapers in Germany, writes that Michael Ende shows with the book “how much darkness, wildness and rawness is inherent in dreams. He does not trivialize. His dreams make reference to reality because in dreams, Cicero wrote, ‘the remnants of those objects roll and tumble about in the souls which we have thought and impelled while awake’.”
The Myth of Mirror Neurons: The Real Neuroscience of Communication and Cognition
Author: Gregory Hickok
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393244164
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 251
Book Description
An essential reconsideration of one of the most far-reaching theories in modern neuroscience and psychology. In 1992, a group of neuroscientists from Parma, Italy, reported a new class of brain cells discovered in the motor cortex of the macaque monkey. These cells, later dubbed mirror neurons, responded equally well during the monkey’s own motor actions, such as grabbing an object, and while the monkey watched someone else perform similar motor actions. Researchers speculated that the neurons allowed the monkey to understand others by simulating their actions in its own brain. Mirror neurons soon jumped species and took human neuroscience and psychology by storm. In the late 1990s theorists showed how the cells provided an elegantly simple new way to explain the evolution of language, the development of human empathy, and the neural foundation of autism. In the years that followed, a stream of scientific studies implicated mirror neurons in everything from schizophrenia and drug abuse to sexual orientation and contagious yawning. In The Myth of Mirror Neurons, neuroscientist Gregory Hickok reexamines the mirror neuron story and finds that it is built on a tenuous foundation—a pair of codependent assumptions about mirror neuron activity and human understanding. Drawing on a broad range of observations from work on animal behavior, modern neuroimaging, neurological disorders, and more, Hickok argues that the foundational assumptions fall flat in light of the facts. He then explores alternative explanations of mirror neuron function while illuminating crucial questions about human cognition and brain function: Why do humans imitate so prodigiously? How different are the left and right hemispheres of the brain? Why do we have two visual systems? Do we need to be able to talk to understand speech? What’s going wrong in autism? Can humans read minds? The Myth of Mirror Neurons not only delivers an instructive tale about the course of scientific progress—from discovery to theory to revision—but also provides deep insights into the organization and function of the human brain and the nature of communication and cognition.
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393244164
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 251
Book Description
An essential reconsideration of one of the most far-reaching theories in modern neuroscience and psychology. In 1992, a group of neuroscientists from Parma, Italy, reported a new class of brain cells discovered in the motor cortex of the macaque monkey. These cells, later dubbed mirror neurons, responded equally well during the monkey’s own motor actions, such as grabbing an object, and while the monkey watched someone else perform similar motor actions. Researchers speculated that the neurons allowed the monkey to understand others by simulating their actions in its own brain. Mirror neurons soon jumped species and took human neuroscience and psychology by storm. In the late 1990s theorists showed how the cells provided an elegantly simple new way to explain the evolution of language, the development of human empathy, and the neural foundation of autism. In the years that followed, a stream of scientific studies implicated mirror neurons in everything from schizophrenia and drug abuse to sexual orientation and contagious yawning. In The Myth of Mirror Neurons, neuroscientist Gregory Hickok reexamines the mirror neuron story and finds that it is built on a tenuous foundation—a pair of codependent assumptions about mirror neuron activity and human understanding. Drawing on a broad range of observations from work on animal behavior, modern neuroimaging, neurological disorders, and more, Hickok argues that the foundational assumptions fall flat in light of the facts. He then explores alternative explanations of mirror neuron function while illuminating crucial questions about human cognition and brain function: Why do humans imitate so prodigiously? How different are the left and right hemispheres of the brain? Why do we have two visual systems? Do we need to be able to talk to understand speech? What’s going wrong in autism? Can humans read minds? The Myth of Mirror Neurons not only delivers an instructive tale about the course of scientific progress—from discovery to theory to revision—but also provides deep insights into the organization and function of the human brain and the nature of communication and cognition.
The Mirror Thief
Author: Martin Seay
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1612195598
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
A New York Times NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR An NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A Publishers Weekly BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A globetrotting, time-bending, wildly entertaining masterpiece hailed by the New York Times Book Review as "Audaciously well written … the book I was raving about to my friends before I'd even finished it." Set in three different eras, and in three different locations—all, coincidentally, named Venice—this “startling, beautiful gem of a book” (NPR) calls to mind David Mitchell and Umberto Eco in its mix of entertainment and literary bravado. The core story is set in sixteenth-century Venice, where, on the island of Murano, the famed makers of Venetian glass were perfecting one of the old world's most wondrous inventions: the mirror. An object of glittering yet fearful fascination—was it reflecting simple reality, or something more spiritually revealing?—the Venetian mirrors were state-of-the-art technology, subject to industrial espionage by desirous sultans and royals world-wide. Thus, for the skilled craftsmen that made them, any attempt to leave the island—to steal the technology—was a crime punishable by death. One man, however—a world-weary war hero with nothing to lose—has a scheme he thinks will allow him to outwit the city's terrifying enforcers of the edict, the ominous Council of Ten . . . Meanwhile, in two other Venices—Venice Beach, California, circa 1958, and the Venice casino in Las Vegas, circa today—two other schemers launch similarly dangerous plans to get away with a secret . . . All three stories weave together into a spell-binding tour de force that is impossible to put down—an old-fashioned, stay-up-all-night novel that, in the end, returns the reader to a stunning conclusion in the original Venice . . . and the bedazzled sense of having read a truly original and thrilling work of art.
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1612195598
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
A New York Times NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR An NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A Publishers Weekly BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A globetrotting, time-bending, wildly entertaining masterpiece hailed by the New York Times Book Review as "Audaciously well written … the book I was raving about to my friends before I'd even finished it." Set in three different eras, and in three different locations—all, coincidentally, named Venice—this “startling, beautiful gem of a book” (NPR) calls to mind David Mitchell and Umberto Eco in its mix of entertainment and literary bravado. The core story is set in sixteenth-century Venice, where, on the island of Murano, the famed makers of Venetian glass were perfecting one of the old world's most wondrous inventions: the mirror. An object of glittering yet fearful fascination—was it reflecting simple reality, or something more spiritually revealing?—the Venetian mirrors were state-of-the-art technology, subject to industrial espionage by desirous sultans and royals world-wide. Thus, for the skilled craftsmen that made them, any attempt to leave the island—to steal the technology—was a crime punishable by death. One man, however—a world-weary war hero with nothing to lose—has a scheme he thinks will allow him to outwit the city's terrifying enforcers of the edict, the ominous Council of Ten . . . Meanwhile, in two other Venices—Venice Beach, California, circa 1958, and the Venice casino in Las Vegas, circa today—two other schemers launch similarly dangerous plans to get away with a secret . . . All three stories weave together into a spell-binding tour de force that is impossible to put down—an old-fashioned, stay-up-all-night novel that, in the end, returns the reader to a stunning conclusion in the original Venice . . . and the bedazzled sense of having read a truly original and thrilling work of art.