The Brain-Shaped Mind: What the Brain Can Tell Us About the Mind [Paperback]

Naomi Goldblum (Author), Shifra Glick (Illustrator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521000947 | ISBN-13: 978-0521000949 | Publication Date: September 17, 2001 | Edition: 1ST

In the same way atomic structures explain the physical properties of an object, neuroscientists are now learning about the human mind by examining how the neurons in the brain are connected to one another and their surrounding environments. Will brain scientists ever be capable of reading minds? Why are certain things harder to remember than others? The Brain-Shaped Mind addresses these and other questions to provide a clear account of how the structure of the brain influences the workings of the mind. Naomi Goldblum is a lecturer in psychology at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. She has studied neuropsychology with a particular emphasis on cognitive psychology.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'The book is indeed easy to understand. It is well structured, minimally technical in its terminology, informative, and argumentatively clear. Readers interested in a basic understanding of what is known today about the human brain would definitely find this book valuable; and teachers of the non-neuroscience-oriented cognitive sciences, particularly cognitive psychology and cognitive linguistics, might find it a useful introduction to brain research for their students.' Jyh Wee Sew, CHIJ ST Theresa's Convent, Singapore

Book Description

The fundamentals of neural network modelling are described in a simple, straight-forward manner enabling the reader to gain an understanding of the implications of recent brain research without any prior knowledge. The Brain-Shaped Mind is illustrated throughout with informative and humorous diagrams which are used to help explain how the structure of the brain can influence the workings of the mind.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 148 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1ST edition (September 17, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521000947
• ISBN-13: 978-0521000949
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,564,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Introductory Text for Understanding the Physical Basis of Cognition, December 6, 2009

By 

Srinija Konduru - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Brain-Shaped Mind: What the Brain Can Tell Us About the Mind (Kindle Edition)

The Brain-Shaped Mind: What the Brain Can Tell Us about the Mind by Naomi Goldblum is an excellent introductory book about the relationship between the mind and the brain. I am writing this review to encourage anyone interested in gaining basic knowledge about the brain-mind relationship to read this book. I read this book for my Introductory Neuroscience class at Georgia Tech, and I found it extremely helpful in explaining higher level processing of physical concepts in the brain. Even with no previous neuroscience knowledge, it is extremely easy to comprehend and absorb the information presented in this book because the author uses simple and effective examples to make her point. Unlike most books that stop after explain the positive aspects of a theory, this book provides the criticisms that are present. By presenting both sides of the argument, the author gives the readers an opportunity to choose to agree with or against the proposed theory.

Style and Structure:
The book is divided into twelve chapters, each of which will be summarized and discussed below. Each chapter in the book is additionally subdivided into smaller sections that provide a easy understanding of each subtopic. The author also provides simplified images that explain the basic concepts such as neuron structure, neurotrasmission from the presynaptic cell to the postsynaptic cell, etc. Instead of summarizing in detail what the author discusses in the book, I will provide the questions to which the author tries to provide answers through the course of the book.

The author discusses the following question in the book:

Chapter 1 - Introduction
(1) How are the mind and the brain related?
(2) How are the connectionist explanations different from other explanations of mental processes?
(3) Is the mind similar to the internet?

Chapter 2 - What the Brain Cannot Tell Us about the Mind
(1) Will scientists ever be able to read our minds?
(2) In what ways are the minds of different people different, and in what ways are they similar?

Chapter 3 - How Neurons form Networks
(1) How is the brain put together so as to serve as the basis for our mental functions?
(2) What physical connections allow us to form mental associations of things around us?
(3) What physical bases of change are constituted of learning?

Chapter 4 - Theories and Models of How the Mind Functions
(1) What is the difference between a theory and a model?
(2) What previous models were used to explain the organization of our knowledge?
(3) How can computers help us understand how our brain works even though our brains do not work like a computer?

Chapter 5 - What Are Connectionist Networks?
(1) What is the connectionist theory?
(2) How do we put things into categories (i.e. dogs vs. cats)?
(3) How do we know what we are looking at is what it is?
(4) How are all things we know about a topic connected to each other, and how are they retrieved when needed?

Chapter 6 - How Our Networks Learn
(1) How are the connections discussed in chapter five formed in the first place?
(2) How do children learn the difference between various things (i.e. cats and dogs)?
(3) Why do children call all four legged animals one thing at the beginning?
(4) How does this later grow into the capacity to differentiate between various kinds of dog and even individual dogs?

