When his beloved donkey becomes ill, a young Italian boy is determined to take her to the crypt of St. Francis in Assisi in hopes of making her well.

This book reviews a productive period of research aimed at connecting brain and mind through the use of scalp-recorded brain potentials to chart the temporal course of information processing in the human brain. The book serves as both as a summary of where we have been and as a pointer of the way ahead.

Cognitive Electrophysiology of Attention explores the fundamental mechanisms of attention and related cognitive functions from cognitive neuroscience perspectives. Attention is an essential cognitive ability that enables humans to process and act upon relevant information while ignoring distracting information, and the capacity to focus attention is at the core of mental functioning. Understanding the neural bases of human attention remains a key challenge for neuroscientists and psychologists, and is essential for translational efforts to treat attentional deficits in a variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Cognitive electrophysiology is at the center of a multidisciplinary approach that involves the efforts of psychologists, neuroscientists, neuropsychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists to identify basic brain mechanisms and develop translational approaches to improve mental health. This edited volume is authored by leading investigators in the field and discusses methods focused on electrophysiological recordings in humans, including electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potential (ERP) methods, and also incorporates evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Cognitive Electrophysiology of Attention illuminates specific models about attentional mechanisms in vision, audition, multisensory integration, memory, and semantic processing in humans. Provides an exhaustive overview of attention processes, going from normal functioning to the pathological, and using a combination of methodological tools An important reference for electrophysiology researchers looking at underlying attention processes rather than the methods themselves Enables researchers across a broad range of cognitive-process and methodological specialties to stay current on particular hypotheses, findings, and methods Edited and authored by the worldwide leaders in the field, affording the broadest, most expert coverage available

This book covers recent advances in the understanding of brain structure, function and disorders based on the fundamental principles of physics. It covers a broad range of physical phenomena occurring in the brain circuits for perception, cognition, emotion and action, representing the building blocks of the mind. It provides novel insights into the devastating brain disorders of the mind such as schizophrenia, dementia, autism, aging or addictions, as well as into the new devices for brain repair. The book is aimed at basic researchers in the fields of neuroscience, physics, biophysics and clinicians in the fields of neurology, neurosurgery, psychology, psychiatry.

Does the brain create the mind, or is some external entity involved? This book synthesizes ideas borrowed from philosophy, religion, and science. Topics range widely from brain imagining of thought processes to quantum mechanics and the essential role of information in brains and physical systems.

MICHAEL S. GAZZANIGA The investigation of the human brain and mind involves a myriad of ap proaches. Cognitive neuroscience has grown out of the appreciation that these approaches have common goals that are separate from other goals in the neural sciences. By identifying cognition as the construct of interest, cognitive neuro science limits the scope of investigation to higher mental functions, while simultaneously tackling the greatest complexity of creation, the human mind. The chapters of this collection have their common thread in cognitive neuroscience. They attack the major cognitive processes using functional stud ies in humans. Indeed, functional measures of human sensation, perception, and cognition are the keystone of much of the neuroscience of cognitive sci ence, and event-related potentials (ERPs) represent a methodological "coming of age" in the study of the intricate temporal characteristics of cognition. Moreover, as the field of cognitive ERPs has matured, the very nature of physiology has undergone a significant revolution. It is no longer sufficient to describe the physiology of non-human primates; one must consider also the detailed knowledge of human brain function and cognition that is now available from functional studies in humans-including the electrophysiological studies in humans described here. Together with functional imaging of the human brain via positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), ERPs fill our quiver with the arrows required to pierce more than the single neuron, but the networks of cognition.

Two noted researchers explain scientific evidence that shows why certain experiential and lifestyle factors may promote and maintain cognitive vitality in older adults. Although our physical abilities clearly decline as we age, cognitive decline in healthy old age is neither universal nor inevitable. In Nurturing the Older Brain, Pamela Greenwood and Raja Parasuraman show that scientific research does not support the popular notion of the inexorable and progressive effects of cognitive aging in all older adults. They report that many adults maintain a high level of cognitive function into old age and that certain experiential and lifestyle factors—including education, exercise, diet, and opportunities for new learning—contribute to the preservation of cognitive abilities. Many popular accounts draw similar conclusions and give similar lifestyle advice but lack supporting scientific evidence. Greenwood and Parasuraman offer a comprehensive review of research on cognitive and brain aging. They show that even the aged brain remains capable of plasticity—the ability to adapt to and benefit from experience—and they summarize evidence that brain plasticity is heightened by certain types of cognitive training, by aerobic exercise, and by certain diets. They also report on the somewhat controversial use of estrogen and cognition-enhancing drugs, on environmental adaptations (including "virtual assistants") that help older adults "age in place," and on genetic factors in cognitive aging. The past twenty years of research points to ways that older adults can lead rich and cognitively vital lives. As millions of baby boomers head toward old age, Greenwood and Parasuraman's accessible book could not be more timely.

"Neurobiology of Cognition and Behavior" is a cognitive neuroscience that maps cognitive/behavioral units with anatomical regions in the human brain. The brain-behavioral associations are based on functional neuroimaging combined with lesion studies. The findings will be used to explain differences in clinical syndromes with videos of patients included.

Cognitive Electrophysiology of Attention explores the fundamental mechanisms of attention and related cognitive functions from cognitive neuroscience perspectives. Attention is an essential cognitive ability that enables humans to process and act upon relevant information while ignoring distracting information, and the capacity to focus attention is at the core of mental functioning. Understanding the neural bases of human attention remains a key challenge for neuroscientists and psychologists, and is essential for translational efforts to treat attentional deficits in a variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Cognitive electrophysiology is at the center of a multidisciplinary approach that involves the efforts of psychologists, neuroscientists, neuropsychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists to identify basic brain mechanisms and develop translational approaches to improve mental health. This edited volume is authored by leading investigators in the field and discusses methods focused on electrophysiological recordings in humans, including electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potential (ERP) methods, and also incorporates evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Cognitive Electrophysiology of Attention illuminates specific models about attentional mechanisms in vision, audition, multisensory integration, memory, and semantic processing in humans. - Provides an exhaustive overview of attention processes, going from normal functioning to the pathological, and using a combination of methodological tools - An important reference for electrophysiology researchers looking at underlying attention processes rather than the methods themselves - Enables researchers across a broad range of cognitive-process and methodological specialties to stay current on particular hypotheses, findings, and methods - Edited and authored by the worldwide leaders in the field, affording the broadest, most expert coverage available

This work investigates the connections between psychology and physiology. Topics include synaptic sources, electrode placement, choice of reference, volume conduction, power and coherence, projection of scalp potentials to dura surface, dynamic signatures of conscious experience and more.