Creating Mind: How the Brain Works

by John E. Dowling

What makes us human and unique among all creatures is our brain. Consciousness, perception, emotion, memory, learning, language, and intelligence all originate in and depend on the brain. Over the past century, our understanding of the brain has raced forward to reveal many of the mechanisms by which the brain creates mind and consciousness. In this brief introduction to the brain, neuroscientist John Dowling conveys to the general reader the essence and vitality of the field of neuroscience-the progress we are making in understanding how brains work and some of our strategies for studying brain function. Dowling often relates the exciting discoveries of neuroscience to specific examples of brain phenomena such as disease, mental illness, aging, or brain injury, demonstrating how these alterations in brain function cast light on normalcy and describing some of the therapies enabled by our understanding of the brain.

Genres: Science, Neuroscience

212 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1998

Reviews

[Tom Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book that is the best and simplest introduction to how the brain works--or neuroscience. This concise book is filled with interesting, accessible explanations of how various brain processes work. In these pages, I found many explanations of processes that I had only vaguely understood from other works. This is a perfect compliment to a larger study of neuroscience and the reading of neuroscience textbooks, which I am also undertaking.

If you want to understand the brain: this is your book.

[Katherine Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5