| View Larger Image | The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind | Paperbackby Elkhonon Goldberg (Author)
| List Price: | $21.95 | |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Oxford University Press, USA | | Page Count: | 272 Pages | | Publication Date: | December 05, 2002 | | Sales Rank: | 262,119nd |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
The 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. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 19 reviews)
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Good Read for the Amateur Neuroscientist by Matthew Caldwell (USA)  3 Stars
September 28, 2009
I found the book to be a good introduction to recent research on the frontal lobes and the concept of brain plasticity in general. However, I would not recommend this book to a professional audience. Despite the author's claims that "... I have tried to write a book that would appeal both to the general public and to the professional audience", the book reads like a memoir. There are several chapters which are fairly technical and the book itself is heavily cited, but, aside from a decent introduction to the anatomy of the brain in chapter 4, Goldberg's self labeled "professional" chapters are mostly filled with the author's opinions and largely unsubstantiated (at least at the time the book was published) theories. To be fair, Goldberg warns of this in his introduction, yet I don't see any appeal for someone already established in the field.
That said, I think this book is an excellent choice for anyone with a recent interest in the field of Neuroscience. The author's language can be a bit technical and several chapters read as if they were meant for a textbook, but most of the concepts are presented in a simple and easy to understand manner. The book begins with a good description of the anatomy of the brain and the frontal lobes in particular, and follows with a description of how research in the neuroscience field has grown and evolved over the past several decades. Goldberg describes how the prevailing theories have moved away from describing the brain as highly modular to a more fluid and interconnected view. In particular, he shows how modern research is beginning to debunk much of the established knowledge that attributes specific functions such as speech to isolated and highly specific areas of the brain, and describes how many actions are controlled by a network of different areas of the brain. He then describes how current experiments indicate that control of this networking process resides primarily in the frontal lobes, previously thought to be "silent" and virtually useless. While this section of the book was interesting and provided a useful introduction to the anatomy of the brain and frontal lobes, the chapters seemed to alternate between being excessively technical and excessively vague. The facts were generally easy to follow, but the shifts in style from section to section were jarring.
The second half of the book includes descriptions of Goldberg's own research and current theories about the structure and function of the frontal lobes illustrated through a series of stories and case studies involving patients with injuries to this area of the brain. Goldberg describes how much of the current knowledge of the function of the brain is gleaned from examining the symptoms of various brain injuries, and supports many of his theories with examples from past patients. Finally, he finishes with a description of current and future treatments for degeneration of the frontal lobes caused by either age or trauma as well as an analysis of how recent research into the "executive" functions of the brain will impact modern society. I found these later chapters to be the most interesting. The past case studies provided an excellent framework for Goldberg's theories. Despite the highly speculative nature of the final chapters, I found myself agreeing with many of Goldberg's ideas.
While I think the more technical chapters were somewhat out of place, the vignettes from Goldberg's career were extremely interesting. The author did a good job relating his theories and opinions to his life experiences. I would give the book four stars for content, but I chose three for the "kindle edition" because I had some issues with the electronic format. Some of the more technical chapters were figure or reference heavy, and it was difficult to examine these things when reading the book electronically. In addition, there were some small errors with line spacing, the occasional formatting error, and frequent words that were missing letters.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to the amateur neuroscientist. Goldberg's life story was interesting enough to overcome the minor faults in the book, and some of his theories on the function and relative importance of the frontal lobes provide serious food for thought. This would be a good place to start for anyone interested in emerging research on brain structure and brain plasticity.
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A Worthwhile Read by Zadius Sky (USA)  5 Stars
January 10, 2008
I had managed to obtain "Executive Brain" after reading Dr. Goldberg's intriguing The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older, and this book certainly brings additional understanding of neuropsychology and neurobiology as it can be a useful resourceful book.
This book explores the frontal lobes of the brain as well the understanding of how this part of our brain works. Not only frontal lobes and neurons are discussed in this book, but a sort of autobiography of the author himself is brought to light. I certainly like the section regarding the Tourette's as it is an insightful read.
It is easy to read and consists only of 12 chapters. I personally felt "Executive Brain" is a worthwhile read as it holds essential information about the frontal lobes and personal aspects of the author himself.
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I loved the book! by Maria V. Isaac (CA USA) 5 Stars
June 27, 2007
I loved the way it was written, integrating science and context (year, country, people's backgrounds) Because after all, we must not forget that our minds and brains are part of the huge dinamic context of the life and environment we are living. The way we look at things, what we conclude and give importance to, ...are not just random events.
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So so by The Doctor (The TARDIS) 3 Stars
March 19, 2007
As a psychologist, I found Goldberg's discussions of the frontal lobes rather good. However, readers should be aware that many of his claims regarding the halves of the brain are rather controversial, such as all the nonsense about specialization wherein one half processes information while in the "novice" stage until it's handed over to the other half in the "expert" stage. Pretty far-fetched stuff.
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Helpful to Understanding Brain Injury by C. Campbell (Indiana) 5 Stars
January 11, 2007
I have a child with a brain injury and found that the material contained in this book helpful in understanding her processing difficulties and gave me ideas to put in place to help overcome some of those differences. The book provided me with a better understanding of how certain neuropsychological tests measure what they say they measure. The Executive Brain was so helpful to me that I purchased additional copies and gave them friends and teachers who either have or work with children with learning difficulties. The beginning of Goldberg's work takes place during the time of the Soviet Union. Having traveled in Russia, I found his account of events there facinating.
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