Neuroscience All books
Michael S. Gazzaniga
The Social Brain
This book investigates the concepts of the "right brain" and the "left brain". According to the author the brain is most certainly made up of relatively autonomous modules which react independantly to environmental pressures. At least one of the modules, situated on the left side of the brain, is responsible for the interpretation of answers which may be contradictory with others, whereas yet another module on the same side translates into words the result of this interpretation. So, instead of being a unique, monolithic system that we imagined, the brain would appear to be a collectivity of systems - a social brain. This approach enlightens us as to the functioning of the human brain, and according to Gazzaniga, affects the very roots of our belief systems and societies. Renowned American neurologist, Michael Gazzaniga is Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Division of Cornell University and chairman of Neuropsychology.
Stanislas Dehaene
A Good Head for Maths
Did you know that babies can count? And did you know that some animals can do simple arithmetic? Whether we possess astounding mathematical talents or the most basic of counting skills, we are all born with numerical intuition. In this book, the author describes some amazing scientific experiments that demonstrate the mental foundations of numerical intuition. If you want to know why you cant remember how much 7 x 8 makes, or how a cerebral lesion can make you forget 3 - 1, or if you want to figure out the fifth root of 759,375, just follow the author in a series of tortuous mental calculations and you dont even have to be a mathematical wizard. Stanislas Dehaene is a senior research fellow at Inserm and works at the Laboratory of cognitive sciences and of psycholinguistics at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.
Gisèle Gelbert
The Illiterate Brain
Is illiteracy a social scourge, or is it an aphasia-like disorder? To find the answer, Gisèle Gelbert delves into the mysteries of the brain of an illiterate person, and teaches us the art of `repairing' it. By thoroughly breaking down each linguistic act, she is able to define and localise with great accuracy the disorders observed in both written and oral expression. She also makes use of the schema to develop exercices that are especially adapted to the clinical observation of localised disorders, thus opening the door to new therapeutic possiblilities. Gisèle Gelbert is a neurologist and aphasiologist. She is the author of "Lire c'est vivre "(Opus, 1996) and "Lire c'est aussi écrire" (1998).
Pierre Buser
The Brain : Yours and Others
This book is both a careful review of the numerous debates that have stirred--and continue to stir--the cognitive sciences, and a personal essay. The author has tried to elaborate an original theory of psychic activity, based, on the one hand, on the cognitive conscious and the cognitive unconscious, and, on the other, on the cognitive unconscious and the affective unconscious. Pierre Buser, a former director of the Institut des neurosciences at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique, is Professor Emeritus at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, and a member of the Académie des Sciences.
Jean-Pierre Changeux, Paul Ricœur
What Makes Us Think Nature and Rules
'The intention of this book was to put a scientist and a philosopher face to face and spark a dialogue between them on neuroscience, on their results and projects, and their ability to carry out a debate on ethics, its norms, and on peace. In France, ideas are rarely openly discussed. Serious debates are too often hindered by dogmatic statements, one-sided criticisms, incomprehensible discussions and glib mockery, with little or no thought for the solidity of the arguments, which aim only to appear plausible or worthy of being argued, rather than convincing. A totally free and open dialogue between a scientist and a philosopher is necessarily a highly unusual experience for both.' Paul Ricur and Jean-Pierre Changeux Paul Ricur is an honorary professor at the University of Paris-X and an emeritus professor at the University of Chicago. Jean-Pierre Changeux, a member of the French Academy of Science, teaches at the College of France and the Pasteur Institute.
André Holley
In Praise of our Sense of Smell
Disparaged by the great philosophers and even by Darwin, who considered it useless, yet praised by Proust and Baudelaire for the richness of the emotions it inspires, the human sense of smell is generally considered secondary to the other senses. But is it really? André Holley makes a scientific argument for this powerful yet ambiguous sense. He also examines the tendency on the part of our society to deodorise to refuse accept that smells are sometimes bad, on the other hand inventing entirely new smells with the help of chemistry. Researcher at the CNRS, André Holley is a professor of neuroscience at the university Claude-Bernard in Lyon.