Chapter 7 - Connecting the Networks: How Different Thing are Related
(1) How do we know that various concepts are related to each other (i.e. salt and pepper, mother and father)?
(2) How do we go beyond the obvious relations between concepts (i.e. knowing wolf-hound is a dog, and forming a relationship between cats and dogs rather than cats and tigers)?

Chapter 8 - Evidence for Connectionist Models
(1) What experimental evidence is there for the connectionist models?

Chapter 9 - Two Different Types of Memory
(1) How we remember things for a long time vs. a short period of time?
(2) How do we remember to do a task, and after we do it, that we preformed a task?

Chapter 10 - Coping with Disaster
(1) What happens to functioning of the brain after a stroke, head injuries, and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.
(2) How can brain regain normal brain function even if the brain damage itself cannot be repaired?

Chapter 11 - Practical Implications
(1) Are there ways to improve our daily mental functions using this knowledge?
(2) What other ways can this knowledge be used?

Chapter 12 - Criticism of connectionist theory
(1) What are the major criticisms of connectionist theory?
(2) What are the reasons these criticisms are wrong?


In the introduction, the author discusses that the relationship between the mind and brain, the author notifies the readers that consciousness and emotion will not be discussed in the scope of this book because the the connectionist theory that the book focuses on has not been used to describe these concepts. Instead, this book focuses on cognitive human functions (such as "classifying things into categories, speaking, understanding speech, and solving problems"). The meat of the book is the discussion of how the cellular level connectivity can explain cognitive functions of a brain. The gist of the connectionist theory is as follows: this theory considers the mental and behavioral phenomena as a result of interconnected networks of simple units that are working in parallel. The author uses animal categories to describe how people learn to form categories in the brain, and how to recall information from these categories in the brain. There are several computer models that are presented as evidence of the theory. For example, a computer has been able to "analyze a two-dimensional scenes, learn to talk, and learn past tense of words."

In addition, the author also discusses the two major type of memory: permanent and temporary memories. The author describes how the connectionist theory can and cannot explain these theories. For example, the author suggest that two different connectionist theories need to be used to describe these two type of memory. The differences between the models is as follows: "the two types of memories are stored in two different parts of the the brain, with different connections between the units" and "each general fact is distributed over all he neurons of a particular network, while temporary memories are stored locally". These differences need the models that describe them to be distinct. After discussing memory, they author discusses the practical implications of this information. This section discusses how students can study better, how teachers can teach better, and how we can get rid of unhealthy habits. The author finally concludes the book by discussing the criticisms (representationalist's criticism, and the nonscientific criticism) and how those criticisms are wrong.

Critique:
The author does an exquisite job of organizing the book in such a way that even those with no prior neuroscience knowledge can grasp the concepts explain throughout the book. For example, the author presents a clear scope of the book right in the introduction such that the reader knows exactly what the author plans to discuss and not discuss in the book. Then, the author continues to discuss the limitations of the concept of how the brain can describe the mind. She then discusses the structure of neurons, how they normally connect with each other, and how the plasticity of the brain arises from the axon connections to dendrites. After she has present this background, she then introduces the connectionist theory and the support for it. She also discusses the future implications of it as well as the criticism of it. This well planned and structured book provides the readers the basic information pertaining to the affect of neural connections on the cognitive capabilities of a human.

I personally found the latter part of the book extremely interesting and useful. Especially the chapter on the different types of memory, and the future implications chapter which discusses how to learn and teach better. As a student myself, I found the suggestions and study tips new and interesting. For example, the author suggests that study one topic for a short time and spend some time thinking about how that information connects to the information that is already in your head. Afterwards, study a totally different topic so that the neural networks working on remembering the first topic have time to solidify the information. Additionally, I found the how to better teach very useful for my volunteering tutoring of K-12 kids.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in neuroscience of cognition because it will provide you with enough information to intrigue but not overwhelm you. You will be able to use this book as a stepping stone to any other neuroscience book about cognition. Using the basics that you gathered from this book, you can delve in the plethora of neuroscience books that are present.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent beginner's guide to the brain, May 6, 2009

By 

Taylor Ellwood "http://www.imagineyourreality... - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Brain-Shaped Mind: What the Brain Can Tell Us About the Mind (Hardcover)

This is an excellent beginner's book into neuroscience, and one I'd recommend for anyone who wants to understand how the brain works and how the mind is connected to the brain. The author presents the connectionist model and does a good job of also explaining how the neurons and synaptic processes of the brain work. The examples she uses are also very helpful. This is a short book, and an easy read. It's definitely the first book I recommend to someone new to neuroscience, because the author concisely introduces and explains the concepts, while keeping the reader grounded.