A Sense of Self: Memory, the Brain, and Who We Are

A Sense of Self: Memory, the Brain, and Who We Are

Author: Veronica O'Keane

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0393541932

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How do our brains store—and then conjure up—past experiences to make us who we are? A twinge of sadness, a rush of love, a knot of loss, a whiff of regret. Memories have the power to move us, often when we least expect it, a sign of the complex neural process that continues in the background of our everyday lives. This process shapes us: filtering the world around us, informing our behavior and feeding our imagination. Psychiatrist Veronica O’Keane has spent many years observing how memory and experience are interwoven. In this rich, fascinating exploration, she asks, among other things: Why can memories feel so real? How are our sensations and perceptions connected with them? Why is place so important in memory? Are there such things as “true” and “false” memories? And, above all, what happens when the process of memory is disrupted by mental illness? O’Keane uses the broken memories of psychosis to illuminate the integrated human brain, offering a new way of thinking about our own personal experiences. Drawing on poignant accounts that include her own experiences, as well as what we can learn from insights in literature and fairytales and the latest neuroscientific research, O’Keane reframes our understanding of the extraordinary puzzle that is the human brain and how it changes during its growth from birth to adolescence and old age. By elucidating this process, she exposes the way that the formation of memory in the brain is vital to the creation of our sense of self.


The Rag and Bone Shop

The Rag and Bone Shop

Author: Veronica O'Keane

Publisher: Penguin Group

Published: 2022-02-03

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780141991016

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Practicing psychiatrist, Veronica O'Keane, has spent many years observing what happens when the memory process is disrupted by mental illness how our recall of and access of memory determines how we function in the world. Memories have the power to move us, often when we least expect it, a sign of the complex neural process that continues in the background of our everyday lives. A process that shapes us- filtering the world around us, informing our behaviour and feeding our imagination. Drawing on poignant case studies and enriched with exploration of literature and fairy tales, O'keane uses the latest neuroscientific research to illuminate the role of psychiatry today and the extraordinary puzzle that is our human brain.


Memory, Brain, and Belief

Memory, Brain, and Belief

Author: Daniel L. Schacter

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780674007192

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This text will be stimulating to scholars in several academic fields. It ranges from cognitive, neurological and pathological perspectives on memory and belief, to memory and belief in autobiographical narratives.


The Self Illusion

The Self Illusion

Author: Bruce Hood

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-06-15

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 0199969892

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Most of us believe that we are unique and coherent individuals, but are we? The idea of a "self" has existed ever since humans began to live in groups and become sociable. Those who embrace the self as an individual in the West, or a member of the group in the East, feel fulfilled and purposeful. This experience seems incredibly real but a wealth of recent scientific evidence reveals that this notion of the independent, coherent self is an illusion - it is not what it seems. Reality as we perceive it is not something that objectively exists, but something that our brains construct from moment to moment, interpreting, summarizing, and substituting information along the way. Like a science fiction movie, we are living in a matrix that is our mind. In The Self Illusion, Dr. Bruce Hood reveals how the self emerges during childhood and how the architecture of the developing brain enables us to become social animals dependent on each other. He explains that self is the product of our relationships and interactions with others, and it exists only in our brains. The author argues, however, that though the self is an illusion, it is one that humans cannot live without. But things are changing as our technology develops and shapes society. The social bonds and relationships that used to take time and effort to form are now undergoing a revolution as we start to put our self online. Social networking activities such as blogging, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter threaten to change the way we behave. Social networking is fast becoming socialization on steroids. The speed and ease at which we can form alliances and relationships is outstripping the same selection processes that shaped our self prior to the internet era. This book ventures into unchartered territory to explain how the idea of the self will never be the same again in the online social world.


Projections

Projections

Author: Karl Deisseroth

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2021-06-15

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1984853694

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A groundbreaking tour of the human mind that illuminates the biological nature of our inner worlds and emotions, through gripping, moving—and, at times, harrowing—clinical stories “[A] scintillating and moving analysis of the human brain and emotions.”—Nature “Beautifully connects the inner feelings within all human beings to deep insights from modern psychiatry and neuroscience.”—Robert Lefkowitz, Nobel Laureate Karl Deisseroth has spent his life pursuing truths about the human mind, both as a renowned clinical psychiatrist and as a researcher creating and developing the revolutionary field of optogenetics, which uses light to help decipher the brain’s workings. In Projections, he combines his knowledge of the brain’s inner circuitry with a deep empathy for his patients to examine what mental illness reveals about the human mind and the origin of human feelings—how the broken can illuminate the unbroken. Through cutting-edge research and gripping case studies from Deisseroth’s own patients, Projections tells a larger story about the material origins of human emotion, bridging the gap between the ancient circuits of our brain and the poignant moments of suffering in our daily lives. The stories of Deisseroth’s patients are rich with humanity and shine an unprecedented light on the self—and the ways in which it can break down. A young woman with an eating disorder reveals how the mind can rebel against the brain’s most primitive drives of hunger and thirst; an older man, smothered into silence by depression and dementia, shows how humans evolved to feel not only joy but also its absence; and a lonely Uighur woman far from her homeland teaches both the importance—and challenges—of deep social bonds. Illuminating, literary, and essential, Projections is a revelatory, immensely powerful work. It transforms our understanding not only of the brain but of ourselves as social beings—giving vivid illustrations through science and resonant human stories of our yearning for connection and meaning.


