Author: Jennifer M. Groh
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067474487X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265
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Book Description
Knowing where things are seems effortless. Yet our brains devote tremendous computational power to figuring out the simplest details about spatial relationships. Going to the grocery store or finding our cell phone requires sleuthing and coordination across different sensory and motor domains. Making Space traces this mental detective work to explain how the brain creates our sense of location. But it goes further, to make the case that spatial processing permeates all our cognitive abilities, and that the brain’s systems for thinking about space may be the systems of thought itself. Our senses measure energy in the form of light, sound, and pressure on the skin, and our brains evaluate these measurements to make inferences about objects and boundaries. Jennifer Groh describes how eyes detect electromagnetic radiation, how the brain can locate sounds by measuring differences of less than one one-thousandth of a second in how long they take to reach each ear, and how the ear’s balance organs help us monitor body posture and movement. The brain synthesizes all this neural information so that we can navigate three-dimensional space. But the brain’s work doesn’t end there. Spatial representations do double duty in aiding memory and reasoning. This is why it is harder to remember how to get somewhere if someone else is driving, and why, if we set out to do something and forget what it was, returning to the place we started can jog our memory. In making space the brain uses powers we did not know we have.
Author: Elizabeth Brannon
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0123859484
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 375
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Book Description
The study of mathematical cognition and the ways in which the ideas of space, time and number are encoded in brain circuitry has become a fundamental issue for neuroscience. How such encoding differs across cultures and educational level is of further interest in education and neuropsychology. This rapidly expanding field of research is overdue for an interdisciplinary volume such as this, which deals with the neurological and psychological foundations of human numeric capacity. A uniquely integrative work, this volume provides a much needed compilation of primary source material to researchers from basic neuroscience, psychology, developmental science, neuroimaging, neuropsychology and theoretical biology. The first comprehensive and authoritative volume dealing with neurological and psychological foundations of mathematical cognition Uniquely integrative volume at the frontier of a rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field Features outstanding and truly international scholarship, with chapters written by leading experts in a variety of fields
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Neurosciences
Languages : en
Pages : 182
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Book Description
Author: Michael Morgan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780297829706
Category : Brain
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
In this title, Michael Morgan explains how our brain interprets the images that the outside world forms in our eyes. Using sources from over the centuries - philosophical writings, scientific thinking, experiments, passages from poems, novels and films - Morgan reveals the problems that the brain has to confront in manufacturing our perceptions. The book includes optical drawings as well as some simple experiments that the reader can do to test the different components of one's sight and our own reactions to it. There is a long way to go in neurological terms before we can understand how our brains actually see, or indeed the precise location of where this happens inside the grey matter. Morgan recognizes that to achieve such an understanding may even necessitate the development of a new language that can better encompass the difficult scientific and logical interpretations that will have to be made. This work provides an overview of what we know about how the brain works regarding visual space, giving an insight into one of our most vital yet least understood senses.
Author: Dean Buonomano
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393247953
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 357
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Book Description
"Beautifully written, eloquently reasoned…Mr. Buonomano takes us off and running on an edifying scientific journey." —Carol Tavris, Wall Street Journal In Your Brain Is a Time Machine, leading neuroscientist Dean Buonomano embarks on an "immensely engaging" exploration of how time works inside the brain (Barbara Kiser, Nature). The human brain, he argues, is a complex system that not only tells time, but creates it; it constructs our sense of chronological movement and enables "mental time travel"—simulations of future and past events. These functions are essential not only to our daily lives but to the evolution of the human race: without the ability to anticipate the future, mankind would never have crafted tools or invented agriculture. This virtuosic work of popular science will lead you to a revelation as strange as it is true: your brain is, at its core, a time machine.
