Read more
Much of contemporary behavioral or cognitive neuroscience is concerned with discovering the neural basis of psychological processes such as attention, cognition, consciousness, perception, and memory. In sharp divergence from this field, An Odyssey Through the Brain, Behavior and the Mind can be regarded as an elaborate demonstration that the large scale features of brain electrical activity are related to sensory and motor processes in various ways but are not organised in accordance with conventional psychological concepts. It is argued that much of the traditional lore concerning the mind is based on prescientific philosophical assumptions and has little relevance to brain function.
The first ten chapters of An Odyssey Through the Brain, Behavior and the Mind give a personal account of how the various discoveries that gave rise to these views came to be made. This is followed by discussions of brain organization in relation to behavior, learning and memory, sleep and consciousness, and the general problem of the mind.
List of contents
1 A Preparation and a Beginning.- 2 Hippocampal Activity and Behavior.- 3 Hippocampal Slow Waves, Learning, and Instinctive Behavior.- 4 Two Afferent Systems Control the Activation of the Neocortex and Hippocampus.- 5 The Anatomical and Neurochemical Basis of Atropine-Resistant Neocortical Activation1.- 6 The Anatomical and Neurochemical Basis of Atropine-Resistant Hippocampal Rhythmical Slow Activity.- 7 Ascending Cholinergic Control of the Neocortex and Hippocampus.- 8 What is the Function of Cerebral Cortical Activation?.- 9 Whatever Became of the Ascending Reticular Activating System?.- 10 Olfactory Reactions in the Dentate Gyrus and Pyriform Cortex.- 11 The Mind and Behavioral Neuroscience.- 12 Epilogue.
Summary
Much of contemporary behavioral or cognitive neuroscience is concerned with discovering the neural basis of psychological processes such as attention, cognition, consciousness, perception, and memory. In sharp divergence from this field, An Odyssey Through the Brain, Behavior and the Mind can be regarded as an elaborate demonstration that the large scale features of brain electrical activity are related to sensory and motor processes in various ways but are not organised in accordance with conventional psychological concepts. It is argued that much of the traditional lore concerning the mind is based on prescientific philosophical assumptions and has little relevance to brain function.
The first ten chapters of An Odyssey Through the Brain, Behavior and the Mind give a personal account of how the various discoveries that gave rise to these views came to be made. This is followed by discussions of brain organization in relation to behavior, learning and memory, sleep and consciousness, and the general problem of the mind.
