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Making Space
How the Brain Knows Where Things Are
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Jennifer M. Groh
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2014
About this book
Knowing where things are seems effortless. Yet our brains devote tremendous power to figuring out simple details about spatial relationships. Jennifer Groh traces this mental detective work to show how the brain creates our sense of location, and makes the case that the brain’s systems for thinking about space may be the systems of thought itself.
Author / Editor information
Groh Jennifer M. :
Jennifer M. Groh is Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and the Department of Neurobiology at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University.
Reviews
A terrific book; very imaginative, yet based on solid science.
-- Michael Gazzaniga, author of Who’s in Charge?
-- Michael Gazzaniga, author of Who’s in Charge?
Making Space is written with a light touch, but with impeccable scholarship. It is extremely readable.
-- Randy Gallistel, Rutgers University
-- Randy Gallistel, Rutgers University
Groh deftly elucidates the mental computations that allow understanding of location and boundaries, interweaving well-judged snippets of history. The mechanisms, such as the brain’s updates on eye movements, are fascinating--as is Groh’s revelation that neurons can ‘do double duty’ in tasks such as spatial navigation and memory.
-- Barbara Kiser Nature
-- Barbara Kiser Nature
Jennifer Groh’s wonderful book offers a much broader insight into how the senses we think of as separate gather information on our environment, and how nerves and the brain process the information to map our bodies and the world… It’s a fascinating subject that Groh describes well…It’s also an important one.
-- Jeff Hecht New Scientist
-- Jeff Hecht New Scientist
Groh’s book describes the general process by which the brain conceives of space in a highly unconventional and entertaining stream of Jennifer Groh’s consciousness…It lays out a fascinating field of inquiry (which is really multiple fields interwoven convincingly, filtered by Groh’s own thought processes) in a way that shows how a proper scientist thinks.
-- Stephen L. Macnik Scientific American
-- Stephen L. Macnik Scientific American
[A] wealth of beautifully intertwined information and knowledge about how sensation and perception work in the brain…There is much to praise here…It is exhilarating to feel [Groh’s] energy and cautious optimism about our capacity to understand how we perceive, and how that could lead to an explanation of how we go around and about in the world.
-- Tristan Bekinschtein Times Higher Education
-- Tristan Bekinschtein Times Higher Education
In Making Space, Jennifer Groh has provided an engaging introduction to neuroscientific perspectives on the spatial senses, while also illustrating the contrast with psychological approaches to the functioning of sensory systems.
-- Gary Hatfield Times Literary Supplement
-- Gary Hatfield Times Literary Supplement
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Frontmatter
i -
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CONTENTS
vii -
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1. Thinking about Space
1 -
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2. The Ways of Light
7 -
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3. Sensing Our Own Shape
51 -
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4. Brain Maps and Polka Dots
69 -
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5. Sherlock Ears
107 -
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6. Moving with Maps and Meters
143 -
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7. Your Sunglasses Are in the Milky Way
161 -
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8. Going Places 177
177 -
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9. Space and Memory
189 -
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10. Thinking about Thinking
203 -
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Notes
219 -
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Credits
225 -
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Acknowledgments
231 -
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Index
237
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
November 5, 2014
eBook ISBN:
9780674735774
Edition:
Pilot project. eBook available to selected US libraries only
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
218
Other:
12 color illustrations, 13 halftones, 71 line illustrations
eBook ISBN:
9780674735774
Audience(s) for this book
College/higher education;Professional and scholarly;
