The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized MindThe Executive Brain is the first book to explore in popular scientific terms one of the most important and rapidly evolving topics in contemporary neuropsychology, the most "human" and recently evolved region of the brain--the frontal lobes. Crucial for all high-order functioning, it is only in humans that the frontal lobes are so highly developed. They hold the key to our judgment, our social and ethical behavior, our imagination, indeed, to our "soul." The author shows how the frontal lobes enable us to engage in complex mental processes, how vulnerable they are to injury, and how devastating the effects of damage often are, leading to chaotic, disorganized, asocial, and even criminal behavior. Made up of fascinating case histories and anecdotes, Goldberg's book offers a panorama of state-of-the-art ideas and advances in cognitive neuroscience. It is also an intellectual memoir, filled with vignettes about the author's early training with the great Russian neuropsychologist A.R. Luria, Goldberg's escape from the Soviet Union, and his later interactions with patients and professionals around the world. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
An End and a Beginning A Dedication | 7 |
The Brains Chief Executive The Frontal Lobes at a Glance | 21 |
The Executive Lobe | 23 |
Architecture of the Brain A Primer | 27 |
The Macroscopic View | 29 |
The Command Post and Its Connections | 35 |
The Orchestra Front Row The Cortex | 37 |
Rigidity of Mind | 129 |
Anosognosia | 135 |
Social Maturity Morality Law and the Frontal Lobes | 139 |
Social Maturity and the Frontal Lobes | 141 |
A Historical Puzzle | 143 |
Frontal Lobe Damage and Criminal Behavior | 146 |
The Hapless Robber | 150 |
Frontal Lobe Damage and the Public Blindspot | 155 |
Novelty Routines and Cerebral Hemispheres | 40 |
Noahs Predicament and the Landscapes of the Brain | 52 |
Module Madness | 55 |
Cognitive Gradients and Cognitive Hierarchies | 58 |
A Thing Is a Thing | 62 |
A Word to a Thing | 64 |
The Conductor A Closer Look at the Frontal Lobes | 69 |
Working Memoryor Working with Memory? | 72 |
Freedom of Choice Ambiguity and the Frontal Lobes | 77 |
Different Lobes for Different Folks DecisionMaking Styles and the Frontal Lobes | 87 |
Male and Female Cognitive Styles | 88 |
Frontal Lobes Hemispheres and Cognitive Styles | 93 |
Cognitive Styles and Brain Wiring | 96 |
Handedness and Novelty Seeking | 99 |
The S Factor and the Theory of Mind | 104 |
When the Leader Is Wounded | 113 |
Frontal Lobe Syndromes | 116 |
A Dorsolateral Case Study | 118 |
Plans and the Memories of the Future | 123 |
Fateful Disconnections | 157 |
A Connection That Was Never Made | 163 |
A Broken Connection | 167 |
A Fragile Connection | 168 |
Jerky Tics and Ticky Jokes | 180 |
What Can You Do for Me? | 193 |
Jogging the Brain | 197 |
History of Cognitive Rehabilitation | 202 |
Brain Plasticity and Cognitive Exercise | 204 |
Beginning of a Trend | 210 |
Beginnings of a Program | 212 |
Frontal Lobes and the Leadership Paradox | 215 |
Autonomy and Control in Society | 219 |
Autonomy and Control in the Digital World | 223 |
Epilogue | 227 |
231 | |
247 | |
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Common terms and phrases
ability action activation actor-centered ADHD Alexandr Romanovich Alzheimer's disease anosognosia areas associated attention deficit attention deficit disorder basal ganglia behavior blood flow brain damage brain stem brain structures cerebral Charlie clinical Cognitive Bias cognitive exercise cognotropic complex computational context-dependent cortical cultural decision dementia disorder dopamine dorsolateral early effects emergence evolution females frontal lobe damage frontal lobe dysfunction func functional neuroimaging Goldberg gradiental head injury human impairment increasingly individual interaction Kevin language learning left hemisphere lesions linked Luria males memory mental mind modular Moscow neocortex neural neurological neurons neuropsychology neurotransmitter nitive novelty nuclei object occipital lobe Oliver Sacks orbitofrontal organization parietal parietal lobe particularly pathways patient patterns posterior prefrontal cortex processes regions relationship relatively representation right hemisphere role schizophrenia sense sensory situations social society Soviet specific symptoms task temporal lobe thalamus tion Toby Tourette's syndrome visual Vladimir York