基本説明
New in paperback. Hardcover was published in 2004. Data from the study of the developing, adult, and aging brain are providing us with new ways of thinking about the issue.
Full Description
Whether our personality, intelligence, and behavior are more likely to be shaped by our environment or our genetic coding is not simply an idle question for today's researchers. There are tremendous consequences to understanding the crucial role that environment and genes each play. How we raise and educate our children, how we treat various mental diseases or conditions, how we care for our elderly--these are just some of the issues that can be informed by a better understanding of brain development. In The Great Brain Debate, the eminent neuroscience researcher John Dowling looks at these and other important issues. The work that is being done on the connection between the brain and vision, as well as the ways in which our brains help us learn new languages, are particularly revealing. From this groundbreaking new research, Dowling explains startling new insights into how the brain functions and how it can (or cannot) be molded and changed. By studying the brain across the spectrum of our lives, from infancy through adulthood and into old age, Dowling shows the ways in which both nature and nurture play key roles over the course of a human lifetime.
Contents
Introduction 1 Part I: The Developing Brain Chapter 1: Building a Brain 7 Chapter 2: Maturing a Brain 33 Chapter 3: Developing Behaviors 57 Part II: The Adult Brain Chapter 4: Teaching Older Dogs New Tricks 83 Chapter 5: Controversies: New Neurons and Genes and Behavior 111 Part III: The Aging Brain Chapter 6: Is Aging of the Brain a Disease? 139 Conclusions (and Speculations) 161 Further Reading 175 Figure Credits 177 Index 179
