The New Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes in a Complex World

by Elkhonon Goldberg

Overview

Elkhonon Goldberg's groundbreaking The Executive Brain was a classic of scientific writing, revealing how the frontal lobes command the most human parts of the mind. Now he offers a completely new book, providing fresh, iconoclastic ideas about the relationship between the brain and the mind.
In The New Executive Brain, Goldberg paints a sweeping panorama of cutting-edge thinking in cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology, one that ranges far beyond the frontal lobes. Drawing on the latest discoveries, and developing complex scientific ideas and relating them to real life through many fascinating case studies and anecdotes, the author explores how the brain engages in complex decision-making; how it deals with novelty and ambiguity; and how it addresses moral choices. At every step, Goldberg challenges entrenched assumptions. For example, we know that the left hemisphere of the brain is the seat of language—but Goldberg argues that language may not be the central adaptation of the left hemisphere. Apes lack language, yet many also show evidence of asymmetric hemispheric development. Goldberg also finds that a complex interaction between the frontal lobes and the amygdale—between a recently evolved and a much older part of the brain—controls emotion, as conscious thoughts meet automatic impulses. The author illustrates this observation with a personal example: the difficulty he experienced when trying to pick up a baby alligator he knew to be harmless, as his amygdala battled his effort to extend his hand.
In the years since the original Executive Brain, Goldberg has remained at the front of his field, constantly challenging orthodoxy. In this revised and expanded edition, he affirms his place as one of our most creative and insightful scientists, offering lucid writing and bold, paradigm-shifting ideas.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195329407
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/12/2009
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	407,395
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Elkhonon Goldberg, Ph.D. is Clinical Professor of Neurology, New York University School of Medicine. He was a student of the great Russian neuropsychologist Alexander Luria, and is the author of The Executive Brain and The Wisdom Paradox.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction2. An End and a Beginning: A Dedication3. The Brain's Chief Executive: The Frontal Lobes at a GlanceThe Many Faces of LeadershipThe Executive Lobe4. Architecture of the Brain: A PrimerThe Microscopic ViewThe Macroscopic ViewThe Command Post and its Connections5. The Orchestra's Front Row: The CortexSounds and PlayersNoah's Predicament and the Landscapes of the BrainNeuropaganism: Module MadnessCognitive Gradients and Cognitive HierarchiesA Thing is a ThingA Word to a ThingAutonomy and Control in the Brain6. Novelty, Routines, and Cerebral HemispheresAgnosias and HemispheresExecutive Deficit and Hemispheres7. The Conductor: A Closer Look at the Frontal LobesNovelty and the Frontal LobesWorking Memory—or Working with Memory?Freedom of Choice, Ambiguity, and the Frontal LobesNeuroeverything8. Emotion and Cognition9. Different Lobes for Different Folks: Decision-Making Styles and the Frontal LobesThe Neuropsychology of Individual DifferencesMale and Female Cognitive StylesFrontal Lobes, Hemispheres, and Cognitive StylesCognitive Styles and Brain WritingRebels in Small Proportion: Handedness and Novelty SeekingExecutive Talents: The S Factor and the Theory of Mind10. When the Leader is WoundedThe Fragile Frontal LobesFrontal Lobe SyndromesDrive and Newtonian Bodies: A Dorsolateral Case StudyPlans and the "Memories of the Future"Rigidity of MindMind Blindspot: Anosognosia11. Social Maturity, Morality, Law, and the Frontal LobesOrbitofrontal "Pseudopsychopathic" Syndrome and the Loss of Self-ControlSocial Maturity and the Frontal LobesBiological Maturation and Social Maturity: A Historical PuzzleFrontal Lobe Damage and Criminal BehaviorThe Hapless RobberFrontal Lobe Damage and the Public Blindspot12. Fateful DisconnectionsThe Fallen Horseman: A Case StudySchizophrenia: A Connection that was Never MadeHead Trauma: A Broken ConnectionAttention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Fragile ConnectionADHD Conquered: How Toby from Down Under Reclaimed HimselfJerky Ties and Ticky JokesThe Cortex and the Striatum13. "What Can You Do for Me?""Cognotropic" DrugsJogging the BrainHistory of Cognitive RehabilitationBrain Plasticity and Cognitive ExerciseCognitive Fitness: Beginning of a TrendBeginnings of a Program14. Breaking and Entering15. Frontal Lobes and the Leadership ParadoxAutonomy and Control in the BrainAutonomy and Control in SocietyAutonomy and Control in the Digital WorldEpilogueReferences and NotesIndex

Editorial Reviews

"It is only now... that we are beginning to get the full measure of complexity [of the living body], to see how nature and culture interact, and how brain and mind produce each other. There are a handful, a small handful, of remarkable books which address these central problems with great force - those of Gerald Edelman and Antonio Damasio at once come to mind - and to this select number, Elkhonon Goldberg's book, The Executive Brain, should surely be added." — Oliver Sacks, The New York Review of Books

"Anyone who is interested in the workings of the brain, 'science's last frontier', will enjoy reading The Executive Brain The author's use of personal narrative and compelling metaphors help to make even the most technical information accessible to the general audience." — Science Editor

"Goldberg is a good example of someone who seems to have always thought out of the box in both his personal and professional life. He has thus written a fine accessible book on executive brain functions... One does not have to completely agree with a position to be stimulated by it, and Goldberg's book is certainly stimulating." — Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books

"An intriguing exploration of the most challenging topic in cognitive neuroscience, the executive function of the prefrontal cortex." — American Scientist

"...develop[s] insights into a variety of conditions and dispositions, including specific brain injuries, drug effects, sex differences, schizophrenia, acttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and more. An especially informative chapter deals with cognitive rehabilitation, including what can be done to stave off dementia. Goldberg also finds parallels between the evolution of the brain and the fates of political systems, including the collapse of the Soviet Union and the assertion of ethnic identities throughout the world...This is a ruminative book...often laced with revealing anecdotes."—PsycCRITIQUES

"Goldberg successfully uses clinical cases to emphasize this point in the middle chapters. He also offers clear and generally accessible analogies that elucidate the role of the frontal lobes in everyday life. In earlier chapters, however, he introduces a number of elaborate theories relating intricate neuroanatomical and neurochemical systems (extending well beyond the frontal lobes) to complex cognitive processes; and, in later chapters, he goes "inside the black box" as he devises advanced computational-neuroscience models of his ideas. Throughout his book, he successfully presents "a distinctly personal, original, and at times provocative viewpoint on a number of topics in neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience...many of [these points] remain distinctly partisan, controversial, my own"." — Tara T. Lineweaver, Ph.D. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences

From the Publisher