The Great Brain Debate: Nature or Nurture? (Science Essentials) (Hardcover)

The Great Brain Debate: Nature or Nurture? (Science Essentials) (Hardcover)
~ John E. Dowling (Author)

[The Great Brain Debate] is an enjoyable primer on some of the most exciting areas of neuroscience research today.
(A. K. Prashanth Times Higher Education Supplement )

Dowling does a masterful job. . . . His eloquent essay provides solid examples of what elements of brain development and brain function are under genetic control and which are largely guided by experience.
(Charles A. Nelson and Irving I. Gottesman Science )

[Dowling] writes authoritatively and covers the important stuff.
(San Diego Union Tribune )

The Great Brain Debate is a fine introduction to some of the key findings in contemporary neuroscience. In addressing the mechanisms of both nature and nurture, Dowling's book is clear and judicious, well articulating our current knowledge of both.
(Gary Marcus American Journal of Psychology ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Handbook of School Neuropsychology (Hardcover)

Handbook of School Neuropsychology (Hardcover)
~ Rik Carl D'Amato (Editor), Elaine Fletcher-Janzen (Editor), Cecil R. Reynolds (Editor)

"The book is a wonderful and much-needed addition to the corpus of scientifically based literature on learning and learning disabilities, especially reading disability."
--Sally E. Shaywitz, MD Co-Director, Yale Center for the Study of Learning and Attention and author of Overcoming Dyslexia

A comprehensive reference on the theory and practice of evidence-based school neuropsychology

As new studies reveal disorders once thought behavioral or functional to be neurobiological or neurochemical in nature, clinical child neuropsychology has developed as an important discipline for understanding and treating a variety of child and adolescent disorders. With neuropsychological assessment more widely used in school settings than ever before, school psychologists require greater knowledge of both the discipline and its application in a school environment.

Bridging theory and practice, the Handbook of School Neuropsychology provides critical information on neuroanatomy, assessment, and practical, evidence-based interventions for a variety of childhood neuropsychological difficulties and disabilities. Featuring contributions from leading experts, this groundbreaking resource covers all aspects of school neuropsychology, from training and credentialing, assessment, and intervention to understanding and serving students with specific disorders or diseases.

This hands-on resource also features an appendix filled with useful tools, including a comprehensive neuropsychological questionnaire, sample neuropsychological evaluations, a list of associations, as well as sample neuropsychologically based IEPs.

The text presents the material in five sections, covering:
* Foundations of school neuropsychological practice
* Development, structure, and functioning of the brain
* Neuropsychological assessment for intervention
* Understanding and serving learners with diseases and disorders and from special populations
* Neuropsychological interventions in schools


The most comprehensive reference on the theory and practice of school neuropsychology, the Handbook of School Neuropsychology is an indispensable tool for school and child psychologists, special education professionals, and students in both fields.

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The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks: Second Edition (Hardcover)

The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks: Second Edition (Hardcover)
by Michael A. Arbib (Editor)

Dramatically updating and extending the first edition, published in 1995, the second edition of The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks presents the enormous progress made in recent years in the many subfields related to the two great questions: How does the brain work? and, How can we build intelligent machines? Once again, the heart of the book is a set of almost 300 articles covering the whole spectrum of topics in brain theory and neural networks. The first two parts of the book, prepared by Michael Arbib, are designed to help readers orient themselves in this wealth of material. Part I provides general background on brain modeling and on both biological and artificial neural networks. Part II consists of "Road Maps" to help readers steer through articles in part III on specific topics of interest. The articles in part III are written so as to be accessible to readers of diverse backgrounds. They are cross-referenced and provide lists of pointers to Road Maps, background material, and related reading. The second edition greatly increases the coverage of models of fundamental neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, and neural network approaches to language. It contains 287 articles, compared to the 266 in the first edition. Articles on topics from the first edition have been updated by the original authors or written anew by new authors, and there are 106 articles on new topics.

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The Neuroscience of Fair Play: Why We (Usually) Follow the Golden Rule (Hardcover)

The Neuroscience of Fair Play: Why We (Usually) Follow the Golden Rule (Hardcover)
by Donald W. Pfaff (Author), Edward O. Wilson (Foreword)

"The Neuroscience of Fair Play is a highly readable and insightful look at brain systems that mediate aggression, fear, compassion, love, judgment, and decision making and determine how we behave, either according to the Golden Rule or otherwise. Donald Pfaff is a pre-eminent neuroscientist with the breadth of knowledge and depth of thinking that enables him to move easily between molecules and complex behaviors. He also has a rare ability to explain science in an entertaining and highly understandable way."--Bruce S. McEwen, professor and head of the Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at The Rockefeller University and author of The End of Stress As We Know It (Bruce S. McEwen, MD 20071008)

"His sections on parenting, sexual love and aggression are intriguing . . . appeals primarily to those with a strong interest in the brain and the science of behavior."--Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly 20071010)

"Every religion delivers the golden rule, sometimes as DO unto others, and at other times as DON''T do to others. Given this universality, it would surely be insanity to argue that the golden rule is a cultural construct! Pfaff gives us the clear alternative: the golden rule is part of human nature, part of what evolution handed off as one of our essential moral building blocks. Read this book and enjoy a masterful tour of how your brain computes moral rights and wrongs in the service of creating a fair society."--Marc Hauser, Harvard College Professor and author of Moral Minds (Marc Hauser 20071016)

