Mental Biology: The New Science of How the Brain and Mind Relate

Mental Biology: The New Science of How the Brain and Mind Relate

by W. R. Klemm
Mental Biology: The New Science of How the Brain and Mind Relate

Mental Biology: The New Science of How the Brain and Mind Relate

by W. R. Klemm

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Overview

A leading neuroscientist offers the latest research and many new ideas on the connections between brain circuitry and conscious experience. How the mysterious three-pound organ in our heads creates the rich array of human mental experience, including the sense of self and consciousness, is one of the great challenges of 21st-century science. Veteran neuroscientist W. R. Klemm presents the latest research findings on this elusive brain-mind connection in a lucidly presented, accessible, and engaging narrative. The author focuses on how mind emerges from nerve-impulse patterns in the densely-packed neural circuits that make up most of the brain, suggesting that conscious mind can be viewed as a sort of neural-activity-based avatar. As an entity in its own right, mind on the conscious level can have significant independent action, shaping the brain that sustains it through its plans, goals, interests, and interactions with the world. Thus, in a very literal sense, we become what we think. Against researchers who argue that conscious mind is merely a passive observer and free will an illusion, the author presents evidence showing that mental creativity, freedom to act, and personal responsibility are very real. He also delves into the role of dream sleep in both animals and humans, and explains the brain-based differences between nonconscious, unconscious, and conscious minds. Written in a jargon-free style understandable to the lay reader, this is a fascinating synthesis of recent neuroscience and intriguing hypotheses.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781616149444
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Publication date: 04/08/2014
Pages: 288
Sales rank: 636,008
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

W. R. Klemm, DVM, PhD, is a professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A & M University and the author of over five hundred publications, including sixteen previous books, most recently, Memory Power 101: A Comprehensive Guide to Better Learning for Students, Businesspeople, and Seniors; Atoms of Mind: The "Ghost in the Machine" Materializes; and Core Ideas in Neuroscience. He has also been the president and cofounder of Forum Enterprises, Inc., a retired colonel in the Air Force Reserves, a business consultant, and the project director for five educational outreach grants.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 11

Preface 13

Chapter 1 In the Beginning 17

From "Big Bang" to Big Ideas 19

Victim of Biology and Circumstance? 20

Chapter 2 How Brains Work 25

Neural Networks: The Architecture of Complex Systems 26

Topographical Mapping 29

The Brain's Currency 34

The Nature of Thought 50

The Binding Problem 52

Oscillation 53

The Brain's Three Minds 56

On Being Awake 60

Consciousness Is in the Brain 61

The Context of Self 65

Origin of the Sense of Self 67

Who and What Am I? 71

Neuroplasticity: Changing Mind by Changing Brain 72

Chapter 3 The Nature of Consciousness 77

Conscious Sense of Self 82

Mass Action, Brain Size, and Consciousness 87

Causes of Consciousness 89

Brainstem Trigger of Wakefulness 89

Learning How to Be Conscious 92

CIP Basis of Consciousness 94

Synchronization 97

The "Hard Problem" 99

Conscious Thought 101

How We Think When Conscious 102

Working Memory Biology 103

Consolidation of Working Memory 107

"Thoughtless" Habits and Compulsions 108

Different States of Consciousness 109

Distorted Conscious States 110

Where Mind Goes When We Sleep 114

Memorizing in Our Sleep 118

Activated Sleep 119

Chapter 4 Does Consciousness Do Anything? 135

Why Are We Conscious? 135

The Value of Consciousness 138

Agency 139

The Brain's Avatar 145

Avatar Supporting Evidence 153

Why Have Avatars? 156

Unleashing the Avatar 159

How the Avatar Knows It Knows 159

The Avatar s Artifacts 162

Avatars Learn and Teach 167

Are We Free or Are We Robots? 168

How Choices/Decisions Are Made 169

The Biological Robot Argument 174

Robotocist Research and Its Critique 177

Examples of Apparently Conscious-Driven Action 197

The Purpose-Filled Life of Consciously Driven Action 202

The Role of Learning and Memory in Conscious Choice 204

Robotocism in Religion and Politics 208

What Consciousness Does 215

Directing Attention 218

Learning 221

Explicitness Promotes Memory 224

Introspection 225

Language 226

Reasoning 227

Consciousness Promotes Better Decisions 228

Creativity 229

Reprogramming Conscious-Self Dysfunction 231

Personal Growth 232

Personal Responsibility 233

Belief 234

The Avatars "New" Genetics 237

Chapter 5 To Beyond? 241

"Spooky" Science: Hidden Realities 242

Near-Death Experiences 253

Living the Life We Were Meant to Live 255

Perspectives on Science and the Mind's Odyssey 260

Notes 265

Index 277

About the Author 287

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