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Author Stein, Kathleen, 1944-

Title The genius engine : where memory, reason, passion, violence, and creativity intersect in the human brain / Kathleen Stein.

Imprint Hoboken, N.J. : John Wiley & Sons, c2007.

Copies

Location Call No. OPAC Message Status
 Axe 2nd Floor Stacks  612.825 St34g 2007    ---  Available
Description xi, 292 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-283) and index.
Contents Acknowledgments -- Brain maps and matrices diagram -- Introduction -- 1. Memory : the DNA of consciousness -- 2. Reason : logic, laughter, and looking within -- 3. Passion : in cold blood? -- 4. Violence : morality and the minds of the killers -- 5. Creativity : art as a window into the brain -- 6. Silicon minds : the rise of the machine genius -- Notes -- Index.
Summary 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.
Includes information on abstract thought, aggression, amygdala, Anterior cingulated cortex, antisocial personality disorder (APD), attention, brain mapping, Todd Braver, children, Jonathan Cohen, computers and computer modeling, creativity, Richard Davidson, dopamine, dorsolateral PFC, emotions, fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), John Gabrieli, Vinod Goel, Jeremy Gray, hemispheric asymmetry, inhibition, intelligence, lateral PFC, left PFC system, memory, monkeys, moral values and dilemmas, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), neurons, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), personality, prefrontal cortex (PFC), reason, reward and punishment, right PFC system, social cognition, traumatic brain injuries, violence, women, working memory, etc.
Subject Prefrontal cortex.
ISBN 0471262390 (cloth : alk. paper)
9780471262398 (cloth : alk. paper)
Standard No. NLM 101289403
YDXCP 2474650

 
    
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