Best of
Neuroscience

2014

The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery


Sam Kean - 2014
     Early studies of the functions of the human brain used a simple method: wait for misfortune to strike-strokes, seizures, infectious diseases, lobotomies, horrendous accidents-and see how the victim coped. In many cases survival was miraculous, and observers could only marvel at the transformations that took place afterward, altering victims' personalities. An injury to one section can leave a person unable to recognize loved ones; some brain trauma can even make you a pathological gambler, pedophile, or liar. But a few scientists realized that these injuries were an opportunity for studying brain function at its extremes. With lucid explanations and incisive wit, Sam Kean explains the brain's secret passageways while recounting forgotten stories of common people whose struggles, resiliency, and deep humanity made modern neuroscience possible.

Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction


Gary Wilson - 2014
    Far from preparing them for fulfilling relationships, viewing an endless stream of porn videos led to unexpected symptoms. Perhaps most surprisingly, for the first time in history erectile dysfunction was becoming a significant problem for young men. This led to one of the largest informal experiments in the history of science. Tens of thousands of people have tried abstaining from sexually stimulating material in a process they call ‘rebooting’. Many of them reported startling changes, from improved concentration and elevated mood to a greater capacity for real-life intimacy. Gary Wilson has listened to the stories of those who have tried giving up internet porn and related them to an account of how the reward system of the brain interacts with its environment. And now a growing body of research in neuroscience is confirming what these pioneers have discovered for themselves – internet pornography can be seriously addictive and damaging. In Your Brain on Porn Wilson provides a concise introduction to the phenomenon of internet porn addiction that draws on both first-person accounts and the findings of cognitive neuroscience. In a voice that is generous and humane, he also offers advice for those who want to stop using internet pornography. The publication of Your Brain on Porn is a landmark in our attempts to understand, and remain balanced in, a world where addiction is big business.

Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts


Stanislas Dehaene - 2014
    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 interestedin cutting-edge science and technology and the vast philosophical, personal, and ethical implications of finally quantifyingconsciousness.

The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind


Michio Kaku - 2014
    For the first time in history, the secrets of the living brain are being revealed by a battery of high tech brain scans devised by physicists. Now what was once solely the province of science fiction has become a startling reality. Recording memories, telepathy, videotaping our dreams, mind control, avatars, and telekinesis are not only possible; they already exist. The Future of the Mind gives us an authoritative and compelling look at the astonishing research being done in top laboratories around the world—all based on the latest advancements in neuroscience and physics. One day we might have a "smart pill" that can enhance our cognition; be able to upload our brain to a computer, neuron for neuron; send thoughts and emotions around the world on a "brain-net"; control computers and robots with our mind; push the very limits of immortality; and perhaps even send our consciousness across the universe. Dr. Kaku takes us on a grand tour of what the future might hold, giving us not only a solid sense of how the brain functions but also how these technologies will change our daily lives. He even presents a radically new way to think about "consciousness" and applies it to provide fresh insight into mental illness, artificial intelligence and alien consciousness. With Dr. Kaku's deep understanding of modern science and keen eye for future developments, The Future of the Mind is a scientific tour de force--an extraordinary, mind-boggling exploration of the frontiers of neuroscience.

The Power of Neuroplasticity


Shad Helmstetter - 2014
    presents the scientific discovery that the thoughts we think physically rewire our brains and change our lives. Dr. Helmstetter shows you how to use the latest research from the field of neuroscience to wire your brain to change attitudes, overcome negativity, improve health and fitness, reach personal goals, increase mental sharpness and clarity, improve usable intelligence, super-charge your thinking and reshape your life.

Your Best Brain: The Science of Brain Improvement


John Medina - 2014
    This amazing organ has unique powers to make predictions about the future, form relationships with other people, adapt to rapidly changing circumstances, and so much more. We all have a basic conception of how our brains function, but when did you last dive into the fascinating world of neuroscience to truly understand the inner workings of your mind? For decades, the field of neuroscience has been in a near-constant state of disruptive transformation, as we continually learn more about our incredible brains. Thanks to rapid advances in technology and in our understanding of the brain, today’s neuroscience research goes far beyond trying to understand how the brain works, and into the search for proven ways to optimize brain performance. In Your Best Brain, Professor John J. Medina - an award-winning scientist, New York Times best-selling author, and leading advocate for brain research - delivers 24 exciting lectures that probe the origins of consciousness, memory, emotion, attention, intelligence, and beyond. He focuses on five key areas of study in neuroscience: the brain’s physical structure and function, and how it enabled us to become the planet’s apex predator; the ways in which the brain processes information, and how that relates to intelligence; the intricacies of emotions and socialization, and how empathy is a vital survival mechanism; how our brains develop and change throughout our lifetimes; and how we can best use and expand our cerebral processing performance. After gaining a thorough understanding of the science behind your best brain, you’ll learn scientifically proven methods for improving your memory, boosting your creativity, and keeping your mind sharp for years to come.

