基本説明
旧版邦訳：講談社ブルーバックス・2007年。
Explores how the brain engages in complex decision-making; how it deals with novelty and ambiguity; and how it addresses moral choices.
Full Description
Elkhonon 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.
Contents
THE MANY FACES OF LEADERSHIP; THE EXECUTIVE LOBE; THE MICROSCOPIC VIEW; THE MACROSCOPIC VIEW; THE COMMAND POST AND ITS CONNECTIONS; SOUNDS AND PLAYERS; NOAH'S PREDICAMENT AND THE LANDSCAPES OF THE BRAIN; NEUROPAGANISM: MODULE MADNESS; COGNITIVE GRADIENTS AND COGNITIVE HIERARCHIES; A THING IS A THING; A WORD TO A THING; AUTONOMY AND CONTROL IN THE BRAIN; AGNOSIAS AND HEMISPHERES; EXECUTIVE DEFICIT AND HEMISPHERES; NOVELTY AND THE FRONTAL LOBES; WORKING MEMORY-OR WORKING WITH MEMORY?; FREEDOM OF CHOICE, AMBIGUITY, AND THE FRONTAL LOBES; NEUROEVERYTHING; THE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES; MALE AND FEMALE COGNITIVE STYLES; FRONTAL LOBES, HEMISPHERES, AND COGNITIVE STYLES; COGNITIVE STYLES AND BRAIN WRITING; REBELS IN SMALL PROPORTION: HANDEDNESS AND NOVELTY SEEKING; EXECUTIVE TALENTS: THE S FACTOR AND THE THEORY OF MIND; THE FRAGILE FRONTAL LOBES; FRONTAL LOBE SYNDROMES; DRIVE AND NEWTONIAN BODIES: A DORSOLATERAL CASE STUDY; PLANS AND THE "MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE"; RIGIDITY OF MIND; MIND BLINDSPOT: ANOSOGNOSIA; ORBITOFRONTAL "PSEUDOPSYCHOPATHIC" SYNDROME AND THE LOSS OF SELF-CONTROL; SOCIAL MATURITY AND THE FRONTAL LOBES; BIOLOGICAL MATURATION AND SOCIAL MATURITY: A HISTORICAL PUZZLE; FRONTAL LOBE DAMAGE AND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR; THE HAPLESS ROBBER; FRONTAL LOBE DAMAGE AND THE PUBLIC BLINDSPOT; THE FALLEN HORSEMAN: A CASE STUDY; SCHIZOPHRENIA: A CONNECTION THAT WAS NEVER MADE; HEAD TRAUMA: A BROKEN CONNECTION; ATTENTION DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER: A FRAGILE CONNECTION; ADHD CONQUERED: HOW TOBY FROM DOWN UNDER RECLAIMED HIMSELF; JERKY TIES AND TICKY JOKES; THE CORTEX AND THE STRIATUM; "COGNOTROPIC" DRUGS; JOGGING THE BRAIN; HISTORY OF COGNITIVE REHABILITATION; BRAIN PLASTICITY AND COGNITIVE EXERCISE; COGNITIVE FITNESS: BEGINNING OF A TREND; BEGINNINGS OF A PROGRAM; AUTONOMY AND CONTROL IN THE BRAIN; AUTONOMY AND CONTROL IN SOCIETY; AUTONOMY AND CONTROL IN THE DIGITAL WORLD
