H. Yang 2008-08-22

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

the problem is that brain science is just in its beginning, too many unanswered questions, I would rather read some book give me some practical advice on the brain, not this kind of not-much-usage science.

Joseph Hedderich 2008-03-12

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

I just finished this book and wanted to add another five star review as well as comment on anyone who didn't rate this book highly. I'm by no means an expert but have a deep curiosity about our inner workings. I've read a few other books by some of the juggernauts of neurology like Damasio, Le Doux, Linden, and Ramachandran.

Two quick points on why I really enjoyed it.
The first was it's brilliant holistic viewpoint of the entire brian. These other writers are all great but you must have prior knowledge before you dive into them. Plus, they tend to focus on one central theme to the brain while ignoring other components. This is that book that will give you up to date information on most topics I've come across. You'll find she addresses all of these scientist's works within her book and gives a brilliant and highly accessible synopsis of their theories as well as many more researchers. In a addition, it has an enormous amount of visual aids that are incredibly important. As an example, I just finished Synaptic Self and had that been my first book, I wouldn't be able to point to where the limbic system is in a brain. You won't have any problem identifying where the occipital module is after finishing this.

The second point is it's excellent writing style. One viewer wrote he read it in a few days because it was to simple. Like I said, it's a brilliant synopsis of many, many researchers and if you take the time to memorize what she's saying, it can be a handful. For instance, understanding the differences in male/female brains will take some time, especially if you commit terms like medial prefrontal nucleus of the hypothalamus or want to memorize what INAH3 stands for. This won't be a massively time consuming book because every page has diagrams (which are invaluable to this topic). And while some reviewers saw this as a weakness, I saw it as a strength. It's up to the reader to decide if this is what they are looking for in a book. I honestly felt the lack of diagrams in other books created a very confusing picture to try to sort out.

I may be biased because I have read a few other books but I kept reading this and felt like every page was a light bulb going off in my head telling me, "Ah-ah, this is what they were getting at in this other book." In all honesty, I just can't imagine a more thorough and complete guide to the brain.

Jesse Rouse 2008-02-05

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

I gave this book five stars in spite of disagreeing strongly with almost all of her philosophical conclusions. I hope this tells you something about how good this book is. I find it hard to believe that there is a better introductory book out there on the topic of modern neuroscience. This one is incredibly easy to understand, is one of the most interesting non-fiction books I've read in some time, and is not one of the typical pseudo-science books floating around on this subject. Rita Carter has been reporting on scientific advances for many years, and her ability to explain science to non-professionals is an invaluable asset to us lay-readers. Usually even popular level science books are a bit hard to get through, but this one is truly fun and easy, while not falling into the trap of oversimplification that some popular level science writers tend to fall into.

There are only two complaints I have about this book. The first is relatively minor: there are too many illustrations. I really do appreciate her illustrations, as they help me visualize exactly what she is talking about, but there are just too many pictures of the brain with different sections lit up as she talks about them. She could easily have included a full-page picture of the brain with all the sections labeled and then as she got to them in the book we could look at that picture to see what she was talking about. Instead we probably got at least 50 pictures (I think that's a very concervative estimate) of the brain with different areas highlighted. It would have saved probably 10-15 pages to cut those out, and there would have been no loss.

The second problem I had is much more significant, and has been noted by previous reviewers. This is her unfortunate conclusion which pervades the book. That conclusion is reductionism. She assumes that since we know that the brain effects us, we are nothing but physical processes, and as a result, we are completely determined. She literally says that free will is an illusion produced by evolution to help us survive. Such a conclusion makes me wonder why you would taket the time to write this book, or even care about philosophy if that were the case. The idea that the physical state of our brain necessitates our actions pervades the whole book, and is somewhat irritating. She entirely fails to recognize the difference between being predisposed to doing something and being predetermined to do something. For example, she notes that damage to the frontal lobe often results in symptoms that are psychopathic in nature. She concludes from this that the people who behave in this way literally have no choice in the matter. The very fact that it is "most" and not "all," should be a clue that this is taking it a bit far.

A better conclusion, which she does not even mention as a possability, is that the our individual physical brains makes us far more inclined to certain behavior, but does not necessitate it. In some cases it does appear that brain damage can remove significant amounts of a person's free will. She notes the famous case of Phineas Gage to support this, as after having a metal spike driven through his frontal lobe he lost the ability to carry out plans, and lived only for the moment. There are two significant problems with using this to show that we do not have free will. (1) The very fact that he could make plans, even though he could not carry them out, seems to indicate that he did have free will, though it was severely limited. (2) It is quite a stretch to say that no one has free will because Phineas Gage's free will was severely limited because of a head injury.