You Are the Placebo Meditation 1: Changing Two Beliefs and Perceptions


Joe Dispenza - 2014
    Joe Dispenza has created two meditation CDs—featuring different music—to accompany his book You Are the Placebo.     On this longer 56-minutedisc, Dr. Joe walks you through Meditation 1: Changing Two Beliefs and Perceptions. After introducing the open-focus technique, he then moves you into the practice of finding the present moment. When you discover the sweet spot of the present moment and you forget about yourself as the personality you have always been, you have access to other possibilities that already exist in the quantum field. That’s because you are no longer connected to the same body-mind, to the same identification with the environment, and to the same predictable timeline. In the present moment, the familiar past and the future literally no longer exist, and you become pure consciousness—a thought alone. That is the moment that you can change your body, change your environment, and even create a new timeline for your life!

Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy


Evan Thompson - 2014
    When we are awake we identify with our body, but if we let our mind wander or daydream, we project a mentally imagined self into the remembered past or anticipated future. As we fall asleep, the impression of being a bounded self distinct from the world dissolves, but the self reappears in the dream state. If we have a lucid dream, we no longer identify only with the self within the dream. Our sense of self now includes our dreaming self, the "I" as dreamer. Finally, as we meditate--either in the waking state or in a lucid dream--we can observe whatever images or thoughts arise and how we tend to identify with them as "me." We can also experience sheer awareness itself, distinct from the changing contents that make up our image of the self.Contemplative traditions say that we can learn to let go of the self, so that when we die we can witness its dissolution with equanimity. Thompson weaves together neuroscience, philosophy, and personal narrative to depict these transformations, adding uncommon depth to life's profound questions. Contemplative experience comes to illuminate scientific findings, and scientific evidence enriches the vast knowledge acquired by contemplatives.

Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma: Calming the Fear-Driven Brain


Sebern F. Fisher - 2014
    Indeed, the brain's circuitry—its very frequencies and rhythmic oscillations—reveals much about its role in our emotional stability and resilience. Neurofeedback allows clinicians to guide their, clients as they learn to transform brain-wave patterns, providing a new window into how we view and treat mental illness.In this cutting-edge book, experienced clinician Sebern Fisher keenly demonstrates neurofeedback’s profound ability to help treat one of the most intractable mental health concerns of our time: severe childhood abuse, neglect, or abandonment, otherwise known as developmental trauma.When an attachment rupture occurs between a child and her or his primary caregiver, a tangle of complicated symptoms can set in: severe emotional dysregulation, chronic dissociation, self-destructive behaviors, social isolation, rage, and fear. Until now, few reliable therapies existed to combat developmental trauma. But as the author so eloquently presents in this book, by focusing on a client's brain-wave patterns and "training" them to operate at different frequencies, the rhythms of the brain, body, and mind are normalized, attention stabilizes, fear subsides, and, with persistent, dedicated training, regulation sets in.A mix of fundamental theory and nuts-and-bolts practice, the book delivers a carefully articulated and accessible look at the mind and brain in developmental trauma, what a “trauma identity” looks like, and how neurofeedback can be used to retrain the brain, thereby fostering a healthier, more stable state of mind. Essential clinical skills are also fully covered, including how to introduce the idea of neurofeedback to clients, how to combine it with traditional psychotherapy, and how to perform assessments.In his foreword to the book, internationally recognized trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk, MD, praises Fisher as “an immensely experienced neurofeedback practitioner [and] the right person to teach us how to integrate it into clinical practice.” Filled with illuminating client stories, powerful clinical insights, and plenty of clinical "how to," she accomplishes just that, offering readers a compelling look at exactly how this innovative model can be used to engage the brain to find peace and to heal.

Analyzing Neural Time Series Data: Theory and Practice


Mike X. Cohen - 2014
    It explains the conceptual, mathematical, and implementational (via Matlab programming) aspects of time-, time-frequency- and synchronization-based analyses of magnetoencephalography (MEG), electroencephalography (EEG), and local field potential (LFP) recordings from humans and nonhuman animals. It is the only book on the topic that covers both the theoretical background and the implementation in language that can be understood by readers without extensive formal training in mathematics, including cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, and psychologists.Readers who go through the book chapter by chapter and implement the examples in Matlab will develop an understanding of why and how analyses are performed, how to interpret results, what the methodological issues are, and how to perform single-subject-level and group-level analyses. Researchers who are familiar with using automated programs to perform advanced analyses will learn what happens when they click the "analyze now" button.The book provides sample data and downloadable Matlab code. Each of the 38 chapters covers one analysis topic, and these topics progress from simple to advanced. Most chapters conclude with exercises that further develop the material covered in the chapter. Many of the methods presented (including convolution, the Fourier transform, and Euler's formula) are fundamental and form the groundwork for other advanced data analysis methods. Readers who master the methods in the book will be well prepared to learn other approaches.

