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USER'S GUIDE TO THE BRAIN --- PERCEPTION, ATTENTION, AND THE
FOUR THEATERS OF THE BRAIN, John J. Ratey, Pantheon Books, 2001
INTRODUCTION (p3-13)

    For the first time in human history, discoveries in the nerosciences are beginning to overlap with fields as different as anthropology, philosophy, linguistics, and psychology. The mass media seem obsessed with one particular aspect of these discoveries, namely, that there is a biological basis for our personalities, behaviors, and mental disorders. But the new discoveries are also beginning to generate speculative theories about how the brain itself works! (3)

    To see your "SELF" through the eyes of the modern neuroscientist not only provides a means of self-understanding that is new and inspiring but also points to a unification, rather than a contradiction of what social scientists --- including psychologists, anthropologists, linguists, and pohilosophers --- have been saying for many decades. We don't yet know the full meaning of what we are seeing in the neurosciences, but we do know it means the beginning of a new age. Suddenly, the world has gone from flat to round!

    Because your brain is ultimately responsible for personality, culture, language, and reason, this emerging unity is hardly surprising. However, it is breathtakingly new that research allows us to speculate on how our brains actually work!

    THE TRAJECTORY OF EVOLUTION = diagram showing how the human brain evolved from the "bottom up" (10)

1) DEVELOPMENT (p14-47)

    [1] A jungle of neurons (19-21)

    [2] Massive cell death (21-26)

    [3] Drugs, malnutrition, and stress (26-30)

      (1) Smoking (27)

      (2) Alcohol (27-28)

      (3) Cocaine (28)

      (4) Malnutrition (29)

      (5) Toxins (29-30)

    [4] Neural Darwinism (30-31)

    [5] Nature or nurture? (31-34)

    [6] Learning to change (34-39)

    [7] Limits to plasticity (39-42)

    [8] The nuns of Mankato (42-43)

    [9] Regeneration (44-47)

2) PERCEPTION (p48-109)

    [1] Changing the brain (54-60)

      "NEURONS THAT FIRE TOGETHER, WIRE TOGETHER" (55)

    [2] Signal and noise (60-62)

    [3] Smell (62-68)

      THE SOMATOSENSORY SYSTEM diagram = (67)

    [4] Taste (68-72)


      "THE HYPOTHALAMUS PLAYS A KEY ROLE IN FEEDING MECHANISMS." (71)

      And: "Areas in the thalamus and hypothalamus are involved in feedback patterns that maintain the body's energy balance and body weight." (71)

    [5] Why we love spicy foods (72-76)

    [6] Touch (76-78)

    [7] The challenges of autism (78-84)

    [8] Plasticity, phantom limbs, and pain (84-88)

    [9] Sound (88-97)

      The auditory system diagram = (92)

    [10] Vision (97-108)

      THE VISION SYSTEM = Diagram (100)

    [11] The sixth and seventh senses (108-109)

3) ATTENTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS (p110-146)

    [1] Salesclerks of the brain (111-114)

    [2] Arouse, orient, detect, execute (114-120)

      THE ATTENTION SYSTEM AND ITS DYSFUNCTIONS = Diagram (119)

    [3] Emotional tags (121-122)

    [4] The role of neurotransmitters (122-123)

    [5] The effect of genes (123-125)

      THE ADDICTION PATHWAY = Diagram (125)

    [6] Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (125-129)

    [7] What is consciousness? (129-130)

      "There is a great analogy...that is useful in thinking about consciousness: that of a symphony orchestra."

    [8] Attention, memory and consciousness (130-133)

    [9] Conducting the orchestra (133-136)

      CONSCIOUSNESS = diagram (135)

    [10] The fringe (136-139)

    [11] The development of consciousness (139-144)

    [12] The easy and the hard problems (144-146)

4) MOVEMENT (p147-181

    THE MOVEMENT BRAIN = Diagram (159)

5) MEMORY (p182-221)

    [1] Making a memory (185-190)

    [2] Long-term potentiation (190-193)

    [3] Short-term versus long-term memory (194-195)

    [4] Working memory (195-198)

      THE MEMORY SYSTEM = Diagram (197)

    [5] Subjective memory (198-199)

    [6] Explicit versus implicit memory (199-201)

    [7] Episodic versus semantic memory (201-203)

    [8] Sensory memory (203-204)

    [9] Motor memory (204-206)

    [10] Visuospatial memory (206-207)

    [11] Language and verbal memory (207-209)

    [12] Trauma (209-211)

    [13] Controversy over traumatic amnesia (209-217)

    [14] Forgetting in old age (217-220)

    [15] Popcorn! (220-221)

6) EMOTION (p222-251)

    [?] The power of "self-talk" (234-257)

      "Self-talk is at the root of the empathy, understanding, cooperation, and rules that allow us to be successful social beings. Any sense of moral behavior requires thought before action.

      (1) The reflection that comes with internalized speech is crucial to allowing us to weigh different courses and their consequences, and make the best decision before taking action." (255)

      (2) "When impulses are reigned, an individual can refer backward in time to consult similar experiences, put together new combinations of possible behaviors, and refer forward in time to probable consequences." (255)

      (3) "In this way, memory and goals work with emotions to shape deliberate behavior." (255)

7) LANGUAGE (p252-289)

    THE LANGUAGE BRAIN = diagram (p268)

8) THE SOCIAL BRAIN (p290-335)

9) THE FOUR THEATERS (p336-355)

10) CARE AND FEEDING (356-377)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (p379-380))

SUGGESTED READING (p381-384)

INDEX (p385-404)
Go to Essay-Set #2: Focus on the Brain Science Facts of Life
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