Download or read book The Lateralized Brain written by Sebastian Ocklenburg and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2017-11-16 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Lateralized Brain: The Neuroscience and Evolution of Hemispheric Asymmetries is an up-to-date teaching resource for neuroscience faculty members that teach courses concerning hemispheric asymmetries. The book provides students with all relevant information on the subject, while also giving aspiring researchers in the field an up-to-date overview of relevant, previous work. It is ideal for courses on hemispheric asymmetries, that is, the functional or structural differences between the left and the right hemispheres of the brain, and also highlights how the widespread use of modern neuroimaging techniques, such as fMRI and DTI has completely changed the way hemispheric asymmetries are currently investigated. According to the preface, the main aim of The Lateralized Brain is to provide "an up-to-date teaching resource on hemispheric asymmetries ... [and] to introduce undergraduate students of all levels to the fascinating topics of hemispheric asymmetries" (p. xv)... (Sebastian Ocklenburg and Onur Güntürkün) have succeeded admirably in their stated aim and are to be congratulated on undertaking the mammoth task they set themselves. They can be proud of what they have accomplished.~ Alan A. Beaton, Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Swansea, UK, in Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, July, 2018. - Includes references to key articles, books, protocols and online resources for additional, detailed study - Presents classic studies that helped define the field - Covers key concepts and methods that are explained in separate call out boxes for quick overview - Provides introductory short stories (e.g. classic clinical cases) as a starting point for each chapter

Download or read book Hemispheric Asymmetry written by Joseph B. Hellige and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is "right-brain" thought essentially creative, and "left-brain" strictly logical? Joseph B. Hellige argues that this view is far too simplistic. Surveying extensive data in the field of cognitive science, he disentangles scientific facts from popular assumptions about the brain's two hemispheres. In Hemispheric Asymmetry, Hellige explains that the "right brain" and "left brain" are actually components of a much larger cognitive system encompassing cortical and subcortical structures, all of which interact to produce unity of thought and action. He further explores questions of whether hemispheric asymmetry is unique to humans, and how it might have evolved. This book is a valuable overview of hemispheric asymmetry and its evolutionary precedents.

Download or read book Micro Meso and Macro Connectomics of the Brain written by Henry Kennedy and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-03-10 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book has brought together leading investigators who work in the new arena of brain connectomics. This includes ‘macro-connectome’ efforts to comprehensively chart long-distance pathways and functional networks; ‘micro-connectome’ efforts to identify every neuron, axon, dendrite, synapse, and glial process within restricted brain regions; and ‘meso-connectome’ efforts to systematically map both local and long-distance connections using anatomical tracers. This book highlights cutting-edge methods that can accelerate progress in elucidating static ‘hard-wired’ circuits of the brain as well as dynamic interactions that are vital for brain function. The power of connectomic approaches in characterizing abnormal circuits in the many brain disorders that afflict humankind is considered. Experts in computational neuroscience and network theory provide perspectives needed for synthesizing across different scales in space and time. Altogether, this book provides an integrated view of the challenges and opportunities in deciphering brain circuits in health and disease.

Download or read book Divided Brains written by Lesley J. Rogers and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-17 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses brain asymmetry from four perspectives - function, evolution, development and causation - covering a wide range of species, including humans.

Download or read book Handedness and Brain Asymmetry written by Marian Annett and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brain asymmetry for speech is moderately related to handedness but what are the rules? Are symmetries for hand and brain associated with characteristics such as intelligence, motor skill, spatial reasoning or skill at sports? In this follow up to the influential Left, Right Hand and Brain (1985) Marian Annett draws on a working lifetime of research to help provide answers to crucial questions. Central to her argument is the Right Shift Theory - her original and innovative contribution to the field that seeks to explain the relationships between left-and right-handedness and left-and right-brain specialisation. The theory proposes that handedness in humans and our non-human primate relations depends on chance but that chance is weighted towards right-handedness in most people by an agent of right-hemisphere disadvantage. It argues for the existence of a single gene for right shift (RS+) that evolved in humans to aid the growth of speech in the left hemisphere of the brain. The Right Shift Theory has possible implications for a wide range of questions about human abilities and disabilities, including verbal and non verbal intelligence, educational progress and dyslexia, spatial reasoning, sporting skills and mental illness. It continues to be at the cutting edge of research, solving problems and generating new avenues of investigation - most recently the surprising idea that a mutant RS+ gene might be involved in the causes of schizophrenia and autism. Handedness and Brain Asymmetry will make fascinating reading for students and researchers in psychology and neurology, educationalists, and anyone with a keen interest in why people have different talents and weaknesses.

Download or read book Comparative Vertebrate Cognition written by Lesley J. Rogers and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores afresh the long-standing interest, and emphasis on, the `special' capacities of primates. Some of the recent discoveries of the higher cognitive abilities of other mammals and also birds challenge the concept that primates are special and even the view that the cognitive ability of apes is more advanced than that of nonprimate mammals and birds. It is therefore timely to ask whether primates are, in fact, special and to do so from a broad range of perspectives. Divided into five sections this book deals with topics about higher cognition and how it is manifested in different species, and also considers aspects of brain structure that might be associated with complex behavior.