Surrounded by Madness: A Memoir of Mental Illness and Family Secrets


Rachel Pruchno - 2014
    Pruchno, a scientist widely acclaimed for her research on mental illness and families, shows how mental illness threatened to destroy her own family. Not once, but twice. As a child, she didn't understand her mother's episodes of crippling sadness or whirlwind activity. As a mother, she feared her daughter Sophie would follow in the footsteps of the grandmother Sophie never knew. Unraveling the mysteries of her mother's and daughter's illnesses, Pruchno fought to preserve her marriage and protect her son. But it was not until she came to terms with her own secrets that she truly understood the destructive and pervasive effects mental illness has on families. Surrounded By Madness is transforming. It will empower families to stop hiding and start talking when mental illness strikes. RACHEL PRUCHNO is Director of Research at the New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging and Endowed Chair, Professor of Medicine at Rowan University's School of Osteopathic Medicine. She earned her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State University. Dr. Pruchno has been the Principal Investigator on numerous research grants funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Aging, the National Institute of Nursing Research, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Retirement Research Foundation, and the Cleveland Foundation. She has published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals, authored 10 invited book chapters, and co-edited Challenges of an Aging Society: Ethical Dilemmas, Political Issues. She has served as Editor-in-Chief of The Gerontologist, a leading scientific journal, since 2011. She is married with four children, two of whom are dogs.

A Guide to Better Movement: The Science and Practice of Moving With More Skill and Less Pain


Todd Hargrove - 2014
    It is written for movement professionals, athletes, chronic pain sufferers, and anyone else interested in moving better and feeing better. In it, you will learn: the essential qualities of movements that are healthy and efficient; why good movement requires healthy “maps” in the brain; why pain is sometimes more about self-perception than tissue damage or injury; the science behind mind-body practices; general principles that can be used to improve any movement practice; and 25 illustrated and simple movement lessons to help you move better and feel better.

Evolutionary Coaching: A Values-Based Approach to Unleashing Human Potential


Richard Barrett - 2014
    It is not about coaching per se, it is about the framework of human development that coaches need to be familiar with in order to facilitate the full emergence of their client's potential: not just helping people become more proficient at what they do, but helping them participate in their own evolution, the evolution of their organizations, the evolution of our global society and the evolution of our species. Part I explores the theory of human emergence, providing a detailed description of the seven stages of psychological development, the evolution of cultural world views, the evolving structure and operation of the human mind/brain and the six evolutionary stages in human decision-making.

Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole: A Renowned Neurologist Explains the Mystery and Drama of Brain Disease


Allan H. Ropper - 2014
    What is it like to try to heal the body when the mind is under attack? In this book, Dr. Allan Ropper and Brian Burrell take the reader behind the scenes at Harvard Medical School's neurology unit to show how a seasoned diagnostician faces down bizarre, life-altering afflictions. Like Alice in Wonderland, Dr. Ropper inhabits a world where absurdities abound:• A figure skater whose body has become a ticking time-bomb • A salesman who drives around and around a traffic rotary, unable to get off • A college quarterback who can't stop calling the same play • A child molester who, after falling on the ice, is left with a brain that is very much dead inside a body that is very much alive • A mother of two young girls, diagnosed with ALS, who has to decide whether a life locked inside her own head is worth livingHow does one begin to treat such cases, to counsel people whose lives may be changed forever? How does one train the next generation of clinicians to deal with the moral and medical aspects of brain disease? Dr. Ropper and his colleague answer these questions by taking the reader into a rarified world where lives and minds hang in the balance.

Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep?: A Neuroscientific View of the Zombie Brain


Timothy Verstynen - 2014
    With their endless wandering, lumbering gait, insatiable hunger, antisocial behavior, and apparently memory-less existence, zombies are the walking nightmares of our deepest fears. What do these characteristic behaviors reveal about the inner workings of the zombie mind? Could we diagnose zombism as a neurological condition by studying their behavior? In "Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep?," neuroscientists and zombie enthusiasts Timothy Verstynen and Bradley Voytek apply their neuro-know-how to dissect the puzzle of what has happened to the zombie brain to make the undead act differently than their human prey.Combining tongue-in-cheek analysis with modern neuroscientific principles, Verstynen and Voytek show how zombism can be understood in terms of current knowledge regarding how the brain works. In each chapter, the authors draw on zombie popular culture and identify a characteristic zombie behavior that can be explained using neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and brain-behavior relationships. Through this exploration they shed light on fundamental neuroscientific questions such as: How does the brain function during sleeping and waking? What neural systems control movement? What is the nature of sensory perception?Walking an ingenious line between seriousness and satire, " Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep?" leverages the popularity of zombie culture in order to give readers a solid foundation in neuroscience.

