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The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind
The Executive Brain is the first book to explore in popular scientific terms one of the most important and rapidly evolving topics in contemporary neuropsychology, the most "human" and recently evolved region of the brain--the frontal lobes. Crucial for all high-order functioning, it is only
in humans that the frontal lobes are so highly developed. They hold the key to our judgment, our social and ethical behavior, our imagination, indeed, to our "soul." The author shows how the frontal lobes enable us to engage in complex mental processes, how vulnerable they are to injury, and how
devastating the effects of damage often are, leading to chaotic, disorganized, asocial, and even criminal behavior.
Made up of fascinating case histories and anecdotes, Goldberg's book offers a panorama of state-of-the-art ideas and advances in cognitive neuroscience. It is also an intellectual memoir, filled with vignettes about the author's early training with the great Russian neuropsychologist A.R. Luria,
Goldberg's escape from the Soviet Union, and his later interactions with patients and professionals around the world.
in humans that the frontal lobes are so highly developed. They hold the key to our judgment, our social and ethical behavior, our imagination, indeed, to our "soul." The author shows how the frontal lobes enable us to engage in complex mental processes, how vulnerable they are to injury, and how
devastating the effects of damage often are, leading to chaotic, disorganized, asocial, and even criminal behavior.
Made up of fascinating case histories and anecdotes, Goldberg's book offers a panorama of state-of-the-art ideas and advances in cognitive neuroscience. It is also an intellectual memoir, filled with vignettes about the author's early training with the great Russian neuropsychologist A.R. Luria,
Goldberg's escape from the Soviet Union, and his later interactions with patients and professionals around the world.
251 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
21 people are currently reading
1279 people want to read
About the author
Elkhonon Goldberg
27 books42 followersBorn 1946, Elkhonon Goldberg is a neuropsychologist and cognitive neuroscientist known for his work in hemispheric specialization and the "novelty-routinization" theory.
Goldberg studied at Moscow State University with the great neuropsychologist Alexander Luria and moved to the United States in 1974. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Neurology at New York University School of Medicine, Diplomate of The American Board of Professional Psychology in Clinical Neuropsychology, and Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor of SharpBrains, an online brain fitness centre. He offers post-doctoral training in Neuropsychology at Fielding Graduate University. Elkhonon Goldberg is the Founding Director of Luria Neuroscience Institute (LNI), an organization founded with the purpose of advancing research and disseminating knowledge about the brain and the mind. He describes himself as an atheist "with agnostic tendencies".
From Wikipedia
Goldberg studied at Moscow State University with the great neuropsychologist Alexander Luria and moved to the United States in 1974. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Neurology at New York University School of Medicine, Diplomate of The American Board of Professional Psychology in Clinical Neuropsychology, and Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor of SharpBrains, an online brain fitness centre. He offers post-doctoral training in Neuropsychology at Fielding Graduate University. Elkhonon Goldberg is the Founding Director of Luria Neuroscience Institute (LNI), an organization founded with the purpose of advancing research and disseminating knowledge about the brain and the mind. He describes himself as an atheist "with agnostic tendencies".
From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 23, 2007
I loved this book. Goldberg did an outstanding job of presenting the material and presenting some of the "stranger" aspects of the frontal lobes. He presents his hypothesis that the left lobe is responsible for learned stimuli and situations and the right for novel situations and backs it up with clear evidence.
Great read!
Great read!
February 14, 2010
I'm under qualified to review this book, but I will say that I enjoyed it very much. It is, I feel, just the right balance of the technical with the personal and story-telling elements. Goldberg makes a significant case for the supreme importance of the frontal lobes in coordinating and conducting brain operations. I am personally drawn, in particular, to the discussion about cognitive stimulation and what he calls "neuronal proliferation." I look forward to reading his latest book.
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May 7, 2024El Cerebro Ejecutivo es un libro que hace referencia a grandes descubrimientos, inventos y datos interesantes.
Tambien tiene otra parte favorable, narra bastabte bien como Alexander Romanovic tiene que luchar contra toda la polémica de la revolución Rusa.
Tambien tiene otra parte favorable, narra bastabte bien como Alexander Romanovic tiene que luchar contra toda la polémica de la revolución Rusa.
September 18, 2023
4.75
Neurociencia, sociedad y redes. Escrito por Elkhonon Goldberg, discípulo de Luria, en el 2001. A pesar de haber pasado dos décadas y del gran número de publicaciones que encontramos a diario en la neurociencia cognitiva, la lectura del libro sigue tratando temas imprescindibles para entender el cerebro según los modelos actuales.
He de decir que me ha hecho irme y volver en numerosas ocasiones. Más de las que me habría gustado 🥸.
Irme por la fatiga de algunos capítulos algo densos académicamente. Además de la necesidad de releer algunas partes por que Goldberg a menudo pasa de puntillas por muchos temas relevantes actualmente. Volver por los tan interesantes e importantes hilos que desarrolla y que permite establecer un punto de partida para búsquedas personales en la neuropsicología.
Libro al que hay que volver, releer y tomar notas aunque los años pasen.
Neurociencia, sociedad y redes. Escrito por Elkhonon Goldberg, discípulo de Luria, en el 2001. A pesar de haber pasado dos décadas y del gran número de publicaciones que encontramos a diario en la neurociencia cognitiva, la lectura del libro sigue tratando temas imprescindibles para entender el cerebro según los modelos actuales.
He de decir que me ha hecho irme y volver en numerosas ocasiones. Más de las que me habría gustado 🥸.
