THE SECRET LIFE OF THE BRAIN by Richard Restak. Dana Press and Joseph Henry Press, 2001
FORWARD (pvi-x)
INTRODUCTION (pxi-xvi)
HOW WE VIEW THE BRAIN (pxvii-xx)
1) Wider than the sky --- The baby's brain (p1-35)
2) Syllable from sound --- The child's brain (p37-69)
Development of the brain during gestation (2-5)
[1] Defining characteristics (p2-4)
[2] Dramatic growth of the cerebral hemispheres (p4-5)
[3] The amazing cerebral cortex (p5-8)
The "crown of creation" --- Lobes of the cerebral cortex (p6-7)
[4] An axon's reach (p8-9)
[5] Connecting across the synapse (p9-10)
[6] From electrical to chemical and back again (p10-11)
[7] Mass migration (p11-12)
[8] Heredity or environment? (p12-14)
Division of labor in the cortex (p13)
[9] More than genetics (p14-15)
[10] A rewiring experiment (p15-16)
[11] Migration errors (p16-18)
[19] Pruning (p18)
[20] Practice drills (p19)
[21] What does a baby see? (p19-21)
Responding to the human face (p20)
[22] A faded photograph (p21-22)
[23] Vision and brain development (p22-24)
Helping babies with cataracts (p23)
[24] Sensitive periods (24-25)
[25] Use it or lose it (p25-26)
[26] When birth occurs too soon (p26-27)
[27] A new approach (p27-28)
[28] Mimicking the womb (p28-29)
[29] Creating a special environment (p29-30)
[29] Positive results (p30-33)
(1) Developmental milestones to twelve months --- Every baby develops at his or her own pace, but some behaviors are considered typical at certain ages (p31)
[30] Better control of behavior --- Enhanced cerebral development helps babies grow into children who are able to exert greater contol over their behavior. (p33-34)
(2) The brain and temperament (p33)
The frontal lobes are concerned with understanding social and behavioral rules and using these rules to plan and anticipate the consequences of one's actions!
From infancy to childhood --- because of the "plasticity" of the human brain, humans exhibit a lifetime capacity for change and reorganization! It is our brain's plasticity that provides the potential to overcome adverse influences at any time during our lives. But this miraculous potential renders us both adaptable and vulnerable! (p35)
[1] The acquisition of language (p38-41)
3) A world of their own --- The adolescent brain (p71-107)
[2] Incorrect assumptions (p41-45)
(1) The brain's language pathways (p42-43)
[3] Early bilingual exposure (p45)
(2) Four "PET scans" show increased blood flow to active left hemisphere areas (p44)
[4] Speaking flawlessly (p46-47)
[5] Left versus right --- brain hemispheres: distributing the "duties" (p47-49)
(1) Brain hemispheres --- Distributing the "duties" (p48)
[6] Learning early, learning later (p49)
(2) "Duties" predominant in LEFT Hemisphere (p48)
(2) "Duties" predominant in RIGHT Hemisphere (p48)
(1) Babies babbling in sign language (p50)
[7] Hands in motion (p51)
[8] When language centers are injured (p51-53)
The Nicaraguan town with its own sign language (p52-53)
[9] The uncultivated right hemisphere (p53)
[10] Variations in timing (p54-55)
[11] Declining plasticity (p55)
[12] Learning to read (p56)
[13] The challenge of dyslexia (p56-58)
(1) A child's determination --- and the BRAIN'S PLASTICITY! (p57)
[14] Needed --- a good memory (p58-60)
(2) The brain uses a variety of functions during the ACT OF READING (p58-59)
Brain functions include --- attention, vision and memory!
1. First, we FOCUS at the reading task at hand, which activates the FRONTAL LOBES and the THALAMUS in MIDBRAIN (paying attention)
2. Second., we must VISUALLY take in the words, which engages the VISUAL CORTEX in the OCCIPITAL LOBE
3. Third, to make sense of the words we see, the information must next go to an association area where we connect the symbols (words) on the page to each of the words meanings.
[15] Predicting future skills (p60)
[16] Using image techniques (p60-61)
[17] A surprising finding (p61-62)
Developmental milestones to 36 months! (p63)
[18] Approaches to treatment (p64-65)
[19] The hyperlexic reader (65)
[20] Quick to read, slow to talk (p66-67)
[18] Testing pattern --- Reading is a complex skill! --- Neuro-imaging with MRI machines has proven that language development is a "time-sensitive" process.
Thus time sensitivity and plasticity operate as two separate but mutually interacting processes within the human brain (p67-68)
(1) The "activation pattern" of the brain of a hyperlexic child which is like that of a highly skilled adult reader! (p67)
(2) Changes that take place as the brain of a child makes the transition to the brain of a teenager --- A teenager's thinking differs from that of a child's in the teenager's capacity to form the question "WHAT IF?" A child is locked into the "here and now" while a teenager can think in terms of IMAGINED POSSIBILITIES which permits a rich variety of possible outcomes and an accompanying impatience to take steps toward transforming their images of the future from concept into reality! (p69)
[1] A work in progress (p72-77
4) To think by feeling --- The adult brain (p109-151)
[2] ADHD --- a worldwide problem (p77-79
[3] Twice the risk of substance abuse (p79-81)
[4] The dark side of "plasticity" (p82)
[5] The reward pathway (p82-84)
[6] Who is at risk? (p84-85)
[7] Trojan horses (p85-86)
[8] A hijacked brain (p86-87)
[9] A stranger in the mirror (p87-88)
[10] Eighty percent relapse (p88-91)
[11] Alcohol --- legal and pernicious (p91-92)
[12] Family history + low response = high risk (p92-93)
[13] Playing russian roulette (p93-94)
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5) Second flowering --- The aging brain (p153-194)
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INDEX (p195-199)
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CREDITS (p200-202)
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