my mind on books

The Domesticated Brain: A Pelican Introduction by Bruce Hood (Pelican Books, 2014)

(kindle ed.), (amazon.co.uk), (UK kindle ed.)

Book description from the publisher:

What makes us social animals?

Why do we behave the way we do?

How does the brain influence our behaviour?

The brain may have initially evolved to cope with a threatening world of beasts, limited food and adverse weather, but we now use it to navigate an equally unpredictable social landscape. In The Domesticated Brain, renowned psychologist Bruce Hood explores the relationship between the brain and social behaviour, looking for clues as to origins and operations of the mechanisms that keep us bound together. How do our brains enable us to live together, to raise children, and to learn and pass on information and culture? Combining social psychology with neuroscience, Hood provides an essential introduction to the hidden operations of the brain, and explores what makes us who we are.

Google Books preview:

Sensation: The New Science of Physical Intelligence by Thalma Lobel (Atria Books, 2014)

(kindle ed.), (amazon.co.uk), (UK kindle ed.)

Book description from the publisher:

Color and temperature, darkness and light, rough and smooth textures—all these sensations influence your inner world and your actions with unexpected power. In Sensation, one of the world’s leading experts on human behavior, Dr. Thalma Lobel, shares an exciting, completely new view of physical intelligence, or embodied cognition. She reveals that physical experiences unconsciously affect your everyday decisions and choices—with profound implications for your everyday life.

Before you read the rest of this description, find a comfy place to sit and settle in with a mug of something warm. If you can, wrap yourself in a soft jacket, shawl, or blanket. Once you’re warm and cozy, you’ll warm to new ideas more quickly. Now listen: This book holds the power to change your life.

That sounds like a lofty claim, but if this book were ten pounds heavier, you might regard that claim as more believable. (Job seekers, take note: A resume printed on thin paper is taken less seriously than ones on thick paper.) If this copy were written

TOP
TO
BOTTOM

instead of SIDE TO SIDE

you’d be more likely to believe it. You might also pay more attention if this were printed on red paper—although that color would seriously undermine your reading comprehension. (Test takers, beware: Exposure to the color red significantly and consistently reduces performance. But a whiff of cinnamon may undo the damage.)

The more you know about how your physical environment influences your mind’s interpretation of the world around you, the better you are able to navigate tricky waters and get to where you want to go. People with a sweet tooth seem kinder than others. Clean smells promote moral behavior, but people are more likely to cheat on a test right after having taken a shower. Hard surfaces make us inflexible. Sensation empowers you to recognize these outside forces and hidden biases, and even put them to use in your own life, in order to improve every facet of your personal and professional lives. The outside world shapes our perceptions and beliefs at every moment; Sensation reveals these hidden effects and lets you take control of your place in the world.

Google Books preview:

See also: Author’s website

I Can Hear You Whisper: An Intimate Journey through the Science of Sound and Language by Lydia Denworth (Dutton, 2014)

(kindle ed.), (amazon.co.uk)

Book description from the publisher:

An investigation into the science of hearing, child language acquisition, neuroplasticity, brain development, and Deaf culture. 

A mother notices her toddler is not learning to talk the way his brothers did… Is something wrong?  Her search for answers is a journey into the mysteries of the human brain.

Lydia Denworth’s third son, Alex, was nearly two when he was identified with significant hearing loss that was likely to get worse. Her sweet boy with the big brown eyes had probably never heard her lullabies.

Denworth knew the importance of enrichment to the developing brain but had never contemplated the opposite: Deprivation.  How would a child’s brain grow outside the world of sound most of us take for granted? How would he communicate?  Would he learn to read and write—weren’t phonics a key to literacy? How long did they have until Alex’s brain changed irrevocably? In her drive to understand the choices—starting with the angry debate between supporters of American Sign Language and the controversial but revolutionary cochlear implant—Denworth soon found that every decision carried weighty scientific, social and even political implications.  As she grappled with the complex collisions between the emerging field of brain plasticity, the possibilities of modern technology, and the changing culture of the Deaf community, she gained a new appreciation of the exquisite relationship between sound, language and learning.  It became clear that Alex’s ears—and indeed everyone’s—were just the beginning.

An acclaimed science journalist as well as a mother, Denworth interviewed the world’s experts on language development, inventors of ground-breaking technology, Deaf leaders, and neuroscientists at the frontiers of research.  She presents insights from studies of everything from at-risk kids in Head Start to noisy cocktail party conversation, from songbirds to signal processing, and from the invention of the telephone to sign language.

Weaving together tales from the centuries-long quest to develop the cochlear implant and simultaneous leaps in neuroscientific knowledge against a tumultuous backdrop of identity politics, I Can Hear You Whisper shows how sound sculpts our children’s brains and the life changing consequences of that delicate process.

Google Books preview:

See also: Author’s website

Mental Biology: The New Science of How the Brain and Mind Relate by W.R. Klemm (Prometheus, 2014)

(kindle ed.), (amazon.co.uk), (UK kindle ed.)

Book description from the publisher:

A leading neuroscientist offers the latest research and many new ideas on the connections between brain circuitry and conscious experience.

How the mysterious three-pound organ in our heads creates the rich array of human mental experience, including the sense of self and consciousness, is one of the great challenges of 21st-century science. Veteran neuroscientist W. R. Klemm presents the latest research findings on this elusive brain-mind connection in a lucidly presented, accessible, and engaging narrative.

The author focuses on how mind emerges from nerve-impulse patterns in the densely-packed neural circuits that make up most of the brain, suggesting that conscious mind can be viewed as a sort of neural-activity-based avatar. As an entity in its own right, mind on the conscious level can have significant independent action, shaping the brain that sustains it through its plans, goals, interests, and interactions with the world. Thus, in a very literal sense, we become what we think.

Against researchers who argue that conscious mind is merely a passive observer and free will an illusion, the author presents evidence showing that mental creativity, freedom to act, and personal responsibility are very real. He also delves into the role of dream sleep in both animals and humans, and explains the brain-based differences between nonconscious, unconscious, and conscious minds.

Written in a jargon-free style understandable to the lay reader, this is a fascinating synthesis of recent neuroscience and intriguing hypotheses.

Google Books preview:

See also: Author’s website

Neurocomic by Hana Roš, illustrated by Matteo Farinella (Nobrow Press, 2014)

(amazon.co.uk)

Book description from the publisher:

Do you know what your brain is made of? How does memory function? What is a neuron and how does it work? For that matter what’s a comic? And in the words of Lewis Carroll’s famous caterpillar: “Who are you?”

Neurocomic is a journey through the human brain: a place of neuron forests, memory caves, and castles of deception. Along the way, you’ll encounter Boschean beasts, giant squid, guitar-playing sea slugs, and the great pioneers of neuroscience. Hana Roš and Matteo Farinella provide an insight into the most complex thing in the universe.

• Produced in association with the Wellcome Trust, one of the world’s largest medical charities
• A superb introduction to the complexities of the brain for the layman
• High production values, FSC paper stock, and foil embossed cover

See also: Book website, post at brainpickings.org (ht!)