Although we are unaware of it, our brains sift through and discard billions of pieces of data in order to allow us to understand the world around us. In fact, most of what we call thought is actually the unconscious discarding of information. What our consciousness rejects constitutes the most valuable part of ourselves, the "Me" that the "I" draws on for most of our actions--fluent speech, riding a bicycle, anything involving expertise. No wonder that, in this age of information, so many of us feel empty and dissatisfied. As engaging as it is insightful, this important book encourages us to rely more on what our instincts and our senses tell us so that we can better appreciate the richness of human life.

    The authors argue that only by having a sense of common ground between mind in Science and mind in experience can our understanding of cognition be more complete. Toward that end, they develop a dialogue between cognitive science and Buddhist meditative psychology and situate it in relation to other traditions such as phenomenology and psychoanalysis.

    Over 600 passages were studied in all, and the aspects of choiceless awareness most frequently addressed by Krishnamurti were noted and then selected for this book.

    This bold and brilliant book asks the ultimate question of the life sciences: How did the human mind acquire its incomparable power? In seeking the answer, Merlin Donald traces the evolution of human culture and cognition from primitive apes to artificial intelligence, presenting an enterprising and original theory of how the human mind evolved from its presymbolic form.

    The first part of the book covers the properties of the many ion channels that shape the way a single neuron generates varied patterns of electrical activity, as well as the molecular mechanisms that convert electrical activity into the secretion of neurotransmitter hormones at synaptic junctions between neurons. The second part covers the biochemical pathways that are linked to the action of neurotransmitters and can alter the cellular properties of neurons or sensory cells that transduce information from the outside world into the electrical code used by neurons. The final section reviews our rapidly expanding knowledge of the molecular factors that induce an undifferentiated cell to become a neuron, and then guide it to form appropriate synaptic connections with its partners. This section also focuses on the role of ongoing experience and activity in shaping these connections, and finishes with an account of mechanisms thought to underlie the phenomena of learning and memory.

    It's helpful to any student of basic neuroscience, as well as residents and physicians preparing for board examinations.

    

    

    Instead, he discusses with Professor Anderson the concept of a wholly different way of living.

    

    The appendices were developed in a collaborative effort by the author, Kunio Yasue, and Mari Jibu (both of Notre Dame Seishin University of Okayama, Japan).

    In Darwin's time, individual development was believed to recapitulate the history of the species. This meant that each evolutionary novelty was added on at theend of individual development in the preceding species. If this were so, as Darwin and others believed, development would be like a motion picture revealing the sequence of a species' evolutionary history. In the 1920s, however, this view shifted to one stressing that early, not late, somaticchanges in individual development were responsible for evolution, and many believed these changes were caused by genetic mutations and recombinations. With these views as background, Gottlieb here presents a behavioral theory of evolutionary change that is not dependent on genetic mutation orgenetic recombination in its initial stages. Using evidence of the large, untapped, already existing genetic-developmental potential in all species, Gottlieb proposes that developmentally wrought changes in behavior can lead to the evolution of somatic novelties prior to genetic change. Some ofthese documented behavioral changes include heightened exploratory tendencies, increased resistance to stress, and enhanced problem-solving skills. Written in a scholarly but nontechnical manner, this book will appeal not only to developmental and comparative psychologists, ethologists, anddevelopmental neuroscientists, but also to laypersons interested in behavioral science, evolutionary theory, and the history of modern scientific thought.