Love Them Back to LIFE


Ariane Page - 2014
    Why? Because we ignore a crucial element: nature’s holistic blueprint. Since human brains and psyche are expressions of it, how can we truly help humanity reach its potential? How can we help individuals be happy? Our ancestors had an intuitive grasp of this model, expressing it though their mythologies. It led psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung to find in Taoism -an example of this model- "principles so vast that they can be applied to the entire humanity." With the rise of a highly specialized modern science though, this encompassing vision vanished. However, as Ariane Page found, brain research results agree with this overarching model. We can assume science will therefore soon “discover” it. In her second Editor’s Choice and IndieFab finalist book "Love Them Back to LIFE", Ariane Page invites us to journey through this holistic blueprint and witness how we allow or prevent it from unfolding harmoniously in our personal lives. She takes us on a discovery journey through this model expressed by the human brain as she focuses on love. Love is the tool used by this model, the LIFE (Law Inherent to the Five Elements), to lead us toward a conscious coherence between our physical, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual realities, a holism necessary to truly feel alive, happy, and loved.

After Phrenology: Neural Reuse and the Interactive Brain


Michael L. Anderson - 2014
    Just as the phrenologist would insist that each organ must have its particular function, so contemporary cognitive neuroscience is committed to the notion that each brain region must have its fundamental computation. In After Phrenology, Michael Anderson argues that to achieve a fully post-phrenological science of the brain, we need to reassess this commitment and devise an alternate, neuroscientifically grounded taxonomy of mental function.Anderson contends that the cognitive roles played by each region of the brain are highly various, reflecting different neural partnerships established under different circumstances. He proposes quantifying the functional properties of neural assemblies in terms of their dispositional tendencies rather than their computational or information-processing operations. Exploring larger-scale issues, and drawing on evidence from embodied cognition, Anderson develops a picture of thinking rooted in the exploitation and extension of our early-evolving capacity for iterated interaction with the world. He argues that the multidimensional approach to the brain he describes offers a much better fit for these findings, and a more promising road toward a unified science of minded organisms.

Neuronal Dynamics


Wulfram Gerstner - 2014
    It covers classical topics, including the Hodgkin-Huxley equations and Hopfield model, as well as modern developments in the field such as generalized linear models and decision theory. Concepts are introduced using clear step-by-step explanations suitable for readers with only a basic knowledge of differential equations and probabilities, and are richly illustrated by figures and worked-out examples. End-of-chapter summaries and classroom-tested exercises make the book ideal for courses or for self-study. The authors also give pointers to the literature and an extensive bibliography, which will prove invaluable to readers interested in further study.

Therapy with Substance: Psycholytic Psychotherapy in the Twenty-First Century


Friederike Meckel Fischer - 2014
    Since then they have been illegal except for a short period in the 1990s in Switzerland. During this window of opportunity, Dr. Fischer began using psychedelics to assist the progress of those of her patients who were "stuck." This book is a description of her use of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: the group work, the technical approach, the substances themselves and how to work with them. There is a special focus on the preparation of the mindset, the setting and the integration as these are the most important determinants of good outcomes. This is a unique account and the definitive guide for the new generation of psychedelic psychotherapists.

The Brain: How the Brain Rewrites its Own Circuitry


David Eagleman - 2014
         The brain is often portrayed as an organ with different regions dedicated to specific tasks. But that textbook model is wrong. The brain is a dynamic system, constantly modifying its own circuitry to match the demands of the environment and the body in which it finds itself. If you were to zoom into the living, microscopic cosmos inside the skull, you would witness tentacle-like extensions grasping, bumping, sensing, searching for the right connections to establish or forego, like denizens of a country establishing friendships, marriages, neighbourhoods, political parties, vendettas, and social networks. It's a mysterious kind of computational material, an organic three-dimensional textile that adjusts itself to operate with maximum efficiency.      The brain is not hardwired, David Eagleman contends--it is livewired. With his new theory of infotropism, Eagleman demonstrates why the fundamental principle of the brain is information maximization: in the same way that plants grow toward light, brains reconfigure to boost data from the outside world. Follow Eagleman on a thrilling journey to discover how a child can function with one half of his brain removed, how a blind man can hit a baseball via a sensor on his tongue, how new devices and body plans can enhance our natural capacities, how paralyzed people will soon be able to dance in thought-controlled robotic suits, how we can build the next generation of devices based on the principles of the brain, and what all this has to do with why we dream at night.

Rewiring Our Morality (TED Books)


Daniel Reisel - 2014
    In this compassionate and insightful book, Reisel describes how empathy evolves in every child’s brain, and how early traumatic experiences can distort its development. During his journey, Reisel unveils a powerful discovery: Even hardened criminals can change, right down to their neurons. Understanding this, Reisel argues that we must shift to a restorative form of justice — one that allows both victim and perpetrator a chance to heal, instead of the current punitive system that only perpetuates a cycle of crime. Our safety — and our humanity — depend on it.