Download or read book Lateralization in the Nervous system written by Stevan Harnad and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2012-12-02 with total page 587 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lateralization in the Nervous System reviews various aspects of lateralization in the nervous system, with emphasis on approaches such as the investigation of turning tendencies and electrocortical indices of hemispheric asymmetry. Experimental paradigms and outcomes that are applicable to both human and nonhuman species are highlighted. This book is comprised of 26 chapters and begins with an overview of functional lateralization in nonhuman species such as monkeys. Brain asymmetry is examined in context with other biological asymmetries in the quest for general mechanisms and principles of lateralization. The problem of inheritance, embryology, and development of asymmetry is also discussed from a variety of environmentalist and nativist perspectives. Highly suggestive invertebrate and avian models for lateralization are presented, along with the evidence for cerebral dominance and handedness in nonhuman species. Human clinical neuropsychological findings, such as the effects of unilateral cortical and thalamic lesions and the syndrome of unilateral neglect, are considered, together with asymmetries in perception and attention. This monograph will be of interest to psychologists (physiological, cognitive, developmental, and clinical), behavioral biologists, neuroscientists, neurologists, and psychiatrists, as well as to scholars and educators from the humanities and social sciences who are concerned with the nature and biological bases of left-right differences in brain, behavior, and thinking.

Download or read book The Psychology of Left and Right written by Michael C. Corballis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-09-10 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1976, this title deals with the problem of how we tell left from right. The authors argue that the ability to tell left from right depends ultimately on a bodily asymmetry, such as preference for one or the other hand, or dominance of one side of the brain. This has implications for child development, reading disability, navigation, art, and culture.

Download or read book The Symbolic Species The Co evolution of Language and the Brain written by Terrence W. Deacon and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1998-04-17 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A work of enormous breadth, likely to pleasantly surprise both general readers and experts."—New York Times Book Review This revolutionary book provides fresh answers to long-standing questions of human origins and consciousness. Drawing on his breakthrough research in comparative neuroscience, Terrence Deacon offers a wealth of insights into the significance of symbolic thinking: from the co-evolutionary exchange between language and brains over two million years of hominid evolution to the ethical repercussions that followed man's newfound access to other people's thoughts and emotions. Informing these insights is a new understanding of how Darwinian processes underlie the brain's development and function as well as its evolution. In contrast to much contemporary neuroscience that treats the brain as no more or less than a computer, Deacon provides a new clarity of vision into the mechanism of mind. It injects a renewed sense of adventure into the experience of being human.

Download or read book Language in Our Brain written by Angela D. Friederici and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2017-11-16 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive account of the neurobiological basis of language, arguing that species-specific brain differences may be at the root of the human capacity for language. Language makes us human. It is an intrinsic part of us, although we seldom think about it. Language is also an extremely complex entity with subcomponents responsible for its phonological, syntactic, and semantic aspects. In this landmark work, Angela Friederici offers a comprehensive account of these subcomponents and how they are integrated. Tracing the neurobiological basis of language across brain regions in humans and other primate species, she argues that species-specific brain differences may be at the root of the human capacity for language. Friederici shows which brain regions support the different language processes and, more important, how these brain regions are connected structurally and functionally to make language processes that take place in milliseconds possible. She finds that one particular brain structure (a white matter dorsal tract), connecting syntax-relevant brain regions, is present only in the mature human brain and only weakly present in other primate brains. Is this the “missing link” that explains humans' capacity for language? Friederici describes the basic language functions and their brain basis; the language networks connecting different language-related brain regions; the brain basis of language acquisition during early childhood and when learning a second language, proposing a neurocognitive model of the ontogeny of language; and the evolution of language and underlying neural constraints. She finds that it is the information exchange between the relevant brain regions, supported by the white matter tract, that is the crucial factor in both language development and evolution.

Download or read book Human Evolution Beyond Biology and Culture written by Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 575 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A complete account of evolutionary thought in the social, environmental and policy sciences, creating bridges with biology.

