Book description
3 remarkable books reveal what neuroscientists have just learned about your brain — and you!
Neuroscientists have made absolutely stunning discoveries about the brain: discoveries that are intimately linked to everything from your health and happiness to the age-old debate on free will. In these three extraordinary books, leading scientists and science journalists illuminate these discoveries, helping you understand what they may mean — and what may come next. In Brains: How They Seem to Work, Dale Purves reviews the current state of neuroscientific research, previewing a coming paradigm shift that may transform the way scientists think about brains yet again. Building on new research on visual perception, he shows why common ideas about brain networks can’t be right, uncovers the factors that determine our subjective experience, sheds new light on the so-called “ghost in the machine,” and points towards a far deeper understanding of what it means to be human. Next, in Pictures of the Mind, Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald uses images from the latest fMRI and PET scanners to illuminate science’s new understanding of the brain as amazingly flexible, resilient, and plastic. Through masterfully written narrative and stunning imagery, you'll watch human brains healing, growing, and adapting… gain powerful new insights into the interplay between environment and genetics… begin understanding how people can influence their own intellectual abilities and emotional makeup… and join scientists in tantalizing discoveries about everything from coma to PTSD and Alzheimer’s. Finally, in The Root of Thought, Andrew Koob shows why glial cells — once thought to be merely “brain glue” — may actually hold the key to understanding intelligence, treating psychiatric disorders and brain injuries, and perhaps even curing Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. You'll learn how these crucial cells grow and develop... why almost all brain tumors are comprised of them… and even their apparent role in your every thought and dream!
From world-renowned scientists and science journalists, includingDale Purves, Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald, and Andrew Koob
Table of contents
- Title Page
-
Brains: How They Seem to Work
- Copyright Page
- Dedication Page
- Contents
- Praise for Brains
- Preface
- 1. Neuroscience circa 1960
- 2. Neurobiology at Harvard
- 3. Biophysics at University College
- 4. Nerve cells versus brain systems
- 5. Neural development
- 6. Exploring brain systems
- 7. The visual system: Hubel and Wiesel redux
- 8. Visual perception
- 9. Perceiving color
- 10. The organization of perceptual qualities
- 11. Perceiving geometry
- 12. Perceiving motion
- 13. How brains seem to work
- Suggested reading
- Glossary
- Illustration credits
- Acknowledgments
- About the author
- Index
- Financial Times Press
-
Pictures of the Mind: What the New Neuroscience Tells Us About Who We Are
- Copyright Page
- Dedication Page
- Contents
- Praise for Pictures of the Mind
- Introduction
- Part I: Snapshots
- Part II: Landscape
- Resources
- Notes
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Index
- Financial Times Press
-
The Root of Thought: Unlocking Glia—The Brain Cell That Will Help Us Sharpen Our Wits, Heal Injury, and Treat Brain Disease
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- 1. Cities and Highways
- 2. Dust Settles on the Battlefield
- 3. I Sing the Body Electric
- 4. Meet the Astrocyte
- 5. Riding the Calcium Wave
- 6. Hey Neuron, It’s Me, Glia
- 7. Developing Relationships
- 8. The Time Machine
- 9. Sing a New Song
- 10. Albert Einstein’s Abundant Astrocytes
- 11. I Dream of Glia
- 12. Gliadegenerative Disease
- 13. Don’t Insult Me
- 14. The Seething Breeding Glioma
- 15. Cities and Highways Revisited
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Index
- Ft Press
- 1. The adolescent genome
-
The Cerebellum: Brain for an Implicit Self
- Copyright Page
- Dedication Page
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
-
1. Neuronal Circuitry: The Key to Unlocking the Brain
- 1-1. Introduction
- 1-2. Decomposition and Reconstruction
- 1-3. Neurons and Synapses
- 1-4. Neural Networks
- 1-5. Systems Control Mechanisms in the CNS
- 1-6. Reflexes and Voluntary Movements
- 1-7. Integration of reflexes
- 1-8. Motor Actions
- 1-9. Thought as a Control Mechanism
- 1-10. Beyond Movements
- 1-11. Scope of This Monograph
- 1-12. Summary
- 2. Traditional Views of the Cerebellum
- 3. The Cerebellum as a Neuronal Machine
- 4. Input and Output Pathways in the Cerebellar Cortex
- 5. Inhibitory Interneurons and Glial Cells in the Cerebellar Cortex
- 6. Pre- and Post-Cerebellar Cortex Neurons
- 7. Conjunctive Long-Term Depression (LTD)
-
8. Multiplicity and Persistency of Synaptic Plasticity
- 8-1. Introduction
- 8-2. Synaptic Plasticity in Purkinje Cells
- 8-3. Synaptic Plasticity in Basket/Stellate Cells
- 8-4. Synaptic Plasticity in Other Cerebellar Cortical Synapses
- 8-5. Synaptic Plasticity in Cerebellar/Vestibular Nuclear Neurons
- 8-6. Persistency of Synaptic Plasticity
- 8-7. Protein Synthesis
- 8-8. Summary
- 9. Network Models
-
10. Ocular Reflexes
- 10-1. Introduction
- 10-2. The Vestibuloocular Reflex (VOR)
- 10-3. VOR Adaptation and the Flocculus
- 10-4. Neuronal circuit for VOR adaptation
- 10-5. Vestibular Compensation
- 10-6. Optokinetic Eye-Movement Response (OKR)
- 10-7. The Ocular Following Response (OFR)
- 10-8. Integrated Control of Ocular Reflexes by the Cerebellum
- 10-9. Saccadic Eye Movement
- 10-10. Summary
- 11. Somatic and Autonomic Reflexes
-
12. Adaptive Control System Models
- 12-1. Introduction
- 12-2. Adaptive Control of Ocular Reflexes
- 12-3. Two Models of the Flocculus-VOR System: Forward Versus Recurrent Pathways
- 12-4. Two Memory Sites for VOR/OKR Adaptation
- 12-5. Inverse Model of the Eyeballs
- 12-6. The Saccade Control System
- 12-7. Adaptive Control of Somatic Reflexes
- 12-8. Two Prototypes of Adaptive Control of Reflexes
- 12-9. Summary
- 13. Voluntary Motor Control
- 14. Voluntary Eye Movement
-
15. Internal Models for Voluntary Motor Control
- 15-1. Introduction
- 15-2. Internal Forward Model
- 15-3. Internal Inverse Model
- 15-4. Sensory/Motor Signals and Forward/Inverse Models
- 15-5. Climbing Fiber Signals
- 15-6. Combination of Forward and Inverse Models
- 15-7. Transition from Reflex Control to Voluntary Control
- 15-8. Sensory Cancellation
- 15-9. Summary
- 16. Motor Actions and Tool Use
- 17. Cognitive Functions
- 18. Concluding Thoughts
- References
- Index
- Financial Times Press
Product information
- Title: Modern Discoveries in Neuroscience... And What They Reveal About You (Collection)
- Author(s):
- Release date: February 2012
- Publisher(s): Pearson
- ISBN: 9780133039665
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