The New Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes in a Complex WorldElkhonon Goldberg's groundbreaking The Executive Brain was a classic of scientific writing, revealing how the frontal lobes command the most human parts of the mind. Now he offers a completely new book, providing fresh, iconoclastic ideas about the relationship between the brain and the mind. In The New Executive Brain, Goldberg paints a sweeping panorama of cutting-edge thinking in cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology, one that ranges far beyond the frontal lobes. Drawing on the latest discoveries, and developing complex scientific ideas and relating them to real life through many fascinating case studies and anecdotes, the author explores how the brain engages in complex decision-making; how it deals with novelty and ambiguity; and how it addresses moral choices. At every step, Goldberg challenges entrenched assumptions. For example, we know that the left hemisphere of the brain is the seat of language--but Goldberg argues that language may not be the central adaptation of the left hemisphere. Apes lack language, yet many also show evidence of asymmetric hemispheric development. Goldberg also finds that a complex interaction between the frontal lobes and the amygdale--between a recently evolved and a much older part of the brain--controls emotion, as conscious thoughts meet automatic impulses. The author illustrates this observation with a personal example: the difficulty he experienced when trying to pick up a baby alligator he knew to be harmless, as his amygdala battled his effort to extend his hand. In the years since the original Executive Brain, Goldberg has remained at the front of his field, constantly challenging orthodoxy. In this revised and expanded edition, he affirms his place as one of our most creative and insightful scientists, offering lucid writing and bold, paradigm-shifting ideas. |
From inside the book
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Page xiii
... neuroscience cognoscenti in the field, but anyone curious to understand the human mind, especially at the moment. You are about to uncover some of the secrets of the frontal lobes of the brain. These large areas, occupying as they do ...
... neuroscience cognoscenti in the field, but anyone curious to understand the human mind, especially at the moment. You are about to uncover some of the secrets of the frontal lobes of the brain. These large areas, occupying as they do ...
Page xv
... , not just to the neuroscientist, but to anyone hoping to make the most of living in the twenty-first century. Susan Greenfield Oxford, April 2009 This page intentionally left blank THE NEW EXECUTIVE BRAIN This Foreword xv.
... , not just to the neuroscientist, but to anyone hoping to make the most of living in the twenty-first century. Susan Greenfield Oxford, April 2009 This page intentionally left blank THE NEW EXECUTIVE BRAIN This Foreword xv.
Page 3
... neuroscientists. The New Executive Brain is a successor book which reflects some of my own more recent thinking as well as the recent discoveries in the vibrant field of cognitive neuroscience. In writing this book I have tried to ...
... neuroscientists. The New Executive Brain is a successor book which reflects some of my own more recent thinking as well as the recent discoveries in the vibrant field of cognitive neuroscience. In writing this book I have tried to ...
Page 4
... neuroscience that are of interest to scientists and clinicians as well as to lay readers interested in the workings of the brain and the mind. The book does not represent an attempt at an encyclopedic, textbooklike account of the ...
... neuroscience that are of interest to scientists and clinicians as well as to lay readers interested in the workings of the brain and the mind. The book does not represent an attempt at an encyclopedic, textbooklike account of the ...
Page 5
... Neuroscientists are only now beginning to study what people on the street have assumed all along, that men and women are different. Men and women approach things differently and have different cognitive styles. We will examine how these ...
... Neuroscientists are only now beginning to study what people on the street have assumed all along, that men and women are different. Men and women approach things differently and have different cognitive styles. We will examine how these ...
Contents
| 3 | |
| 9 | |
| 20 | |
| 25 | |
| 37 | |
6 Novelty Routines and Cerebral Hemispheres | 63 |
A Closer Look at the Frontal Lobes | 89 |
8 Emotion and Cognition | 115 |
11 Social Maturity Morality Law and the Frontal Lobes | 171 |
12 Fateful Disconnections | 189 |
13 What Can You Do for Me? | 228 |
Inside the Black Box | 252 |
15 Frontal Lobes and the Leadership Paradox | 275 |
16 Epilogue | 282 |
References and Notes | 291 |
Index | 323 |
Other editions - View all
The New Executive Brain:Frontal Lobes in a Complex World: Frontal Lobes in a ... Elkhonon Goldberg No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
ability activation actor-centered agnosias Alzheimer’s disease amygdala anterior cingulate cortex areas aspects basal ganglia behavior brain damage brain stem cerebral Charlie cingulate cortex clinical Cognitive Bias cognitive exercise cognitive neuroscience colleagues complex computational contrast cortical decision deficit dementia disorder distinct dopamine dorsolateral effects emotional evolution experience females frontal cortex frontal lobe damage frontal lobe dysfunction frontal lobes functional neuroimaging Goldberg gradiental hemispheric specialization hidden layer hippocampi human impaired individual interaction Kevin language later learning left hemisphere lesions linked long-term Luria males mechanisms memory mental representations models modular neocortex neocortical neural network neuroanatomical neurological neurons neuroplasticity neuropsychology neuroscientists novelty nuclei one’s orbitofrontal orbitofrontal cortex organization parietal particularly pathways patients perseveration posterior prefrontal cortex regions relationship relatively response right hemisphere role schizophrenia Science sensory situations social Soviet specific striatum structures symptoms syndrome task temporal lobe thalamus tion Toby Tourette’s ventral veridical Vladimir