Other than the unfortunate philosophical conclusions, this was a superb book that really unveiled the workings of the human brain. You may wish to read a book about different views on philosophy of mind before you delve into this, however, as that will really help you recognize when Carter is going beyond what is merited by the science and into her own materialist reductionistic philosophy.

Overall grade: A

Sachet 2006-09-25

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Ditto what other readers have said about the user-friendliness of Carter's book. The many sidebars and illustrations make an otherwise dauting topic--heuroscience--accessible to a lay audience as well as providing a handy basic reference for the more scientifically-minded.

I did deduct a star, however, for an oversimpliication to the point of misrepresentation of a number of subjects. Carter's discussion of the amydgala and dopamine are two areas. Add Antonio Damasio, Joseph LeDoux, Elkhonon Goldberg, Candace Pert, Karl Pribram, Jeffrey Schwartz, and a number of other neuroscientists for a more complete understanding of the state of current knowledge.

I do, however, disagree that Carter has taken a reductionist, materialist approach. I think such assumptions result from her lack of in-depth treatment--one that is difficult to avoid at the level at which she presents information. In addition, the fact that she is a science writer and not a scientist, does generate some misleading statements. Her background and intended audience and purpose should be kept in mind.

Another science writer who has penned a very accessible and fascinating exploration of neuroscience is "Mind Wide Open: Your brain and the neuroscience of everyday life" by Steven Johnson. While his book lacks illustration, he tells it as a story from his experiences exploring different brain mapping technologies, and shares what he learned along the way with his reader. I was especially fascinated by his discussion of the role of dopamine. I only wish he'd included far more references than he did--espeically on that subject. (As an educator, I'm interested in the role of dopmaine in the attention system as well as in AD(H)D.)

These two books together provide an excellent lay overview of neuroscience. For a more in-depth look, include some of the other authors--especially Pert for a more integrative, non-reductionist, mind-body approach.

Ellie 2006-06-18

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Mapping The Mind by Rita Carter is one of those serendipitous finds in books that make one forget all the overhyped titles to which we are exposed. This is more than a coffee table book for the layman but, thankfuly, less than a medical school text. It is by a British science writer with extensive sidebars by recognized experts in neuropsychology. This illustrations are top rate. One can actually learn from the illustrations so that one can relate the text to the concept. This is exactly the way it should be. If I were empress of the world, my first decree would be that all text must be made understandable with extensive and top quality illustrations. That, neighbors, is how humans evolved - visual! visual! visual! Those pesky words, spoken and later written, came later.

As a premed student, I was apalled how much of what I had to study seemed designed to be obscure, even though the principle, if one could understand it from text alone, was simple. Rita Carter does us all, those of us who really want to learn about neuropsychology, a great service by her accurate yet easy to read text, an interesting but not condescending writing style, and choosing a publisher who knows how to publish a thoroughly usable book on neuropsychology for the lay person. In general, those who know, can't write, and those who write, don't know.

I'm not going to rehash details from the book - I'm sure others have done that. I am, however, going to tell you that there is so much "Oh, my God, so that's why people (fill in the blank)!" that your view of yourself and others, if not your entire view of a philosophical or religious take on life may hang by a thread.

There are plenty of clinical examples - the woman whose right hand would pick out a sensible dress whilst her left hand would pick out a wildly colorful dress, comes to mind. She suffered the 'alien hand' syndrome due to separation of the two brain hemispheres at the corpus callosum through surgery to cure her of severe epilepsy. Afterward, she had no dominant side, thus each side did what it wanted.

This is not cocktail party talk. This hits at the essence of what it means to be human. We are still human even if parts of us doesn't work. I don't have my appendix anymore, yet no social stigma attaches to that. Unfortunately, neuro-psychiatric illnesses generate enormous misunderstanding and human tragedy. Yet the principle is the same. There's just a part of us that doesn't work right. Or is missing. Or damaged in an accident.

Reading this book may help people put that in perspective. I'd recommend it for anyone who needed to understand the situation of someone with an NP disorder. From erectile disorder to schizophrenia, there is a neurological explanation, thanks to the miracle of functional imaging techniques of the last fifteen years or so, for a wide range of conditions. Nothing is shameful. What is shameful is cutting someone who simply has something wrong with their body. Shifting someone to a lower status in the family or the neighborhood simply because they have Alzheimers or La Tourette syndrome.

We might hope that in this century neuropsychology may progress such that effective treatments may be devised for many of the disabling conditions mentioned in this excellent book. If you have a motive to read a book like this - then Mapping The Mind by Rita Carter is the one I recommend.