Download or read book Elusive Brain written by Jason Tougaw and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-24 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring a foreword by renowned neuroscientist Joseph E. LeDoux, The Elusive Brain is an illuminating, comprehensive survey of contemporary literature’s engagement with neuroscience. This fascinating book explores how literature interacts with neuroscience to provide a better understanding of the brain’s relationship to the self. Jason Tougaw surveys the work of contemporary writers—including Oliver Sacks, Temple Grandin, Richard Powers, Siri Hustvedt, and Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay—analyzing the way they experiment with literary forms to frame new views of the immaterial experiences that compose a self. He argues that their work offers a necessary counterbalance to a wider cultural neuromania that seeks out purely neural explanations for human behaviors as varied as reading, economics, empathy, and racism. Building on recent scholarship, Tougaw’s evenhanded account will be an original contribution to the growing field of neuroscience and literature.
Download or read book Mind Brain and the Elusive Soul written by Mark Graves and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does science argue against the existence of the human soul? Many scientists and scholars believe the whole is more than the sum of the parts. This book uses information and systems theory to describe the "more" that does not reduce to the parts. One sees this in the synapses”or apparently empty gaps between the neurons in one's brain”where informative relationships give rise to human mind, culture, and spirituality. Drawing upon the disciplines of cognitive science, computer science, neuroscience, general systems theory, pragmatic philosophy, and Christian theology, Mark Graves reinterprets the traditional doctrine of the soul as form of the body to frame contemporary scientific study of the human soul.
Download or read book Finding Einstein s Brain written by Frederick E. Lepore and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-25 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Albert Einstein remains the quintessential icon of modern genius. Like Newton and many others, his seminal work in physics includes the General Theory of Relativity, the Absolute Nature of Light, and perhaps the most famous equation of all time: E=mc2. Following his death in 1955, Einstein’s brain was removed and preserved, but has never been fully or systematically studied. In fact, the sections are not even all in one place, and some are mysteriously unaccounted for! In this compelling tale, Frederick E. Lepore delves into the strange, elusive afterlife of Einstein’s brain, the controversy surrounding its use, and what its study represents for brain and/or intelligence studies. Carefully reacting to the skepticism of 21st century neuroscience, Lepore more broadly examines the philosophical, medical, and scientific implications of brain-examination. Is the brain simply a computer? If so, how close are we to artificially creating a human brain? Could scientists create a second Einstein? This “biography of a brain” attempts to answer these questions, exploring what made Einstein’s brain anatomy exceptional, and how “found” photographs--discovered more than a half a century after his death--may begin to uncover the nature of genius.
Download or read book The Elusive Brain written by Jason Daniel Tougaw and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A highly original account of how literature and neuroscience interact to explain the relationship between the mind, body, and brain
Download or read book The Hidden Brain written by Shankar Vedantam and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-08-31 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hidden brain is the voice in our ear when we make the most important decisions in our lives—but we’re never aware of it. The hidden brain decides whom we fall in love with and whom we hate. It tells us to vote for the white candidate and convict the dark-skinned defendant, to hire the thin woman but pay her less than the man doing the same job. It can direct us to safety when disaster strikes and move us to extraordinary acts of altruism. But it can also be manipulated to turn an ordinary person into a suicide terrorist or a group of bystanders into a mob. In a series of compulsively readable narratives, Shankar Vedantam journeys through the latest discoveries in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral science to uncover the darkest corner of our minds and its decisive impact on the choices we make as individuals and as a society. Filled with fascinating characters, dramatic storytelling, and cutting-edge science, this is an engrossing exploration of the secrets our brains keep from us—and how they are revealed.
Download or read book Brain Sense written by Faith Hickman Brynie and published by AMACOM/American Management Association. This book was released on 2009 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating new book that helps us make sense of our senses.