"Donald W. Pfaff, a leading researcher in this intermediate field, delivers a crystal-clear tour through the relevant technical intricacies of the science. The ideas that emerge are among the most important in their relevance to human affairs."--Edward O. Wilson, from the Foreword (Edward O. Wilson 20071201)

"This new theory is elegant in that it eliminates the need for complex altruism circuits in the brain. . . . He has succeeded in advancing a testable theory that he and other neuroscientists can start to untangle in the lab. If he is right, it could turn out that the Golden Rule isn't merely religious teaching. It could be encoded in the very circuitry of our brains."-Kurt Kleiner, Scientific American Mind (Kurt Kleiner Scientific American Mind 20080120)

"Pfaff marshals a vast number of different kinds of studies to buttress his premises and sustains a persuasive argument throughout."--Boston Globe (Barbara Fisher Boston Globe 20080501)

"Offers a thought-provoking account of how far modern neuroscience has come in explaining aspects of the human condition that have historically fallen exclusively under the domains of nonscientific disciplines, such as philosophy or religion. . . . He concludes by offering some timely suggestions for applying the ideas outlined in the book to solving some of society''s social ills. . . . The overall message is powerful. . . . This would be an excellent resource to use in an interdisciplinary course on morality or ethics. Recommended."-C.A. Lindgren, Choice (C. A. Lindgren CHOICE 20080410)

"For those interested in the biology of behaviour in human and non-human animals, Pfaff provides a feast of tightly woven facts. . . . Although there is substantial variation across people in the mechanisms supporting fair play, Pfaff argues persuasively that nearly all humans have the capacity for empathy and this is an essential component of our human nature."-Paul J. Zak, Times Higher Education Supplement (Paul J. Zak Times Higher Education Supplement 20080502)

"The Neuroscience of Fair Play successfully highlights important issues in a young field of inquiry."--Science (Prashanth Ak Science 20070914)

"Our brains do more than reason and think. They are also home to ancient processes of fear, aggression, love, and affection. In lucid prose, an eminent neuroscientist explains how emotions guide human morality, thus breaking with centuries of emphasis on rationality."--Frans de Waal, author of Our Inner Ape (Frans de Waal )

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The Engine of Reason, The Seat of the Soul: A Philosophical Journey into the Brain (Paperback)

The Engine of Reason, The Seat of the Soul: A Philosophical Journey into the Brain (Paperback)
by Paul M. Churchland (Author)

"...The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul [is] a very important book full of tantalizing and astute observations and insights about consciousness, thinking and thought. Its sweep encompasses morality, politics, the arts, education, penology, psychiatry and the very nature of freedom itself. This is a book to be reckoned with."
—Los Angeles Times

"Paul Churchland's The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul is an outstanding philosophical achievement, integrating artificial intelligence, brain neurology, cognitive psychology, ethnology, epistemology, scientific method, and even ethics and aesthetics, into an interlocking whole."
—W.V. Quine, Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University

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"Paul Churchland's The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul is an outstanding philosophical achievement, integrating artificial intelligence, brain neurology, cognitive psychology, ethnology, epistemology, scientific method, and even ethics and aesthetics, into an interlocking whole." -- W.V. Quine, Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University

"...The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul [is] a very important book full of tantalizing and astute observations and insights about consciousness, thinking and thought. Its sweep encompasses morality, politics, the arts, education, penology, psychiatry and the very nature of freedom itself. This is a book to be reckoned with." -- Los Angeles Times

A new picture of the mind is emerging, and explanations now exist for what has so long seemed mysterious. This real understanding of how the biological brain works -- of how we work -- has generated a mood of excitement that is shared in a half-dozen intersecting disciplines. Philosopher Paul Churchland, who is widely known as a gifted teacher and expository writer, explains these scientific developments in a simple, authoritative, and pictorial fashion. He not only opens the door into the ongoing research of the neurobiological and connectionist communities but goes further, probing the social and moral dimensions of recent experimental results that assign consciousness to all but the very simplest forms of animals.

In a fast-paced, entertaining narrative, replete with examples and numerous explanatory illustrations, Churchland brings together an exceptionally broad range of intellectual issues. He summarizes new results from neuroscience and recent work with artificial neural networks that together suggest a unified set of answers to questions about how the brain actually works; how it sustains a thinking, feeling, dreaming self; and how it sustains a self-conscious person.

Churchland first explains the science -- the powerful role of vector coding in sensory representation and pattern recognition, artificial neural networks that imitate parts of the brain, recurrent networks, neural representation of the social world, and diagnostic technologies and therapies for the brain in trouble. He then explores the far-reaching consequences of the current neurocomputational understanding of mind for our philosophical convictions, and for our social, moral, legal, medical, and personal lives.

Churchland's wry wit and skillful teaching style are evident throughout. He introduces the remarkable representational power of a single human brain, for instance, via a captivating brain/World-Trade-Tower TV screen analogy. "Who can be watching this pixilated show?" Churchland queries; the answer is a provocative "no one." And he has included a folded stereoscopic viewer, attached to the inside back cover of the book, that readers can use to participate directly in several revealing experiments concerning stereo vision.

A Bradford Book

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