Why do people struggle with thoughts or understanding? How does the structure of the brain impact who we are? David Stifel provides a confident professorial tone in his narration of Kandel’s fascinating audiobook. Listeners searching for a fundamental review of neurobiology will find it satisfyingly comprehensive. Kandel, a Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist, covers a broad spectrum of topics, including the current research on Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, anxiety, addiction, and depression, as well sexual identify and gender. Kandel also considers the biological nature of emotional expression. While unquestionably scholarly, Kandel's audiobook is accessible to curious listeners, particularly those with an interest in neurology. Stifel’s voice conveys the material clearly, making the sometimes complicated material easier to grasp. S.P.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves
Narrated by David Stifel
Eric R. KandelUnabridged — 9 hours, 36 minutes
The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves
Narrated by David Stifel
Eric R. KandelUnabridged — 9 hours, 36 minutes
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Overview
Eric R. Kandel, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his foundational research into memory storage in the brain, is one of the pioneers of modern brain science. His work continues to shape our understanding of how learning and memory work and to break down age-old barriers between the sciences and the arts.
In his seminal new audiobook, The Disordered Mind, Kandel draws on a lifetime of pathbreaking research and the work of many other leading neuroscientists to take us on an unusual tour of the brain. He confronts one of the most difficult questions we face: How does our mind, our individual sense of self, emerge from the physical matter of the brain?
The brain's 86 billion neurons communicate with one another through very precise connections. But sometimes those connections are disrupted. The brain processes that give rise to our mind can become disordered, resulting in diseases such as autism, depression, schizophrenia, Parkinson's, addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder. While these disruptions bring great suffering, they can also reveal the mysteries of how the brain produces our most fundamental experiences and capabilities—the very nature of what it means to be human. Studies of autism illuminate the neurological foundations of our social instincts; research into depression offers important insights on emotions and the integrity of the self; and paradigm-shifting work on addiction has led to a new understanding of the relationship between pleasure and willpower.
By studying disruptions to typical brain functioning and exploring their potential treatments, we will deepen our understanding of thought, feeling, behavior, memory, and creativity. Only then can we grapple with the big question of how billions of neurons generate consciousness itself.
Editorial Reviews
…[an] engaging new overview of contemporary thinking about the intersection of mental health and neuroscience…Kandel's well-constructed narrative smoothly blends historical perspective and first-person accounts with explanations of recent experiments.
★ 06/11/2018
Nobel Prize–winning-neuroscientist Kandel (Reduction in Art and Brain Science) delves optimistically into the current state of the “new biology of mind,” a sophisticated framework deriving from “the marriage of modern cognitive psychology and neuroscience.” Kandel consolidates data and ideas from core advances, including genetic research that proves some biological basis for various psychiatric disorders, and imaging techniques that indicate the function of specific brain structures. Emphasizing that brain disorders can yield insights into normal cognitive functioning, he looks to autism for understanding the social brain, depression and bipolar disorders for understanding the emotional brain, schizophrenia for understanding decision making, dementia for understanding memory, and Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease for understanding movement. His background as coauthor of the flagship textbook Principles of Neural Science is clear throughout, thanks to the highly accessible presentation, heavy on reader-friendly graphics and explanations of basics. Kandel’s deep compassion for people is also evident, as when he discusses how understanding the biological basis for mental disorders might take them out of the realm of legal culpability. The result of his work is an easily comprehended, meticulous synthesis of current research into the biological grounding of the human mind. 77 color and b&w illus. (Aug.)
"Engaging . . . Kandel’s well-constructed narrative smoothly blends historical perspective and first-person accounts with explanations of recent experiments . . . Excellent." —Alan Jasanoff, The New York Times Book Review
"Kandel is an astute reader and a reflective observer . . . Neuroscience comes alive in Kandel’s study through the personal and imaginative ruminations of disordered minds . . . Kandel asks his reader to confront the anecdotal and inexplicable and think hard about what it means." —Stephen T. Casper, Science
"A lucidly written, accessible and fascinating read." —Eliezer J. Sternberg, The Washington Post
"Eric Kandel is one of the giants of 20th- and 21st-century neuroscience . . . [The Disordered Mind] is both easy to read and informative . . . I recommend it to behavioral neurologists and neuropsychiatrists, both for their own edification and for seeing what their more intelligent patients are reading." —Howard S. Kirshner, Vanderbilt University Department of Neurology, Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology
"Highly accessible . . . Kandel’s deep compassion for people is also evident, as when he discusses how understanding the biological basis for mental disorders might take them out of the realm of legal culpability. The result of his work is an easily comprehended, meticulous synthesis of current research into the biological grounding of the human mind." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Kandel's clear and straightforward writing makes this informative scientific exploration accessible and compelling." —Library Journal
"Fascinating stuff ably interpreted by a master." —Kirkus Reviews
"No doubt neurons will be buzzing as readers contemplate Kandel’s thought-provoking book." —Tony Miksanek, Booklist
Praise for Eric Kandel
"[Kandel's discoveries] have truly changed our understanding of brain function." —Citation for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
"[Eric Kandel is] one of the preeminent neuroscientists in the world." —Sue Halpern, The New York Review of Books
Why do people struggle with thoughts or understanding? How does the structure of the brain impact who we are? David Stifel provides a confident professorial tone in his narration of Kandel’s fascinating audiobook. Listeners searching for a fundamental review of neurobiology will find it satisfyingly comprehensive. Kandel, a Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist, covers a broad spectrum of topics, including the current research on Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, anxiety, addiction, and depression, as well sexual identify and gender. Kandel also considers the biological nature of emotional expression. While unquestionably scholarly, Kandel's audiobook is accessible to curious listeners, particularly those with an interest in neurology. Stifel’s voice conveys the material clearly, making the sometimes complicated material easier to grasp. S.P.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
2018-05-15
The eminent neuroscientist examines what the injured or diseased brain can tell us about a healthy one."Today, as never before, the study of brain disorders is giving us new insight into how our mind normally functions," writes Nobel Prize winner Kandel (Neuroscience/Columbia Univ.; Reductionism in Art and Brain Science: Bridging the Two Cultures, 2016, etc.). That "normal function" is a complex process involving many parts of the brain, reflecting the emergent fact that consciousness is not a single function of the brain but instead a continuum of "different states of minds in different contexts." Complex cognitive skills such as understanding speech require input from several widely separated areas of the brain, including the arcuate fasciculus and Broca's area, while the generation and execution of emotion involve the hypothalamus, striatum, prefrontal cortex, and one tiny part of the brain whose functions are just being understood: "When we laugh or cry—when we experience any emotion—it is because these brain structures are responding to the amygdala, and acting on its instructions." But just so, writes Kandel, problems such as addiction also involve several brain regions and neural circuits, requiring multiple approaches to any neuroscientific regime of treatment. Autism is another such area, manifesting itself in failures in the complex problem of interpreting "biological motion," which in turn "enables us to recognize intention, which is critical to a theory of mind." In the end, understanding various states of brain function in varying degrees of health helps address not just the question of consciousness, modern theories of which Kandel addresses in closing, but also the much larger issue of human nature and what it entails. Throughout, the author writes accessibly, though it may help readers to have some background in neuroscience and anatomy.Synaptic pruning, folded proteins, adaptive habits: all fascinating stuff ably interpreted by a master.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940170168279 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Macmillan Audio |
| Publication date: | 08/28/2018 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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