Quit or Die Trying


Alison Beard - 2014
    Luther Terry released the monumental Surgeon General’s report revealing the connection between smoking and ill health, specifically linking tobacco use to lung cancer and heart disease. And yet in 2014, fifty years later, more than fifty million Americans still smoke.Quit or Die Trying isn’t a self-help book about giving up smoking—it’s a candid, irreverent, eye-opening story about one woman’s struggle to overcome her tobacco addiction.In 1986, a good twenty years after everyone knows tobacco is bad for them, when twelve-year-old Alison Beard should be playing ding-dong-ditch and chasing butterflies, she starts smoking instead. Like a lot of Americans, she believes the persistent propaganda that it’s just a habit she can quit at any time—until one harrowing day in her twenties, when she awakens with a collapsed lung.In her heartfelt memoir, Beard shares the crazy cocktails of medicine and diversion tactics she employs in her attempt to rid herself of her addiction. Having tried to quit more times than she kept count, she identifies the false assumptions and unhelpful social attitudes to reveal changes that would have a powerful impact on the success rate of quitting.

The Syrup Maze: An Inspirational Journey Through Recovery From a Traumatic Brain Injury


Debbie Simpson - 2014
    His mom started a CaringBridge® account in order to communicate updates with family and friends and to give her an outlet through journaling. The Syrup Maze is built around these CaringBridge posts that Debbie tried hard to keep upbeat and positive. Yes, life can change in an instant, but with change comes choice: choice in how we think, choice in how we pray, choice in how we talk, choice in how we act. And at a time when it was all she could do to put one foot in front of the other, she discovered that, next to God, family was their strongest force. As “Team Michael” they leaned on each other, cried together and yes, even found reasons to laugh together. The Syrup Maze is an inspiring account of the light that can shine through even the darkest of days. It is a tribute to those who dedicate their lives to saving the lives of others and it is to the many, many angels who presented themselves through this very difficult time. ‘The Syrup Maze: An Inspirational Journey Through Recovery from a Traumatic Brain injury’ was originally published as, ‘The Syrup Maze: A Mother’s Nightmare and the Strength of a Family United.’ This revised edition, published two years after the original book, includes remarkable updates written by both the author’s son and his passenger, who also suffered a traumatic brain injury. Debbie Simpson, author of 'Adam’s Gluten Free Surprise: Helping Others Understand Gluten Free,' also highlights the need for increased education in hospitals and medical facilities in regards to special diets. As someone with celiac disease, requiring a strict gluten free diet, Debbie found the task of feeding herself safely while living at the hospital with her son to be a much less daunting task than overseeing Michael’s gluten free diet. Having to step in more than once when non-gluten free food was offered to her son, was inexcusable. Patients who require a gluten free diet – or any special diet – deserve to have their needs met and respected, and they deserve to be fed balanced, nutritious meals while in the care of medical professionals. But, as she discovered, this is not always the case.

A History of the Brain: From Stone Age Surgery to Modern Neuroscience


Andrew P. Wickens - 2014
    It describes how we have come to understand the biological nature of the brain, beginning in prehistoric times, and progressing to the twentieth century with the development of Modern Neuroscience.This is the first time a history of the brain has been written in a narrative way, emphasizing how our understanding of the brain and nervous system has developed over time, with the development of the disciplines of anatomy, pharmacology, physiology, psychology and neurosurgery. The book covers:beliefs about the brain in ancient Egypt, Greece and Romethe Medieval period, Renaissance and Enlightenmentthe nineteenth centurythe most important advances in the twentieth century and future directions in neuroscience.The discoveries leading to the development of modern neuroscience gave rise to one of the most exciting and fascinating stories in the whole of science. Written for readers with no prior knowledge of the brain or history, the book will delight students, and will also be of great interest to researchers and lecturers with an interest in understanding how we have arrived at our present knowledge of the brain.

How Do You Feel?: An Interoceptive Moment with Your Neurobiological Self


A.D. Craig - 2014
    Drawing on his own cutting-edge research, neurobiologist Bud Craig has identified an area deep inside the mammalian brain--the insular cortex--as the place where interoception, or the processing of bodily stimuli, generates feelings. He shows how this crucial pathway for interoceptive awareness gives rise in humans to the feeling of being alive, vivid perceptual feelings, and a subjective image of the sentient self across time. Craig explains how feelings represent activity patterns in our brains that signify emotions, intentions, and thoughts, and how integration of these patterns is driven by the unique energy needs of the hominid brain. He describes the essential role of feelings and the insular cortex in such diverse realms as music, fluid intelligence, and bivalent emotions, and relates these ideas to the philosophy of William James and even to feelings in dogs.How Do You Feel? is also a compelling insider's account of scientific discovery, one that takes readers behind the scenes as the astonishing answer to this neurological puzzle is pursued and pieced together from seemingly unrelated fields of scientific inquiry. This book will fundamentally alter the way that neuroscientists and psychologists categorize sensations and understand the origins and significance of human feelings.