Download or read book Preserving Brain Health in a Toxic Age written by Arnold R. Eiser and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-10-11 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn how to reduce the impact of environmental toxins on brain development, functioning, and health. The human brain is a marvelously complex organ that has evolved great new capabilities over the past 250,000 years. During most of that period, daily life was vastly different from our lives today. Exercise was not optional - one literally had to run for one’s life, livelihood, and sustenance. The Stone Age diet was not a fad, but the only food available. Periods of fasting arose from food scarcity, and hence the earliest keto-diet was commonplace. Life changed greatly with the advent of agriculture and industry. Diseases that were previously unknown or uncommon began to surface as by-products of civilization’s advance. Changes in our ways of living have altered the nature of illness as well as its diagnosis and treatment. From the 1970s to the present, tens of thousands of chemicals with applications in all aspects of our lives have grown more than 40-fold. Exposure to these new substances has impacted many aspects of our health, especially the delicate parts of the brain and nervous system. In parallel with the changes in our environment, we have seen the growth of brain disorders including Alzheimer’s Disease and autism in previously unimaginable ways. Here, Arnold Eiser elucidates some features of diseases affecting the nervous system that are increasing in incidence with a focus on those disorders that appear related to environmental toxins that modern life has introduced. He takes readers behind the scenes of the science itself to discover the human stories involved in the discovery and management of these illnesses. Offering insights from a variety of scientific disciplines, Eiser clearly and succinctly illustrates the impact of toxins on our brains and how we might better protect ourselves from negative outcomes. With interviews from leading authorities in the field of neuroscience, environmental toxicology, integrative medicine, neurology, immunology, geriatrics, and microbiology (re the gut microbiome), this book offers a robust understanding of the complex threats to our brains, and the healthy brain’s dependence upon many other systems within our bodies. This is a voyage of discovery into the science, history, and human struggle regarding disorders challenging the brain as well as their possible prevention.
Download or read book Decade of the Brain Poems written by Janine Joseph and published by Alice James Books. This book was released on 2023-01-17 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the deeply personal Decade of the Brain, Janine Joseph writes of a newly-naturalized American citizen who suffers from post-concussive memory loss after a major auto accident. The collection is an odyssey of what it means to recover—physically and mentally—in the aftermath of trauma and traumatic brain injury, charting when “before” crosses into “after.” Through connected poems, buckling and expansive syntax, ekphrasis, and conjoined poetic forms, Decade of the Brain remembers and misremembers hospital visits, violence and bodily injury, intimate memories, immigration status, family members, and the self. After the accident I turned out all of the lights in the room while I watched, concussed, from the mirror. I edged like a fever with nothing on the tip of my tongue.
Download or read book The Ghost in My Brain written by Clark Elliott and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-05-31 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dramatic story of one man’s recovery offers new hope to those suffering from concussions and other brain traumas In 1999, Clark Elliott suffered a concussion when his car was rear-ended. Overnight his life changed from that of a rising professor with a research career in artificial intelligence to a humbled man struggling to get through a single day. At times he couldn’t walk across a room, or even name his five children. Doctors told him he would never fully recover. After eight years, the cognitive demands of his job, and of being a single parent, finally became more than he could manage. As a result of one final effort to recover, he crossed paths with two brilliant Chicago-area research-clinicians—one an optometrist emphasizing neurodevelopmental techniques, the other a cognitive psychologist—working on the leading edge of brain plasticity. Within weeks the ghost of who he had been started to re-emerge. Remarkably, Elliott kept detailed notes throughout his experience, from the moment of impact to the final stages of his recovery, astounding documentation that is the basis of this fascinating book. The Ghost in My Brain gives hope to the millions who suffer from head injuries each year, and provides a unique and informative window into the world’s most complex computational device: the human brain.
Download or read book Descartes Error written by Antonio Damasio and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2005-09-27 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since Descartes famously proclaimed, "I think, therefore I am," science has often overlooked emotions as the source of a person’s true being. Even modern neuroscience has tended, until recently, to concentrate on the cognitive aspects of brain function, disregarding emotions. This attitude began to change with the publication of Descartes’ Error in 1995. Antonio Damasio—"one of the world’s leading neurologists" (The New York Times)—challenged traditional ideas about the connection between emotions and rationality. In this wondrously engaging book, Damasio takes the reader on a journey of scientific discovery through a series of case studies, demonstrating what many of us have long suspected: emotions are not a luxury, they are essential to rational thinking and to normal social behavior.