Download or read book The Lopsided Ape written by Michael C. Corballis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1993-06-10 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How great is the evolutionary distance between humans and apes, and what is it that creates that gulf? Philosophers and scientists have debated the question for centuries, but Michael Corballis finds the mystery revealed in our right hands. For humans are the only primates who are predominantly right handed, a sign of the specialization of the left hemisphere of the brain for language. And that specialization, he tells us, makes a massive distance indeed, as he describes what exactly it means to be the lopsided ape. In The Lopsided Ape, Corballis takes us on a fascinating tour of the origins and implications of the specialization of the two halves of the brain--known as laterality--in human evolution. He begins by surveying current views of evolution, ranging from the molecular level--the role of viruses, for instance, in transporting genes between species--to the tremendous implications of such physical changes as walking on two feet. Walking upright freed our ancestors' arms for such things as tool-making and gesturing (a critical part of early language). Corballis argues that the evolution of the brain--and language--was intimately tied up with these changes: The proliferation of objects made by early hominids, in an increasingly artificial environment marked by social cooperation, demanded greater flexibility in communication and even in thinking itself. These evolutionary pressures spurred the development of laterality in the brain. He goes on to look at the structure of language, following the work of Noam Chomsky and others, showing how grammar allows us to create an infinite variety of messages. In examining communication between animals and attempts to teach apes and dolphins language, he demonstrates that only humans have this unlimited ability for expression--an ability that he traces back through hominid evolution. After this engrossing account of what we know about evolution, language, and the human brain, Corballis suggests that the left hemisphere has evolved a Generative Assembling Device, a biological mechanism that allows us to manipulate open-ended forms of representation and provides the basis for mathematics, reasoning, music, art, and play as well as language and manufacture. It is this device, he writes, that truly sets us off from the apes. Both a detailed account of human language and evolution and a convincing argument for a new view of the brain, The Lopsided Ape provides fascinating insight into our origins and the nature of human thought itself.

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior written by Jennifer Vonk and published by Springer. This book was released on 2022-04-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This encyclopedia, representing one of the most multi-disciplinary areas of research, is a comprehensive examination of the key areas in animal cognition and behavior. It will serve as a complementary resource to the handbooks and journals that have emerged in the last decade on this topic, and will be a useful resource for student and researcher alike. With comprehensive coverage of this field, key concepts will be explored. These include social cognition, prey and predator detection, habitat selection, mating and parenting, development, genetics, physiology, memory, learning and perception. Attention is also given to animal-human co-evolution and interaction, and animal welfare. All entries are under the purview of acknowledged experts in the field.

Download or read book Cerebral Lateralization and Cognition Evolutionary and Developmental Investigations of Behavioral Biases written by and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2018-08-07 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cerebral Lateralization and Cognition: Evolutionary and Developmental Investigations of Motor Biases, Volume 238, the latest release in the Progress in Brain Research series, discusses interdisciplinary research on the influence of cerebral lateralization on cognition within an evolutionary framework. Chapters of note in this release include Evolutionary Perspectives: Visual/Motor Biases and Cognition, Manual laterality and cognition through evolution: An archeological perspective, Laterality in insects, Motor asymmetries in fish, amphibians and reptiles, Visual biases and social cognition in animals, Mother and offspring lateralized social interaction across animal species, Manual bias, personality and cognition in common marmosets and other primates, and more. - Presents investigations of cognitive development in an evolutionary framework - Provides a better understanding of the causal relationship between motor function and brain organization - Brings clinicians and neuroscientists together to consider the relevance of motor biases as behavioral biomarkers of cognitive disorders - Includes future possibilities for early detection and motor intervention therapies

Download or read book Fiber Pathways of the Brain written by Jeremy D. Schmahmann and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2009-02-11 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The text is enriched throughout by close attention to functional aspects of the anatomical observations."--Jacket.

Download or read book Evolution of the Primate Brain written by Michel A. Hofman and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2012-03-02 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume of Progress in Brain Research provides a synthetic source of information about state-of-the-art research that has important implications for the evolution of the brain and cognition in primates, including humans. This topic requires input from a variety of fields that are developing at an unprecedented pace: genetics, developmental neurobiology, comparative and functional neuroanatomy (at gross and microanatomical levels), quantitative neurobiology related to scaling factors that constrain brain organization and evolution, primate palaeontology (including paleoneurology), paleo-anthropology, comparative psychology, and behavioural evolutionary biology. Written by internationally-renowned scientists, this timely volume will be of wide interest to students, scholars, science journalists, and a variety of experts who are interested in keeping track of the discoveries that are rapidly emerging about the evolution of the brain and cognition. Written by internationally renowned scientists, this timely volume will be of wide interest to students, scholars, science journalists, and a variety of experts who are interested in keeping track of the discoveries that are rapidly emerging about the evolution of the brain and cognition

Download or read book Evolution of the Human Brain From Matter to Mind written by and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2019-11-06 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolution of the Human Brain: From Matter to Mind, Volume 250 in the Progress in Brain Research, series documents the latest developments and insights about the origin and evolution of the human brain and mind. Specific sections in this new release include Evolution and development of the human cerebral cortex, Functional connectivity of the human cerebral cortex, Lateralization of the human cerebral cortex, Life history strategies and the human cerebral cortex, Evolution of the modern human brain, On the nature and evolution of the human mind, Origin and evolution of human cognition, Origin and evolution of human consciousness, and more. - Presents insights on molecular and cellular mechanisms of human brain evolution - Provides a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the human mind - Includes information of the neural organization and functional connectivity of the cerebral cortex