Rethink How You Think: How to Create Lasting Change Today


David Stoop - 2014
    But there is a secret to lasting change that God gave us long before modern neuroscience and self-help gurus were the norm.Rethink How You Think is for anyone who has been frustrated by an inability to change habits, overcome fears, or keep up new healthy patterns of living and thinking. Dr. David Stoop shows readers that the true way to lasting change is in the renewing of our minds, which we accomplish when we faithfully read God's Word and meditate on it daily. He clearly shows how to move from fear to love, from resentment to gratitude, from lust to purity, from loneliness to connection, from idolatry to contentment, and from mistrust to trust. Anyone eager to find change that lasts will welcome this practical and encouraging message.

First Intelligence: Using the Science and Spirit of Intuition


Simone Wright - 2014
    And, according to Simone Wright, we often forget or don’t understand how to use the best tool available: our intuition, which is our “first intelligence” that can cut through the chatter to inherent wisdom. She explains that intuition is an innate and universal biological and energetic function that can be used like a human GPS system to guide us toward effective action and peak performance. Riveting examples and powerful exercises demonstrate how we can use this “sixth sense” as naturally as any, in all areas of our lives.

Cognitive Neuroscience of Language


David Kemmerer - 2014
    Until now, however, there has not been a single introductory textbook that focuses specifically on this topic.Cognitive Neuroscience of Language fills that gap by providing an up-to-date, wide-ranging, and pedagogically practical survey of the most important developments in the field. It guides students through all of the major areas of investigation, beginning with fundamental aspects of brain structure and function, and then proceeding to cover aphasia syndromes, the perception and production of speech, the processing of language in written and signed modalities, the meanings of words, and the formulation and comprehension of complex expressions, including grammatically inflected words, complete sentences, and entire stories.Drawing heavily on prominent theoretical models, the core chapters illustrate how such frameworks are supported, and sometimes challenged, by experiments employing diverse brain mapping techniques. Although much of the content is inherently challenging and intended primarily for graduate or upper-level undergraduate students, it requires no previous knowledge of either neuroscience or linguistics, defining technical terms and explaining important principles from both disciplines along the way.

Brain & Behavior: An Introduction to Biological Psychology


Bob L. Garrett - 2014
    Bob Garrett uses colorful illustrations and thought-provoking facts while maintaining a "big-picture" approach that students will appreciate. Don't be surprised when they reach their "eureka" moment and exclaim, "Now I understand what was going on with Uncle Edgar!" " [T]he topic coverage is excellent. It is what a student taking an Introductory Biological Psychology course should walk away with." --William Meil, Indiana University of Pennsylvania "I absolutely love this book. I think it is head and shoulders above any other.... The book is just right. I have used every edition so far and students seem to read it and grasp the concepts well. It is clearly written, well illustrated, and explains concepts in an engaging and understandable way. The text reads like it should--a wonderfully written book. It almost reads like a novel, progressing through the topics with a fluency that is rare. It's perfect for my students." --Carol L. DeVolder, St. Ambrose University "The text is well organized and has excellent artwork depicting complex brain functions." --Dr. Catherine Powers Ozyurt, Bay Path College "Excellent use of artwork, good coverage of a range of topics within each chapter." --M. Foster Olive, Arizona State University

Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture, and Wisdom


Darcia Narváez - 2014
    On this model, largely taken for granted in modern societies, acts of selfishness, aggression, and ecological mindlessness are failures of will, moral problems that can be solved by acting in accordance with a higher rationality. But both ancient philosophy and recent scientific scholarship emphasize implicit systems, such as action schemas and perceptual filters that guide behavior and shape human development. In this integrative book, Darcia Narvaez argues that morality goes “all the way down” into our neurobiological and emotional development, and that a person’s moral architecture is largely established early on in life. Moral rationality and virtue emerge “bottom up” from lived experience, so it matters what that experience is. Bringing together deep anthropological history, ethical philosophy, and contemporary neurobiological science, she demonstrates where modern industrialized societies have fallen away from the cultural practices that made us human in the first place.Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality advances the field of developmental moral psychology in three key ways. First, it provides an evolutionary framework for early childhood experience grounded in developmental systems theory, encompassing not only genes but a wide array of environmental and epigenetic factors. Second, it proposes a neurobiological basis for the development of moral sensibilities and cognition, describing ethical functioning at multiple levels of complexity and context before turning to a theory of the emergence of wisdom. Finally, it embraces the sociocultural orientations of our ancestors and cousins in small-band hunter-gatherer societies—the norm for 99% of human history—for a re-envisioning of moral life, from the way we value and organize child raising to how we might frame a response to human-made global ecological collapse.Integrating the latest scholarship in clinical sciences and positive psychology, Narvaez proposes a developmentally informed ecological and ethical sensibility as a way to self-author and revise the ways we think about parenting and sociality. The techniques she describes point towards an alternative vision of moral development and flourishing, one that synthesizes traditional models of executive, top-down wisdom with “primal” wisdom built by multiple systems of biological and cultural influence from the ground up.

