The Human Brain: A Guided Tour (Science Masters Series)

A renowned brain researcher takes readers on a guided tour of the brain to show what today's cutting-edge scientists now know about how that mysterious and fascinating organ works. Readers gain an up-close and personal view of the human brain--what it is, how it works, how mood-modifying drugs find their targets, and more.

For the lay reader, a British scientist offers an enlightening look at the human brain and mind, clarifying what researchers now know and what difficult and tantalizing questions they are still struggling to answer. In 1994, Greenfield (Pharmacology/Oxford) was asked to give the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, a popular series aimed at teenagers and broadcast by the BBC. This book, which is aimed at adult readers, derives from that series. In it, the author approaches the brain first as a physical object, exploring its different regions, and then examining certain functions, specifically movement and vision, to demonstrate how these are carried out by the different regions engaging in a kind of ``balanced dialogue.'' Greenfield then shifts her approach and tackles the brain from a cellular level. She begins with a single neuron and explains how the brain is built in increasingly complex circuits. She shows how neurons communicate with each other chemically and how this communication is affected by mood-altering drugs such as nicotine, morphine and its derivative heroin, cocaine, and ecstasy. She next turns to the development of the brain from the beginning of life, showing how its neuronal circuitry constantly changes as a result of experience, and tackling the issue of when consciousness arises. In her final chapter she considers the various kinds of memory, raising tough questions about the relationship of brain to mind. Happily for the reader, Greenfield, who recently began giving free public lectures on the brain in the City of London, has developed a keen sense of what curious nonscientists want to know and, equally important, how to impart scientific information with verve and clarity. (b&w illustrations, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This set of five essays stems from the 1994 Royal Institute Christmas Lectures, filmed and later televised by the BBC. Greenfield, a science writer and professor of pharmacology at Lincoln College in Oxford, presents a survey of the brain that is intended for a general adult readership. Offering both a "top-down" and "bottom-up" approach, Greenfield examines movement and vision to illustrate how various brain functions might be localized, and she describes how neurons communicate and how this activity can be modified by drugs. She also discusses the development of the human brain from conception to birth and speculates on how experience can modify this brain to create a unique individual. Finally, in her explanation of how memory is laid down, the author touches on a physical basis for the mind. Greenfield presents a number of sophisticated concepts in a lively and very comprehensible style. Her book will provide a useful introduction to the brain in both academic and public libraries.?Laurie Bartolini, Legislative Research, Springfield, Ill.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.