The Genius Engine: Where Memory, Reason, Passion, Violence, and Creativity Intersect in the Human Brain - Hardcover

Stein, Kathleen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471262390 ISBN 13: 9780471262398

Publisher: Trade Paper Press, 2007

Synopsis

Embarking on a spellbinding journey to the frontiers of neuroscience, acclaimed science editor and writer Kathleen Stein takes an enthralling in-depth look at the prefrontal cortex, the site of our working memory, impulse control, reason, perception, decision making, and emotional processing—all the things that comprise our human genius.

About this title

About the Author

KATHLEEN STEIN has written about science and technology for more than twenty years and was Omni's neuroscience editor for more than a decade. She has also written for the New York Times, Biotechnology Newswatch, and UPI, and has taught literature and writing at the college level at Rutgers.

From the Back Cover

A spellbinding journey to the frontiers of neuroscience

In The Genius Engine, acclaimed science editor and writer Kathleen Stein takes an enthralling in-depth look at the PFC, the site of our working memory, impulse control, reason, perception, decision making, and emotional processing—all the things that comprise our human genius.

The PFC differs widely among individuals, as much as fingerprints. At its best, the PFC determines how you'll respond to an off-color joke and what makes you grouchy. It's what guides you to comfort a friend in need and discern between sarcasm and irony. It enables you to act today in light of actions that occurred in the past, and predict how to act tomorrow. But an improperly functioning PFC can trigger personality changes, murderous rage, lapses in judgment, and inability to plan or perceive the consequences of one's acts—in sum, the myriad problems facing our society today.

The Genius Engine delves deep into the human mind to unravel the mysteries that lie within the prefrontal cortex, the neural territory that defines what it is to be human.

From the Inside Flap

Although other primates and many other animals have working memory, the human brain gives our species a unique ability to reason, remember, and build models of the future. Our brain—specifically, the prefrontal cortex—defines our prevailing spirit, distinctive character, talent, aptitude, and inclination. Our genius.

In The Genius Engine, Kathleen Stein investigates the wonders of our prefrontal cortex, or PFC. Drawing on her decades of experience as a science and technology editor and writer, she deftly explains how the PFC gives us the special flexibility to update information from moment to moment and to make long-range plans; how it controls our artistic and athletic intelligence; and how it determines our moral compass. She delves into the mundane and often taken-for-granted capacities of the PFC—such as multitasking, humor, and empathy—and probes the social problems caused by a dysfunctional PFC.

Examining how the PFC orchestrates our entire mental universe, The Genius Engine shows why some individuals are hardwired to be dark and brooding and why little laughs are evolution's way of encouraging us to do some light cognitive calisthenics. It also explores how we can expand the PFC's capacities, demonstrating how the preschool television show Blue's Clues helps children develop their memory and how bilingualism enhances a child's working memory and control processes.

Stein reveals the extensive reconfiguration of the PFC during puberty, and why this turmoil within the PFC informs how teens judge others. This adolescent brain remodeling explains why teenagers tend to find life so unfair: they're unable to read social situations efficiently during a period when peer acceptance is the epicenter of their lives. Stein also provides examples of the long-term consequences of PFC injuries. Babies with certain PFC injuries tend to grow up friendless and emotionless. In adults, injury can cause a variety of deficits, including difficulties distinguishing whether a voice is cheerful or morose. Once the damage is done to the prefrontal tissue, no other part of the brain can assume its functions.

Taking us to the forefront of neuroscience, The Genius Engine provides a mesmerizing look into the area of our brain that defines what it means to be human—the part that gives us not only our agile intelligence but also our emotions, morality, and rules of social conduct.

Reviews

As neuroscientists refine their understanding of how the human brain works, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) has been shown to play a powerful role. As the brain's "central executive," the PFC is responsible for handling all kinds of thought processes, from sorting through short-term memories to understanding jokes.Stein, the former neuroscience editor for Omni, uses interviews with a wide array of brain researchers as the foundation for her overview, explaining the significance of their research. While the ramifications of each line of study—establishing the PFC's role in everything from emotional intelligence to the suppression of violence—are significant, Stein has difficulty bringing them all together into a dynamic, involving story. And while she does provide a few pictures of the prefrontal and cerebral cortices at the beginning of the book, the lack of illustrations in the text makes it harder to understand the relationships among the areas of the brain she discusses. The science is solid, but the account lacks the welcoming quality of recent works by other brain specialists such as Steven Johnson and John Horgan. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reporting on contemporary activity in experimental neuroscience, journalist Stein parlays interviews with researchers into a survey of the human brain's prefrontal cortex (PFC). This is the organ's outer layer situated directly behind the brow ridge. Explaining that pioneering anatomists noticed that injuries to the PFC altered personalities, Stein's account of specialists' projects illustrates the range of human behavior that seems to be associated with the PFC. Their projects, sometimes clinical studies of patients, sometimes laboratory tests on volunteers, benefit from brain-imaging technology, which, relates Stein, hints at the neural location for such traits as social skills. Logic, creativity, and inhibition and foresight also seem to arise from the PFC, which scientists accordingly map into "Brodmann areas." Among things to be learned from Stein: the microanatomical detail of Brodmann areas, and the great problem still to be solved in neuroscience, the exact relationship between neural deficits in the PFC and behavioral problems such as criminal violence. An informative introduction to the work of the field's leading experts. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0471262390
• ISBN 13: 9780471262398
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304