Author: Juergen K Mai
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 012811276X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 358
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Book Description
Human Brain in Standard MNI Space: A Comprehensive Pocket Atlas is a thorough pocket atlas designed for easy reference and interpretation of medical and scientific MR-images. It is intended for both early career and advanced medical students, for residents in radiology and neurology, and those involved in neuroscience research, emphasizing anatomy's relationship to radiology. In addition, the book is ideal for non-specialists interested in issues relating to the brain or the determination of imaging features. - Provides gyral/sulcal designations (in the MNI figures), as well as cortical (Brodmann's areas) delineations (in the diagrams) - Contains a three page section with (small) diagrams, providing 3D reconstruction of the MNI brain with definition of the cortex gyri and sulci - Includes a section that explains the Brodmann areas, along with a list of abbreviations, structures, and a hierarchical tree of structures
Author: National Academy of Sciences
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309045290
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 195
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Book Description
The brain ... There is no other part of the human anatomy that is so intriguing. How does it develop and function and why does it sometimes, tragically, degenerate? The answers are complex. In Discovering the Brain, science writer Sandra Ackerman cuts through the complexity to bring this vital topic to the public. The 1990s were declared the "Decade of the Brain" by former President Bush, and the neuroscience community responded with a host of new investigations and conferences. Discovering the Brain is based on the Institute of Medicine conference, Decade of the Brain: Frontiers in Neuroscience and Brain Research. Discovering the Brain is a "field guide" to the brainâ€"an easy-to-read discussion of the brain's physical structure and where functions such as language and music appreciation lie. Ackerman examines: How electrical and chemical signals are conveyed in the brain. The mechanisms by which we see, hear, think, and pay attentionâ€"and how a "gut feeling" actually originates in the brain. Learning and memory retention, including parallels to computer memory and what they might tell us about our own mental capacity. Development of the brain throughout the life span, with a look at the aging brain. Ackerman provides an enlightening chapter on the connection between the brain's physical condition and various mental disorders and notes what progress can realistically be made toward the prevention and treatment of stroke and other ailments. Finally, she explores the potential for major advances during the "Decade of the Brain," with a look at medical imaging techniquesâ€"what various technologies can and cannot tell usâ€"and how the public and private sectors can contribute to continued advances in neuroscience. This highly readable volume will provide the public and policymakersâ€"and many scientists as wellâ€"with a helpful guide to understanding the many discoveries that are sure to be announced throughout the "Decade of the Brain."
Author: Baoshu
Publisher: Tor Books
ISBN: 1250306019
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 253
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Book Description
Set in the universe of the New York Times bestselling Three-Body Problem trilogy, The Redemption of Time continues Cixin Liu’s multi-award-winning science fiction saga. This original story by Baoshu—published with Liu’s support—envisions the aftermath of the conflict between humanity and the extraterrestrial Trisolarans. In the midst of an interstellar war, Yun Tianming found himself on the front lines. Riddled with cancer, he chose to end his life, only to find himself flash frozen and launched into space where the Trisolaran First Fleet awaited. Captured and tortured beyond endurance for decades, Yun eventually succumbed to helping the aliens subjugate humanity in order to save Earth from complete destruction. Granted a healthy clone body by the Trisolarans, Yun has spent his very long life in exile as a traitor to the human race. Nearing the end of his existence at last, he suddenly receives another reprieve—and another regeneration. A consciousness calling itself The Spirit has recruited him to wage battle against an entity that threatens the existence of the entire universe. But Yun refuses to be a pawn again and makes his own plans to save humanity’s future... At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Author: Alain Berthoz
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674009806
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 356
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Book Description
This interpretation of perception and action allows Alain Berthoz to focus on psychological phenomena: proprioception and kinaesthesis; the mechanisms that maintain balance and co-ordination actions; and basic perceptual and memory processes involved in navigation.
Author: Mark Griffiths
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471117901
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 147
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Book Description
When Admiral Skink, an alien-lizard warlord from the planet Swerdlix, is attacked by The Hideous and Unimaginably Vast Comet Creature of Poppledock he faces a certain death… but luckily his underlings have installed the BrainTwizzler 360 Mind Migration SystemTM. This nifty invention safely transfers Skink's mind on to a memory wafer and jettisons it through space to find a suitable temporary "home" until he can be rescued by his fellow Swerdlixians. Unluckily for eleven-year-old Lance Spratley it just so happens that the temporary home for Admiral Skink's mind is his body! And while Skink deals with being trapped in Lance's useless body - it can't even breathe fire! - Lance is transferred to a virtual waiting room surrounded by the lizard race who seem intent on destroying Earth when they have successfully retrieved Skink.Will Lance ever get his body back? And even if he does will he be able to thwart Admiral Skink and the Swerdlixians plans to invade Earth…
