Brain Mechanisms in Problem Solving and Intelligence: A Lesion Survey of the Rat Brain / Edition 1

by Robert Thompson, Francis M. Crinella, Jen Yu

Overview

This book is the outcome of a decade of research on the neu­ roanatomical mechanisms of learning in the young laboratory rat. It is essentially a discourse on the functional organization of the brain in relation to problem-solving ability and intelli­ gence. During the period between 1980 and 1989, well over 1000 weanling albino rats were subjected to localized brain damage (or sham operations in the case of the controls) under deep anesthesia and aseptic surgical conditions, were allowed tore­ cover, and subsequently were tested on a wide variety of problems designed to measure general learning ability. Since vir­ tually every part of the brain rostral to the medulla has been explored with lesions, it has become possible not only to map a number of "putative" brain systems underlying the acquisition of distinctive problem-solving tasks, but to isolate several neu­ roanatomical mechanisms that appear to be selectively in­ volved in the acquisition of particular kinds of goal-directed learned activities. Of particular interest was the discovery of a "nonspecific mechanism" (previously referred to in our research reports as the "general learning system") inhabiting the interior parts of the brain. One objective of this volume was to make these maps available in a single source. Another was to provide a descrip­ tion of learning syndromes arising from local lesions to different parts of the brain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306434204
Publisher:	Springer US
Publication date:	01/31/1990
Series:	Critical Issues in Neuropsychology
Edition description:	1990
Pages:	230
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.36(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- 2. General Methods.- 3. Lesion Placements and Learning Syndromes.- 4. Maps of Learning Systems.- 5. General Findings.- 6. The Nonspecific Mechanism and Psychometric g.- 7. Interpreting the Results of the Problem-Solving Atlas: Penfield’s Centrencephalic Theory.- 8. Implications of Centrencephalic Theory.- 9. Epilogue.- References.

Editorial Reviews

A discourse on the functional organization of the brain in relation to problem-solving ability and intelligence, based on a decade of research on the neuroanatomical mechanisms of learning in young laboratory rats. (The research consisted of subjecting the rats to localized brain damage and subsequently measuring the effects upon learning ability.) Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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