Mapping the mind

by Rita Carter

"Mapping the Mind charts how human behaviour and culture have been molded by the landscape of the brain. It shows how our personalities reflect the biological mechanisms underlying thought and emotion and how behavioural eccentricities may be traced to abnormalities in the geography of an individual brain. Obsessions and compulsions, for example, seem to be caused by a stuck neural switch in a brain area which monitors the environment for danger. Addiction, eating disorders, and alcoholism stem from dysfunction in the brain's reward system. Inability to change one's ideas suggests a lack of activity in the frontal lobes where plans and high-level concepts are constructed. Even belief in God has been linked to activity in a particular brain region. The differences between men's and women's brains and the distinctive characteristics of the brains of people with disorders such as dyslexia, autism, attention deficit, depression, mania, and mood swings are also explored."--BOOK JACKET