Mapping the Mind. Scientific Adviser: Christopher Frith.

Gutes Exemplar; Einband minimal berieben; Aufkleber. - Englisch. - The latest brain scans reveal our thoughts, moods and memories as clearly as an X-ray reveals our bones. We can watch people's brains light up - literally - in one area when they register a joke and glow dully in another area when they recall an unhappy memory. We can see fear being generated, measure the degree of pleasure or surprise felt in response to a statement, and watch the language areas sparkling as they grapple with new words. Mapping the Mind charts how human behaviour and culture have been molded by the landscape of the brain. It shows how our personalities reflect the biological mechanisms underlying thought and emotion and how behavioural eccentricities may be traced to abnormalities in the geography of an individual brain. Obsessions and compulsions, for example, seem to be caused by a stuck neural switch in a brain area which monitors the environment for danger. Addiction, eating disorders, and alcoholism stem from dysfunction in the brain's reward system. Inability to change one's ideas suggests a lack of activity in the frontal lobes where plans and high-level concepts are constructed. Even belief in God has been linked to activity in a particular brain region. The differences between men's and women's brains and the distinctive characteristics of the brains of people with disorders such as dyslexia, autism, attention deficit, depression, mania, and mood swings are also explored. In this book - the first visual guide to the brain - Rita Carter draws on the latest imaging techniques to give extraordinary and accessible insights into how the brain works. (Verlagstext) // INHALT : Introduction ----- Acknowledgements ----- Chapter One -THE EMERGING LANDSCAPE ----- Chapter Two - THE GREAT DIVIDE ----- Chapter Three - BENEATH THE SURFACE ----- Chapter Four - A CHANGEABLE CLIMATE ----- Chapter Five A WORLD OF ONE'S OWN ----- Chapter Six - CROSSING THE CHASM ----- Chapter Seven -STATES OF MIND ----- Chapter Eight -HIGHER GROUND ----- References ----- Bibliography ----- Index. ISBN 0520224612