Understanding Vision: Theory, Models, and Data


Li Zhaoping - 2014
    The book is written in such a way that vision scientists, unfamiliar with mathematical details, should be able to conceptually follow the theoreticalprinciples and their relationship with physiological, anatomical, and psychological observations, without going through the more mathematical pages. For those with a physical science background, especially those from machine vision, this book serves as an analytical introduction to biologicalvision. It can be used as a textbook or a reference book in a vision course, or a computational neuroscience course for graduate students or advanced undergraduate students. It is also suitable for self-learning by motivated readers.In addition, for those with a focused interest in just one of the topics in the book, it is feasible to read just the chapter on this topic without having read or fully comprehended the other chapters. In particular, Chapter 2 presents a brief overview of experimental observations on biologicalvision; Chapter 3 is on encoding of visual inputs, Chapter 5 is on visual attentional selection driven by sensory inputs, and Chapter 6 is on visual perception or decoding.Including many examples that clearly illustrate the application of computational principles to experimental observations, Understanding Vision is valuable for students and researchers in computational neuroscience, vision science, machine and computer vision, as well as physicists interested invisual processes.

A Prescription for Psychiatry: Why We Need a Whole New Approach to Mental Health and Wellbeing


Peter Kinderman - 2014
    Exposing the old-fashioned biological 'disease model' of psychiatry as unscientific and unhelpful, it calls for a revolution in the way we plan and deliver care. Kinderman challenges the way we think about mental health problems, arguing that the origins of distress are largely social, and urges a change from a 'disease model' to a 'psychosocial model'. The book persuasively argues that we should significantly reduce our use of psychiatric medication, and help should be tailored to each person's unique needs. This is a manifesto for an entirely new approach to psychiatric care; one that truly offers care rather than coercion, therapy rather than medication, and a return to the common sense appreciation that distress is usually an understandable reaction to life's challenges.

My Genes Made Me Do It!: Homosexuality and the Scientific Evidence


Neil Whitehead - 2014
    In fact half the homosexual population moves towards heterosexuality in the natural course of life—it’s just that very few people ever hear about it . This clear, comprehensive and accessible book takes an objective and orthodox look at over 10,000 scientific papers and draws the only conclusion possible: any biological contribution to homosexuality is weak and indirect. But that doesn’t mean homosexuality is a choice; rather it is discovered to exist within oneself. It is overwhelmingly the cumulative result of personal responses to life events—as many human predicaments are. But people with same-sex attraction are no more the victim of their orientation than anybody else mastered by a deep-seated and powerful set of responses that are environmental in essence. Answers and relief are possible where there is informed assistance. Neil and Briar Whitehead have been researching homosexuality for 30 years. Neil is a research scientist with a PhD in biochemistry. Briar is a writer.

Brain Structure and Its Origins: In Development and in Evolution of Behavior and the Mind


Gerald E. Schneider - 2014
    It explains why the brain is put together as it is by describing basic functions and key aspects of its evolution and development. This approach makes the structure of the brain and spinal cord more comprehensible as well as more interesting and memorable. The book offers a detailed outline of the neuroanatomy of vertebrates, especially mammals, that equips students for further explorations of the field.Gaining familiarity with neuroanatomy requires multiple exposures to the material with many incremental additions and reviews. Thus the early chapters of this book tell the story of the brain's origins in a first run-through of the entire system; this is followed by other such surveys in succeeding chapters, each from a different angle. The book proceeds from basic aspects of nerve cells and their physiology to the evolutionary beginnings of the nervous system to differentiation and development, motor and sensory systems, and the structure and function of the main parts of the brain. Along the way, it makes enlightening connections to evolutionary history and individual development. Brain Structure and Its Origins can be used for advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate classes in neuroscience, biology, psychology, and related fields, or as a reference for researchers and others who want to know more about the brain.

Guide to Brain-Computer Music Interfacing


Eduardo Reck Miranda - 2014
    The text focuses on how these tools enable the extraction of meaningful control information from brain signals, and discusses how to design effective generative music techniques that respond to this information.Topics and features: reviews important techniques for hands-free interaction with computers, including event-related potentials with P300 waves; explores questions of semiotic brain-computer interfacing (BCI), and the use of machine learning to dig into relationships among music and emotions; offers tutorials on signal extraction, brain electric fields, passive BCI, and applications for genetic algorithms, along with historical surveys; describes how BCMI research advocates the importance of better scientific understanding of the brain for its potential impact on musical creativity; presents broad coverage of this emerging, interdisciplinary area, from hard-core EEG analysis to practical musical applications.This unique and pioneering text/reference will appeal to researchers, graduates and advanced undergraduates from a range of different domains within computer science and beyond, such as music technology and biomedical engineering.

