Developing a Brain

A Life in Psychology

by Michael I. Posner

Paperback

Retail Price: ~~$22.95~~

Buy 1-9 copies: $20.66 each save 10%

Buy 10 or more: $11.48 each save 50 %

Cost: $20.66

Qty:

You save: 10%

Book Details: Scroll below for more information about this book, provided directly by the author.

ADD TO CART

Product description...

Living the Transformation of Psychology 1960–2020

In nine chapters I describe my role in the dramatic transformation that has taken place in the study of the mind. In the 1980s the scientific study of the human mind was in the hands of a relatively small group of cognitive psychologists who described the mental operations that allowed study of the many tasks humans perform. By 2000 psychologists had been joined by neuroscientists, neural philosophers, robotic engineers, geneticists, and computer scientists in the effort to determine how the brain works. I was one of many swept along in this tidal wave. In the 1980s I was a cognitive psychologist who worked along with neurologists and psychiatrists to explore neuroimaging. Collectively we helped bring the human brain into neuroscience, because it could now be examined in living people as they performed various tasks. My family migrated from Wisconsin to Oregon, back to St. Louis and to New York following my efforts to develop an understanding of the human brain. I describe these trips and the reasons for them. Fortunately my wife and children were more than up for the adventure, and their achievements were an inspiration to me as is documented in this volume. I wrote this volume for two audiences. A smaller number of people care about what happened to me and with whom I interacted over the years. I hope a larger group cares about what has been learned from our efforts about the human mind and brain. I hope both groups enjoy the ride and forgive me for my pride, perhaps inappropriate, about what we have learned and how it can influence what we teach future generations.

Product details...

Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 Color Paperback, 251 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Feb 28, 2022)
ISBN10: 197724212X
ISBN13: 9781977242129
Genre: PSYCHOLOGY / Cognitive Psychology & Cognition

Author Information...

For more than fifty years Michael Posner has studied how mental operations, particularly those related to attention, are carried out by neural networks. He has used cognitive, imaging, and genetic methods. Starting in 1979 he used patient population to test a hypothesis of how mental operations were related to brain activity. The idea that the brain works through networks of a small number of widely separated brain areas to orchestrate even simple tasks has been confirmed by studies imaging the human brain. This direction was begun in 1985 when Posner worked with a team of investigators at Washington University to image the mental operation in simple language tasks. In 1998 he was founding director of the Sackler Institute at Weill Medical College. The institute examined how neural networks involved in attention developed from infancy. He continues his research together with his colleague and frequent coauthor, Professor Mary K. Rothbart. Currently he is professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Oregon and adjunct professor at Weill Medical College and uses both animal and human studies to examine how brain networks can be influenced by experience. Posner has received many honors, including election to the US National Academy of Science in 1981, seven honorary degrees from universities around the world, the Medal of Science awarded by President Obama in 2009, and the Franklin medal in Computer and Cognitive Science in 2017. Posner lives with his wife in Eugene, Oregon, and they also have a yurt in their forest seven miles from the Oregon coast.

Visit the author's webpage at
https://outskirtspress.com/developingabrain
for more information.

Many author webpages include:
ebook editions
sample text
audio excerpts and videos

Back to Bookstore