The Oxford Handbook of Memory

The Oxford Handbook of Memory

Author: Endel Tulving

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2005-05-05

Total Pages: 720

ISBN-13: 0190292865

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The strengths and weaknesses of human memory have fascinated people for hundreds of years, so it is not surprising that memory research has remained one of the most flourishing areas in science. During the last decade, however, a genuine science of memory has emerged, resulting in research and theories that are rich, complex, and far reaching in their implications. Endel Tulving and Fergus Craik, both leaders in memory research, have created this highly accessible guide to their field. In each chapter, eminent researchers provide insights into their particular areas of expertise in memory research. Together, the chapters in this handbook lay out the theories and presents the evidence on which they are based, highlights the important new discoveries, and defines their consequences for professionals and students in psychology, neuroscience, clinical medicine, law, and engineering.


The Interoceptive Mind

The Interoceptive Mind

Author: Manos Tsakiris

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0198811934

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Interoception is the body-to-brain axis of sensations that originates from the internal body and visceral organs. The Interoceptive Mind: From Homeostasis to Awareness offers a state-of-the-art overview of, and insights into, the role of interoception for mental life, awareness, subjectivity, affect, and cognition.


Adventures in Memory

Adventures in Memory

Author: Hilde Østby

Publisher: Greystone Books Ltd

Published: 2018-10-09

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 1771643455

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A novelist and a neuroscientist uncover the secrets of human memory. What makes us remember? Why do we forget? And what, exactly, is a memory? With playfulness and intelligence, Adventures in Memory answers these questions and more, offering an illuminating look at one of our most fascinating faculties. The authors—two Norwegian sisters, one a neuropsychologist and the other an acclaimed writer—skillfully interweave history, research, and exceptional personal stories, taking readers on a captivating exploration of the evolving understanding of the science of memory from the Renaissance discovery of the hippocampus—named after the seahorse it resembles—up to the present day. Mixing metaphor with meta-analysis, they embark on an incredible journey: “diving for seahorses” for a memory experiment in Oslo fjord, racing taxis through London, and “time-traveling” to the future to reveal thought-provoking insights into remembering and forgetting. Along the way they interview experts of all stripes, from the world’s top neuroscientists to famous novelists, to help explain how memory works, why it sometimes fails, and what we can do to improve it. Filled with cutting-edge research and nimble storytelling, the result is a charming—and memorable—adventure through human memory.


Decade of the Brain: Poems

Decade of the Brain: Poems

Author: Janine Joseph

Publisher: Alice James Books

Published: 2023-01-17

Total Pages: 131

ISBN-13: 1948579391

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In the deeply personal Decade of the Brain, Janine Joseph writes of a newly-naturalized American citizen who suffers from post-concussive memory loss after a major auto accident. The collection is an odyssey of what it means to recover—physically and mentally—in the aftermath of trauma and traumatic brain injury, charting when “before” crosses into “after.” Through connected poems, buckling and expansive syntax, ekphrasis, and conjoined poetic forms, Decade of the Brain remembers and misremembers hospital visits, violence and bodily injury, intimate memories, immigration status, family members, and the self. After the accident I turned out all of the lights in the room while I watched, concussed, from the mirror. I edged like a fever with nothing on the tip of my tongue.


Brain SENSE

Brain SENSE

Author: Linda Sasser

Publisher:

Published: 2019-03-28

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 9780578468730

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In this practical book, Linda Sasser introduces you to basic information about your brain and helps you understand the differences between normal age-related memory changes and behaviors that could indicate cognitive impairment. She explains the components of her acronym "Brain SENSE," providing research-supported lifestyle practices you can follow to keep your mind sharp.You will learn how your memory works, the various causes of forgetting, and Dr. Sasser's easy to use strategies for a better memory. You will find engaging and entertaining exercises to maintain your cognitive skills of attention, word fluency, memory, reasoning, problem solving, and creativity. This is a book you won't forget!