Brain, Mind and Consciousness in the History of Neuroscience


C.U.M. Smith - 2014
    Beginning with a look at ventricular neuropsychology in antiquity, this book goes on to look at Spinozan ideas on the links between mind and body, Thomas Willis and the foundation of Neurology, Hooke's mechanical model of the mind and Joseph Priestley's approach to the mind-body problem.The volume offers a chapter on the 19th century Ottoman perspective on western thinking. Further chapters trace the work of nineteenth century scholars including George Henry Lewes, Herbert Spencer and Emil du Bois-Reymond. The book covers significant work from the twentieth century, including an examination of Alfred North Whitehead and the history of consciousness, and particular attention is given to the development of quantum consciousness. Chapters on slavery and the self and the development of an understanding of Dualism bring this examination up to date on the latest 21st century work in the field.At the heart of this book is the matter of how we define the problem of consciousness itself: has there been any progress in our understanding of the working of mind and brain? This work at the interface between science and the humanities will appeal to experts from across many fields who wish to develop their understanding of the problem of consciousness, including scholars of Neuroscience, Behavioural Science and the History of Science.

Making Space: How the Brain Knows Where Things Are


Jennifer M. Groh - 2014
    Yet our brains devote tremendous computational power to figuring out the simplest details about spatial relationships. Going to the grocery store or finding our cell phone requires sleuthing and coordination across different sensory and motor domains. Making Space traces this mental detective work to explain how the brain creates our sense of location. But it goes further, to make the case that spatial processing permeates all our cognitive abilities, and that the brain's systems for thinking about space may be the systems of thought itself.Our senses measure energy in the form of light, sound, and pressure on the skin, and our brains evaluate these measurements to make inferences about objects and boundaries. Jennifer Groh describes how eyes detect electromagnetic radiation, how the brain can locate sounds by measuring differences of less than one one-thousandth of a second in how long they take to reach each ear, and how the ear's balance organs help us monitor body posture and movement. The brain synthesizes all this neural information so that we can navigate three-dimensional space.But the brain's work doesn't end there. Spatial representations do double duty in aiding memory and reasoning. This is why it is harder to remember how to get somewhere if someone else is driving, and why, if we set out to do something and forget what it was, returning to the place we started can jog our memory. In making space the brain uses powers we did not know we have.

The Emotional Brain Revisited


Joseph E. LeDoux - 2014
    The book discusses such topics as the role of amygdala in the emergence of emotions, the place of the affect within the psychological construction of the agent, insights from the research on emotions in animals, and the relation between emotions, rationality, morality, and law. Furthermore, various conceptual controversies underlying the empirical studies on emotions are considered.

The Biology of Thought: A Neuronal Mechanism in the Generation of Thought - A New Molecular Model


Krishnagopal Dharani - 2014
    All we know is that sensations received from the outside world imprint some sort of molecular signatures in neurons – or perhaps synapses – for future retrieval. What are these molecular signatures, and how are they made? How are thoughts generated and stored in neurons? The Biology of Thought explores these issues and proposes a new molecular model that sheds light on the basis of human thought. Step-by-step it describes a new hypothesis for how thought is produced at the micro-level in the brain – right at the neuron. Despite its many advances, the neurobiology field lacks a comprehensive explanation of the fundamental aspects of thought generation at the neuron level, and its relation to intelligence and memory. Derived from existing research in the field, this book attempts to lay biological foundations for this phenomenon through a novel mechanism termed the "Molecular-Grid Model" that may explain how biological electrochemical events occurring at the neuron interact to generate thoughts. The proposed molecular model is a testable hypothesis that hopes to change the way we understand critical brain function, and provides a starting point for major advances in this field that will be of interest to neuroscientists the world over.*Written to provide a comprehensive coverage of the electro-chemical events that occur at the neuron and how they interact to generate thought*Provides physiology-based chapters (functional anatomy, neuron physiology, memory) and the molecular mechanisms that may shape thought*Contains a thorough description of the process by which neurons convert external stimuli to primary thoughts

Mastery in Coaching: A Complete Psychological Toolkit for Advanced Coaching


Jonathan Passmore - 2014
    Every chapter is written by a leading expert, and takes a rigorous, evidence-based approach to provide a practical understanding of each method, as well as the underpinning psychological coaching concepts. Ranging from cognitive-behavioral coaching, Gestalt and positive psychology to neuroscience and mindfulness, this book provides coaches the tools they need to get the best from their clients.