Download or read book NeuroLogic written by Eliezer Sternberg and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking investigation of the brain’s hidden logic behind our strangest behaviors, and of how conscious and unconscious systems interact in order to create our experience and preserve our sense of self. From bizarre dreams and hallucinations to schizophrenia and multiple personalities, the human brain is responsible for a diverse spectrum of strange thoughts and behaviors. When observed from the outside, these phenomena are often written off as being just “crazy,” but what if they were actually planned and logical? NeuroLogic explores the brain’s internal system of reasoning, from its unconscious depths to conscious decision making, and illuminates how it explains our most outlandish as well as our most stereotyped behaviors. From sleepwalking murderers, contagious yawning, and the brains of sports fans to false memories, subliminal messages, and the secret of ticklishness, Dr. Eliezer Sternberg shows that there are patterns to the way the brain interprets the world—–patterns that fit the brain’s unique logic. Unraveling these patterns and the various ways they can be disturbed will not only alter our view of mental illness and supernatural experience, but will also shed light on the hidden parts of ourselves. (With black-and-white illustrations throughout.)
Download or read book Power Up Your Brain written by David Perlmutter, M.D. and published by Hay House, Inc. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The quest for enlightenment has occupied mankind for millennia. And from the depictions we’ve see—monks sitting on meditation cushions, nuns kneeling in prayer, shamans communing with the universe—it seems that this elusive state is reserved for a chosen few. But now, neuroscientist David Perlmutter and medical anthropologist and shaman Alberto Villoldo have come together to explore the commonalities between their specialties with the aim of making enlightenment possible for anyone. Joining the long-separated worlds of science and spirit, Perlmutter explores the exciting phenomena of neurogenesis and mitochondrial health, while Villoldo brings his vast knowledge of shamanic and spiritual practices. Drawing the most powerful tools from each discipline, Perlmutter and Villoldo guide you through this groundbreaking, five-week program to help you overcome toxic emotions and awaken the power of your higher brain. Power Up Your Brain will show you how to: • reduce your risk of devastating diseases like Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart disease,and Parkinson’s; • overcome painful memories and break unhealthy emotional and behavioralpatterns; and • gain powerful clarity of thought to experience inner peace, creativity, andenlightenment—all without the use of prescription drugs! The nutritional advice, dietary supplements, fasting, and physical exercise outlined will not only help repair parts of your brain that have been affected by stress but also create a fertile environment to grow new brain cells and turn on the genes responsible for longevity, improved immunity, and enhanced brain function. And the shamanic practices, meditation, and visualizations will help bring online brain regions that allow for peace, compassion, innovation, and joy to arise naturally. Following the Power Up Your Brain program will help you clear your mind and healyour body; and open you up to experience the inner peace, vast insight, and extraordinary creativity that define the experience of enlightenment.
Download or read book The Brain Fix written by Ralph E. Carson and published by Health Communications, Inc.. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shows how making some practical changes can preserve a sharp memory, optimize wellness, and change how one responds to stress.
Download or read book Beyond the Brain written by Igor M. Arievitch and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-08-24 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book outlines a fundamental alternative to the rising wave of aggressive biological reductionism and brainism in contemporary psychology and education. It offers steps to achieving a daunting and elusive goal: constructing a coherently non-reductionist account of the mind. The main obstacle to such a construction is identified as the centuries-old contemplative fallacy that leads to entrenched dualisms and shackles major theoretical frameworks. The alternative agentive activity perspective overcomes this fallacy by advancing the core principles of the cultural-historical activity theory. This innovative perspective charts a consistently non-mentalist and non-individualist view of psychological processes without discarding the individual mind. A vast body of research and theories, from Piaget and Dewey to sociocultural and embodied cognition approaches are critically engaged, with a special focus on Piotr Galperin’s contribution. The notion of the embodied agent’s object-directed activity serves as a pivotal point for re-conceptualizing the mind and its role in behavior. In a radical departure from both the traditional mentalist and biologically reductionist frameworks, psychological processes are understood as taking place “beyond the brain” – as constituted by the agent’s activities in the world. From this standpoint, many of Vygotsky’s key insights, including semiotic mediation, internalization, and cognitive tools are given a fresh scrutiny and substantially revised. The agentive activity perspective opens ways to offer a bold vision for education: developmental teaching and learning built on the premise that real knowledge is not “information storage and retrieval” and that education is not about “knowledge transmission” but instead it is about developing students’ minds.
