Mapping the Mind

I ordered this book without having seen it, intending it as a sort of casual review of current trends in neuropsycholoical knowledge and research- more for casual reading than serious study. I'd taken my last neuro course in grad school nearly 20 years ago, and thought of Carter's book more as casual reading than something for serious study.I was surprised to discover that Carter has written a book that, while an enjoyable read, is one of the best introductory text's I've ever come accross in the field. I showed it to a few academic friends who agreed that yes, this would make a fine adjunct to an introductory cource in neruopsychology or neuroanatomy. Quite an accomplishment.I would strongly recommend this book to both the casual reader with an interest in mind and anatomy, and the serious student looking towards a career in psychology, medicine or neuroanatomy.

Rita Carter’s work makes it abundantly clear what a good journalist has to offer the scientific and technical worlds. Normally I have my doubts about writers delving in areas in which they have little or no expertise; however, I also have great difficulty plowing through the sometimes arcane and ponderous prose of professionals. Ms Carter’s careful work and her collaboration with respected researchers in the field of neurophysiology and neuropsychology make her work a very reliable and useful overview of the current knowledge in those fields.When I first purchased Mapping the Mind for a class on mind and the brain, I looked at some of the illustrations and thought "..., this is going to be dull as dust!" Since it was on the "suggested reading" list, I ignored it until the class was completed and didn’t manage to get back to it again until just recently. Wow! Was I wrong. Instead of a boring recitation of anatomy-phys and a collection of totally unmemorable biochemical detail, the book is a fascinating compendium of what is known of brain anatomy and it’s function and how these combine to create what we consider to be the "I" of me. Most of the information has been compiled over years of research on the unfortunates of this world, individuals who have suffered accidents, malignancies, occlusive strokes or cerebral bleeds in or to clearly defined areas of their brains. By studying what nature and happenstance have put in their path, neuroscientists have been able to produced a map of the brain and of the mental or physical deficits that arise from the malfunction of any given region of it. More recently both normal and aberrant psychological states and even the facility for language have been studied using PET scans which illuminate the portions of the brain active during specific tasks. The patterns associated with musical ability, abstract thought, memory and other mental skills have also been subject to study in a way that was not possible before the invention of noninvasive medical technology. While nowhere near the point of a "complete" understanding of brain function--let alone how it works together to create consciousness and what we consider the individual mind--scientists have managed to make great strides in that direction. If they continue to make as many discoveries as they have over the past decade, they may even get to a point where some severely disabling psychological states, like clinical depression or schizophrenia, could be treatable. As a nurse I have had experience with patients just recently who have had electrical devices implanted in their brains. Much like pacemakers and internal defibrillators for heart disease, this equipment stimulates certain areas of the brain associated with depression in an effort to prevent it. This was made possible only by virtue of some of the research covered so expertly and readably by Carter in her book Mapping the Mind.

I am a retired neurobiologist who teaches a short course for adult learners entitled "An Operator's Guide To The Brain." I have used dozens of books from which to draw material, as well as my own research experiences on the cellular biology of neurons. None of these books is as valuable to me as Carter's "Mapping The Mind." The graphics are superb, and the layout of the book, where text, text boxes, the words of specialists, and graphics, are used to drive home the message, is remarkably creative. The information presented is very up-to-date, and there is so much to learn that the book lends itself to revisiting over and over. Of all my "brain" books, this is the one I would keep if only one had to be chosen. No doubt some will argue that the layout isn't as integrated and coherent as it might be, what with text boxes popping up here and there to interrupt word flow, and others might quibble about Carter's take on this or that, on the whole this is a truly remarkable book. In ten years some of it will be outdated by new findings in a fast-moving field, but the work nevertheless is truly inspired.