Information in the Brain [Paperback]

Ira B. Black (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 29, 1994 | Series: Bradford Books

Drawing on his considerable experience as a neuroscientist and clinical neurologist, Ira Black systematically disentangles the labyrinth of brain and mind in a new concept of mind that relates environment, brain genes, molecular symbols, behavior and mentation. He describes the unity of brain, mind, and experience with singular clarity, showing how mental function, brain function, and biologic information are now comprehensible in molecular terms.Writing in a clear and often conversational style, Black defines the molecular biology and biochemistry of information processing in the nervous system and describes in detail the environmental regulation of brain genes that encode molecular symbols. His coherent vision of the vast biological information system provides insight into questions of how the mind is related to the brain, what constitutes the substance of thought or the physical bases of memory, how experience changes mind function or environmental information is converted into neural language, and what biochemical abnormalities lead to Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and schizophrenia.Information in the Brain identifies common concepts and themes in widely diverse fields, revealing the extraordinary scope of modern neuroscience, and makes central issues in the brain sciences accessible to a variety of readers. Black's description of the critical role that gene structure plays in ongoing brain and mind function will appeal to molecular biologists. Protein chemists will understand how molecular structure is translated into behavior and mentation. Neuroscientists will gain an explicit understanding of the central questions in psychology. In turn, psychologists will find new ideas concerning cellular and molecular bases of brain function and clinical neurologists and psychiatrists will discover new formulations of the pathogenesis of disease at genomic, molecular, and systems levels.Ira B. Black is Professor and Chairman, Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School/UMDNJ.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Ira Black has prepared a remarkably complete synthesis of neuroscience from a molecular perspective. The book is not just a compendium of facts, or list of discovered entities, but a legitimate attempt to put handles on a complex field so that investigators in unrelated areas may speak with each other."--Fred H. Gage, Professor of Neuroscience, University of California School of Medicine, San Diego

About the Author

Ira B. Black is Professor and Chairman, Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School/UMDNJ.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: A Bradford Book (March 29, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262521881
• ISBN-13: 978-0262521888
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #852,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars AN INTERPRETATION OF THE BRAIN IN "MOLECULAR" TERMS, September 16, 2010

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Information in the Brain (Paperback)

Ira Barrie Black (1941-2006) was an American physician and neuroscientist who was an advocate of stem cell research and was the first director of the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School which was created to advance research in the field.

He states in the Preface to this 1991 book, "An early interest in philosophy, psychology, or behavior frequently evolves into a fascination with the organ of origin, the brain. However, the complexity of physical design, its multifarious functions from perception to motor control to memory, and its multilevel organization from gene to molecule, cell, systems, and behavior encourage an intensely focused approach. That focus is abundantly rewarded. Disorientation is held at bay, and much is learned about a narrow area of neural function. In fact, focus is so inordinately successful that original motivations and perspectives may be easily, and imperceptibly, abandoned. The impenetrable big picture is sacrified to the tractable experimental detail. This brief book represents one attempt to reconstruct the picture."

Here are some representative quotations from the book:

"It may be helpful to define a crisis in the brain and mind sciences to provide context and direction. Harshly stated, these fields have yet to fulfill the promise of forging a conceptual synthesis. The fields, and their component subfields, have failed to evolve a common framework indicating how brain state relates to mind state. No systematic mechanistic vocabulary, no general theory interrelates mind, brain, and behavior." (Pg. xi)
"How do we begin to understand such apparent brain states as alertness, attention, vigilance, and anxiety in terms of molecular function? That question seems to be all but unapproachable at present." (Pg 61)
"No network theory that does not consider the constraints imposed at the molecular and behavioral levels can be considered complete." (Pg.116)
"To summarize, whether we approach the problem of self and subjectivity from the perspective of normal or abnormal function, we are driven to specific brain areas, specific neural systems, and specific transmitters therein." (Pg. 178)