Download or read book Love on the Brain written by Ali Hazelwood and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-08-23 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Instant New York Times Bestseller A #1 LibraryReads and Indie Next Pick! From the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis comes a new STEMinist rom-com in which a scientist is forced to work on a project with her nemesis—with explosive results. Like an avenging, purple-haired Jedi bringing balance to the mansplained universe, Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project—a literal dream come true after years scraping by on the crumbs of academia—Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward. Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. And sure, he caught her in his powerfully corded arms like a romance novel hero when she accidentally damseled in distress on her first day in the lab. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school—archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away. Now, her equipment is missing, the staff is ignoring her, and Bee finds her floundering career in somewhat of a pickle. Perhaps it’s her occipital cortex playing tricks on her, but Bee could swear she can see Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas…devouring her with those eyes. And the possibilities have all her neurons firing. But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there’s only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?
Download or read book Consciousness and the Brain written by Stanislas Dehaene and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-01-30 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE 2014 BRAIN PRIZE From the acclaimed author of Reading in the Brain and How We Learn, a breathtaking look at the new science that can track consciousness deep in the brain How does our brain generate a conscious thought? And why does so much of our knowledge remain unconscious? Thanks to clever psychological and brain-imaging experiments, scientists are closer to cracking this mystery than ever before. In this lively book, Stanislas Dehaene describes the pioneering work his lab and the labs of other cognitive neuroscientists worldwide have accomplished in defining, testing, and explaining the brain events behind a conscious state. We can now pin down the neurons that fire when a person reports becoming aware of a piece of information and understand the crucial role unconscious computations play in how we make decisions. The emerging theory enables a test of consciousness in animals, babies, and those with severe brain injuries. A joyous exploration of the mind and its thrilling complexities, Consciousness and the Brain will excite anyone interested in cutting-edge science and technology and the vast philosophical, personal, and ethical implications of finally quantifying consciousness.
Download or read book States of Mind written by Roberta Conlan and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2007-08-10 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An all-star lineup of scientists takes you to the front lines of brain research. Are we born to be shy? Why do we remember some events so clearly and others not at all? Are creativity and depression somehow linked? Do our dreams really have deeper meanings? Now in paperback, here is a wonderfully accessible introduction to the most important recent findings about how our health, behavior, feelings, and identities are influenced by what goes on inside our brains. In this timely book, eight pioneering researchers offer lively and stimulating discussions on the most exciting discoveries as well as a new way of understanding our emotions, moods, memories, and dreams. Inside, you'll find: * J. ALLAN HOBSON, author of the groundbreaking The Dreaming Brain, leading a tour of dream states and explaining why we dream and what dream studies reveal about our minds * ERIC KANDEL, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Medicine, taking us along the chain of biological events that create long-term memories, revealing how we stand at the brink of helping those who suffer from grave mental and memory disorders * STEVEN HYMAN, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, tracing the links between nature and nurture, particularly in addiction and mental illness, to explain the relationship between inherited tendencies and the impact of life experience * KAY REDFIELD JAMISON, bestselling author of An Unquiet Mind, explaining manic depression, its prevalence among gifted artists, writers, and musicians, and the societal questions raised by trying to eradicate the "depression gene" . . . and much, much more. Whether discussing the brain-body connection, the sources of emotion, or the ethereal world of dreams, States of Mind enables you to share in the very latest explorations into the nature and function of the human mind.
