Creating Mind: How the Brain Works - Softcover

Dowling, John E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393974464 ISBN 13: 9780393974461

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999

Synopsis

From a distinguished teacher and scholar, this beautifully illustrated and lucidly written book reveals the beauty of the organ that makes us uniquely human.

What makes us human and unique among all creatures is our brain. Consciousness, perception, emotion, memory, learning, language, and intelligence all originate in and depend on the brain. Over the past century, our understanding of the brain has raced forward to reveal many of the mechanisms by which the brain creates mind and consciousness. In this brief introduction to the brain, neuroscientist John Dowling conveys to the general reader the essence and vitality of the field of neuroscience-the progress we are making in understanding how brains work and some of our strategies for studying brain function. Dowling often relates the exciting discoveries of neuroscience to specific examples of brain phenomena such as disease, mental illness, aging, or brain injury, demonstrating how these alterations in brain function cast light on normalcy and describing some of the therapies enabled by our understanding of the brain.

About this title

Review

What's going on inside your head? This is one of the fundamental questions in science, and one of the toughest to answer. Neurobiologist John E. Dowling starts us down the garden path with Creating Mind, a lucid introduction to the study of the brain. A Harvard researcher and instructor, Dowling puts his experience to good use in describing the mechanisms underlying memory, vision, language, and many other more-or-less well-understood phenomena. We learn that the cells and chemicals that make up our brains have been studied extensively, yet we are still mystified by the simplest fact of all: we are conscious. "I think, therefore I am" doesn't do justice to the richness of our experience, and Creating Mind tries to go further by exploring how the convergence of language, learning, and sensation might produce awareness. The many illustrations are clear and work well with the text to explain points best understood visually. (After seeing the studies of the humble squid, you'll never look at calamari the same way again!) Dowling has written an excellent overview that will inspire laypeople and budding neuroscientists alike. --Rob Lightner

About the Author

John E. Dowling is professor emeritus at Harvard University, and has done extensive research into the neurobiology of vision. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0393974464
• ISBN 13: 9780393974461
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224