Irme por la fatiga de algunos capítulos algo densos académicamente. Además de la necesidad de releer algunas partes por que Goldberg a menudo pasa de puntillas por muchos temas relevantes actualmente. Volver por los tan interesantes e importantes hilos que desarrolla y que permite establecer un punto de partida para búsquedas personales en la neuropsicología.
Libro al que hay que volver, releer y tomar notas aunque los años pasen.
June 30, 2020
I gave this up close to the end as the library due-date approached since I had gotten what I wanted from it. It takes awhile for books of this nature to get to a “popular” audience so I know that the science has already evolved / is out of date. Nevertheless, interesting stuff about the frontal lobes and the executive functioning that I struggle with.
April 26, 2012
This is a book mostly about the human prefrontal cortex by a leading psychological neurologist who escaped from the Soviet Union. So not only will you get some brain information but also the story of the author's professional life. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for setting and maintaining of goal behaviors. Consequently, it attempts to over-ride immediate emotional response behaviors. It accounts for 29% of the total cortex in humans, 17% in the chimpanzee, 11.5% in the gibbon, 8.5% in the lemur, 7% in the dog, and 3.5% in the cat. (page 33). Since it is the most recently evolved part of the brain its functions like episodic memory is the first to fail with age. It is also the last brain region to mature and it does not become mature until around age 18 (page 144).
The two major syndromes (or end points in a damage continuum) that arise from its damage are the dorsolateral syndrome and the orbitofrontal syndrome. The dorsolateral syndrome (chapter 8)produces pseudo-depression. Like depression this patient has an inability to initiate behaviors. Yet when behaviors can be induced after much effort they tend to persist without stopping. In severe cases the patient will lie passively in bed, neither eating nor drinking. Patients with this syndrome are no longer bothered by pain even though they can describe the pain they feel just like normal people. Most of these patients will also have Anosognosia in which they are unable to recognize their limitations with the result that they have no motivation to undergo rehabilitation exercises. Minor or slowly developing dorsolateral syndromes can be very hard to recognize since people assume that the person is becoming lazy or simply disinterested in things due to age. The orbitofrontal syndrome (chapter 9) is a condition in which the patient is emotionally dis-inhibited and impulsive. They are not able to defer immediate gratification and cannot see the consequences of their actions. They will say what is on their minds without regard to the social consequences as well.
For me the most significant new idea was Goldberg's suggestion that the underlying difference between the two brain hemispheres is based upon their learning rate in response to novelty (page 40). In all learning, a system has to make a trade-off between the speed of learning and the accuracy of learning. Those associations, as formed by conditioned learning, formed after only one or a few observed event correlations have a high probability of being wrong (the correlation could just be a coincidence) compared to associations formed after a longer observation time. It would be advantageous for any animal to be able to work with either the uncertain or certain associations depending on the task at hand. This pre-adaptation of the hemispheres is why language is most often found on the left side because of the tight context rules for grammar. Setting up a context involves making many more associations that cannot be contradictory if context control is to work. In contrast the right side of the brain would tend to be the more intuitive since it works with uncertain associations but these are associations that would not yet exist on the left side. Brain scan observations show that the right hemisphere is more active when a task is novel while the left hemisphere is more active when the task is practiced (page 49).
Overall, a great addition to anyone's neuroscience shelf.
The two major syndromes (or end points in a damage continuum) that arise from its damage are the dorsolateral syndrome and the orbitofrontal syndrome. The dorsolateral syndrome (chapter 8)produces pseudo-depression. Like depression this patient has an inability to initiate behaviors. Yet when behaviors can be induced after much effort they tend to persist without stopping. In severe cases the patient will lie passively in bed, neither eating nor drinking. Patients with this syndrome are no longer bothered by pain even though they can describe the pain they feel just like normal people. Most of these patients will also have Anosognosia in which they are unable to recognize their limitations with the result that they have no motivation to undergo rehabilitation exercises. Minor or slowly developing dorsolateral syndromes can be very hard to recognize since people assume that the person is becoming lazy or simply disinterested in things due to age. The orbitofrontal syndrome (chapter 9) is a condition in which the patient is emotionally dis-inhibited and impulsive. They are not able to defer immediate gratification and cannot see the consequences of their actions. They will say what is on their minds without regard to the social consequences as well.
For me the most significant new idea was Goldberg's suggestion that the underlying difference between the two brain hemispheres is based upon their learning rate in response to novelty (page 40). In all learning, a system has to make a trade-off between the speed of learning and the accuracy of learning. Those associations, as formed by conditioned learning, formed after only one or a few observed event correlations have a high probability of being wrong (the correlation could just be a coincidence) compared to associations formed after a longer observation time. It would be advantageous for any animal to be able to work with either the uncertain or certain associations depending on the task at hand. This pre-adaptation of the hemispheres is why language is most often found on the left side because of the tight context rules for grammar. Setting up a context involves making many more associations that cannot be contradictory if context control is to work. In contrast the right side of the brain would tend to be the more intuitive since it works with uncertain associations but these are associations that would not yet exist on the left side. Brain scan observations show that the right hemisphere is more active when a task is novel while the left hemisphere is more active when the task is practiced (page 49).
Overall, a great addition to anyone's neuroscience shelf.
July 30, 2013
Great book! Love the chapters on the frontal lobe! I know... I'm a geek!
July 1, 2025
Very educational, easy to read. It makes you understand how today brain science began, while still learning through cases and more.
September 12, 2007
The author is a good writer and gives a scientists view of the frontal lobe. But he left out a lot.
January 20, 2008
EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK!!! IT EXPLAINS HOW/WHY WE THINK AND LEARN AND FEEL AND BE HUMAN!!!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews