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Product Description
The Guardian
'Johnson offers a refreshingly personal take on an endlessly fascinating subject'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Times Educational Supplement, June 4, 2004
'It buzzes with snappy explanations of all kinds of new ideas'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
I'm gazing into a pair of eyes, scanning the arch of the brow, the hooded lids, trying to gauge whether they're signaling defiance or panic. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
I'm gazing into a pair of eyes, scanning the arch of the brow, the hooded lids, trying to gauge whether they're signaling defiance or panic. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
My current favourite author tackles neuroscience - and I can understand and be fascinated by it! After reading this revealing book I searched out the Baron- Cohen test of my autism quotient to find out how good I am at mind reading. Steven Johnson expounds the importance of mind reading, which we all do every day in our social contacts, and differentiates it from empathy.
The left side / right side description on the brain is well known. The fundamental tension between instinctive emotional memory (amygdala) and reasoning memory is not so accepted but is so startingly obvious when entertainingly explained. Freud is brought in from the cold.
The mode of action and chemistry of attention, love and laughter are fascinating. Sexual climax and social bonding triggers opiod release into the brain whilst dopamine is not so much a pleasure drug as a kind of pleasure accountant - it assesses how much experienced actual rewards match predicted level of rewards you are expecting. It explains why some people can take cocaine and stop. With other people the cocaine interacts with neurotransmitters and your dopamine thresholds expect greater rewards and you will develop a craving for more cocaine to satisfy it.
The book expounds the view that neurotransmitter profiling has the added benefit to gene profiling in that it takes into account life experience.
The balance of hormones from adrenaline to oxytocin to dopamine to endorphins, serotonin and cortisol is fascinating.
A whole array of stimulating and thought provoking issues.
The left side / right side description on the brain is well known. The fundamental tension between instinctive emotional memory (amygdala) and reasoning memory is not so accepted but is so startingly obvious when entertainingly explained. Freud is brought in from the cold.
The mode of action and chemistry of attention, love and laughter are fascinating. Sexual climax and social bonding triggers opiod release into the brain whilst dopamine is not so much a pleasure drug as a kind of pleasure accountant - it assesses how much experienced actual rewards match predicted level of rewards you are expecting. It explains why some people can take cocaine and stop. With other people the cocaine interacts with neurotransmitters and your dopamine thresholds expect greater rewards and you will develop a craving for more cocaine to satisfy it.
The book expounds the view that neurotransmitter profiling has the added benefit to gene profiling in that it takes into account life experience.
The balance of hormones from adrenaline to oxytocin to dopamine to endorphins, serotonin and cortisol is fascinating.
A whole array of stimulating and thought provoking issues.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A highly entertaining, thought provoking, and pleasant read. It's sort of a blend of science and popular philosophy, the musings of a creative and bright guy. Mr. Johnson addresses a subject that is of great interest to me, namely neurotransmitter systems such as serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. He also touches upon Peter Kramer's "Listening to Prozac" and the neurotransmitter personality model of C. Robert Cloninger. Mr. Johnson points out that low serotonin may be the cause of the psychological condition of rejection sensitivity, although this may actually be caused by a high level of norepinephrine as well. My only significant criticism is that Mr. Johnson may be speculating a bit much, and making somewhat of sweeping generalizations to suit his own ideas. Nonetheless, this book is well worth reading. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.
Johnson is a very engaging writer, with a keen turn of phrase and an ability to connect complex theory with everyday experience (the story of the windblown window is particularly affecting). Here he covers many of the current investigations into neuroscience with considerable learning and appealing humour. But at the end - and I lost momentum about 3/4 of the way through - I was left feeling this is a collection of really interesting magazine articles, rather than an integrated whole. Good journalism, but not quite best in class.
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