Mapping The Mind

映射心智圖表人類行為和文化是由大腦景觀塑造的。卡特展示了我們的個性如何反映思想和情感的基礎生物學機制，以及行為怪癖如何追溯到個體大腦的異常。觀察和強迫似乎是由監測環境危險的區域內的神經開關卡住引起的。成癮源於大腦獎勵系統的功能障礙。甚至宗教經驗的感覺都與某個大腦區域的活動有關。還探討了男女大腦之間的區別，“同性戀大腦”的問題以及誦讀困難，自閉症和躁狂症等情況。

今天，大腦掃描就像X射線顯示我們的骨骼一樣清晰地顯示我們的想法、情緒和記憶。我們實際上可以觀察一個人的大腦註冊一個笑話或者經歷一段痛苦的記憶。麗塔卡特最新的成像技術和傑出的科學家專業知識，探索人類大腦的地理。她的寫作很清晰，方便、機智，書中的150個插圖 - 大部分都是彩色的 - 為我們頭腦中攜帶奇妙的，椰子大小的，起皺的灰色物體提供了一個圖解指南。

卡特寫道，看著大腦裡面的動作，我們看到這些動作是由我們的感知產生的，這是由於我們的基因和環境之間的相互作用形成的神經元結構決定大腦活動。卡特並沒有迴避自由意志的問題，他建議後代會利用我們日益增長的大腦知識來“提高那些為我們的生活帶來甜蜜和意義的心理素質，並消除那些具有破壞性的心理素質。”

Today a brain scan reveals our thoughts, moods, and memories as clearly as an X-ray reveals our bones. We can actually observe a person's brain registering a joke or experiencing a painful memory. Drawing on the latest imaging technology and the expertise of distinguished scientists, Rita Carter explores the geography of the human brain. Her writing is clear, accessible, witty, and the book's 150 illustrations—most in color—present an illustrated guide to that wondrous, coconut-sized, wrinkled gray mass we carry inside our heads.

Mapping the Mind charts the way human behavior and culture have been molded by the landscape of the brain. Carter shows how our personalities reflect the biological mechanisms underlying thought and emotion and how behavioral eccentricities may be traced to abnormalities in an individual brain. Obsessions and compulsions seem to be caused by a stuck neural switch in a region that monitors the environment for danger. Addictions stem from dysfunction in the brain's reward system. Even the sense of religious experience has been linked to activity in a certain brain region. The differences between men and women's brains, the question of a "gay brain," and conditions such as dyslexia, autism, and mania are also explored.

Looking inside the brain, writes Carter, we see that actions follow from our perceptions, which are due to brain activity dictated by a neuronal structure formed from the interplay between our genes and the environment. Without sidestepping the question of free will, Carter suggests that future generations will use our increasing knowledge of the brain to "enhance those mental qualities that give sweetness and meaning to our lives, and to eradicate those that are destructive."

  R Carter  (Autor)

Publisher: Phoenix House 

ISBN:    978-0753827956 

原價   $20..57    台幣價 NT$:720