Mapping the Mind - Softcover

Carter, Rita; Frith, Christopher D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0753810190 ISBN 13: 9780753810194

Publisher: Phoenix, 2000

Synopsis

Modern brain scans reveal our thoughts, memories, and moods, as clearly as an X-ray reveals our bones. A person's brain will light up on a scan as it registers a joke. This book examines how these findings can be used as a basis to explain aspects of human culture and behaviour.

About this title

Review

In the last decades of the 20th century, scientists have come to believe that the human brain is almost completely modular. Every bit of the brain does something in particular, and surprisingly specific abilities, memories, and responses are in localized areas. Journalist Rita Carter has drawn a map of what is known (and speculated) about the mind in a heavily illustrated field guide to the human brain.

Carter and her scientific editor, neuropsychologist Christopher Frith, cover the state of the mind in a reasonably accurate, accessible way. They emphasize topics that are likely to be of some practical interest--such as Alzheimer's or attention deficit disorder--but not so much as to give a distorted picture of the field.

Perhaps the most interesting parts of the book are the sidebars written by a variety of leading names in mind-brain science. Roger Penrose writes on computer minds, Francis Crick on consciousness, Steven Rose on memory, John Maynard Smith on social evolution, William Calvin on mosaic minds, Kay Redfield Jamison on creativity and bipolar disorders, and more. It's a stellar assortment, more than worth the price of admission--and there's a map of the mind on the cover, in case you misplace yours. --Mary Ellen Curtin

About the Author

Rita Carter is a full-time medical writer contributing to, among others, The Independent, New Scientist, Daily Mail and Telegraph. She was twice awarded the Medical Journalists' Association prize for outstanding contribution to medical journalism. Rita Carter was born in the UK and currently resides in Ashford, Kent.

Edition details

• Publisher: Phoenix
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0753810190
• ISBN 13: 9780753810194
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384