Attentional Processing: The Brain's Art of Mindfulness (Perspectives in Cognitive Neuroscience) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This book combines neurology, congnitive psychology, and cognitive science, with a bit of philosophy, to efectively explain how the brain attends. LaBerge starts with conceptual issues, and describes experiments on attention that reveal the structure of preparatory and selective attention. Attention, LaBerge notes, can be implemented by various algorithms. A stimulus can be enhanced, its surround (and therefore distractors) can be inhibited, or bothe can take place at the same time. He also makes the useful distinction between preparation and expectation. Expectation involves working memory while preparation involves actual activity in cortical sites that will code for a expected stimulus. After this is done, he presents evidence of modulation by attention in cortical activity. Finally, he shows how two subcortical structures, more importantly the thalamus, implements tha algorithms for attention. The thalamus then acts as a filter, enhancing the processing of a target, so that it can be attended to. This, is an oversimplification, however. LaBerge considers various cortical areas and their relevance for attention, and concludes that attention emerges form distribuited activity in the brain, and cannot be centered to one mechanism only.
The theory does of conurse require some polishing. Also, the main evidence in favour of his attentional mode in the book, comes from a modeling study. More positive evidence would be required, but I'm certain the relevant work has been done science the book was published. Imaging studies, as well as recording studies give good reason to accept the model.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Attentional Processing: The Brain's Art of Mindfulness (Perspectives in Cognitive Neuroscience)


In the past two decades, the familiar experience of attention--the emphasis on a particular mental activity so that it "fills the mind"--has been subjected to much scientific inquiry. David LaBerge now provides a systematic view of the attention process as it occurs in everyday perception, thinking, and action. Drawing from a variety of research methods and findings from cognitive psychology, neurobiology, and computer science, he presents a masterful synthesis of what is understood about attentional processing.

LaBerge explores how we are able to restrict the input of extraneous and confusing information, or prepare to process a future stimulus, in order to take effective action. As well as describing the pathways in the cortex presumed to be involved in attentional processing, he examines the hypothesis that two subcortical structures, the superior colliculus and the thalamus, contain circuit mechanisms that embody an algorithm of attention. In addition, he takes us through various ways of posing the problem, from an information-processing description of how attention works to a consideration of some of the cognitive and behavioral consequences of the brain's computations, such as desiring, judging, imaging, and remembering.

Attentional Processing is a highly sophisticated integration of contributions from several fields of neuroscience. It brings together the latest efforts to solve the puzzle of attention: how it works, how it is modulated, what its benefits are, and how it is expressed in the brain.

Click here for more information about Attentional Processing: The Brain's Art of Mindfulness (Perspectives in Cognitive Neuroscience)

Read More...

Biogenealogy: Decoding the Psychic Roots of Illness: Freedom from the Ancestral Origins of Disease Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This book is a translation of the author's French language book about the concepts and implications of the "New Medicine" generated by research of Dr. Hamer. The ideas are well presented for the layperson, with numerous analogies and metaphors. The basic ideas are revolutionary to the existing paradigms which dominate medicine. In the biodecoding process of this field it is understood that psychological conflict lies at the root of illnesses, with observed symptoms being the mind-body system's tool to deal with a conflict. Many case studies are described and the author reports how Dr. Hamer and others have used brain scans to correlate how these psychological/emotional issues are communicated through brain relays to associated organs and tissues. This book is an excellent introduction to these ideas. Some interesting philosophical and metaphysical conclusions are offered in this book, with these being in my view the only areas of weakness to the overall presentation. Soul memory is presumed in this book to be ancestral memory (rather than an additional layer of memories/programming from incarnations that exist independent of one's family lineage, the idea I consider most plausible). The discussion of destiny seems incomplete and paradoxical, though it does stir thinking about the nature of how circumstances come into being and how shifts in consciousness and awareness can shift one's path and experience. Using illness as a catalyst for transformation and resolution of underlying psychospiritual issues is an important model for those seeking to understand the healing process. The author acknowledges that a broad spectrum of therapies may assist in this process, while he shows how "detective work" of some sort is vital to facilitating genuine healing and resolution of illness. I think this is a good book for the public to read, as it takes ideas of people like Louise Hay into a deeper extent of illumination without going into excessive detail; details of decoding processes and mapping of the mind-body system are presented in workshops for professionals which can be found by searching online at websites mentioned in this book.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Biogenealogy: Decoding the Psychic Roots of Illness: Freedom from the Ancestral Origins of Disease


Reveals the psychic causes of illness and how to decode and resolve them' Explains how we inherit illness from our ancestors via cellular memory and provides protocols for diagnosis and treatment' Demonstrates how illness is an ally that enables individuals to restore balance to both their life and that of their family treeBiogenealogy: Decoding the Psychic Roots of Illness offers protocols for diagnosis and treatment for conflicts that can span generations. While the idea that emotional stress lies at the origin of every illness is becoming more readily acceptable today, it also is possible to trace the root cause of an illness to our ancestors--their unresolved psychic distress can become part of the cellular memory inherited by their descendants. Until the issue has been settled successfully, it will continue to trigger illnesses in the generations that follow to offset the mind's inability to resolve the problem. Illness is the body's way of protecting those who experience severe emotional shock or excessive amounts of stress.Illness is therefore an ally, rather than the adversary conventional medicine purports it to be. Understanding illness in this way directs us to look for the psychic conflict that underlies it in order to eliminate the disease, rather than merely dealing with its overt physical symptoms. For example, diabetes, which creates excess sugar in the bloodstream, can be triggered by the stress caused by feelings of powerlessness: To compensate for the sense of powerlessness, the body manufactures more sugar to fuel the muscles. To stop this excess sugar production, the psychic distress beneath it must be resolved or it will be passed on to the next generation. When we discover the solutions that create harmony in the body and in our life, the body will no longer have to manufacture illness to restore a sense of balance, and illness will no longer be part of the bequest we leave our descendants.

Get 20% OFF

Click here for more information about Biogenealogy: Decoding the Psychic Roots of Illness: Freedom from the Ancestral Origins of Disease

Read More...

The Moon in the Water: Reflections on an Aging Parent Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Kathy Phillips writes of her experiences as she takes her aging father from his house in Connecticut into her apartment in Hawai'i. She is middle-aged and single with a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, but considers herself "a closet religion major." He is a retired fireman who needs a wheelchair and has memory loss.
The author uses the symbolism and iconography associated with Water Moon Quan Yin, a specific aspect of the Buddhist boddhisattva (enlightened soul), to frame her compassion and caring as she copes with the problems and adjustments both people must face in dealing with their new living situation. Anyone who has been in this situation of suddenly caring for an aging parent knows the difficulties of such a change. The author has a brilliant idea to call on the Goddess of Compassion as a guide at this time of her life.
Each chapter begins with a description of some painting or other depiction of Water-Moon Quan Yin pointing out the symbolism and meaning. She then goes on to describe an event in her life with her father that is wonderfully gentle and compassionate (even when the reader can see the frustration and difficulties behind the text). It is in these loving depictions of the process of interpersonal integration that this book is at its best.
The verbal descriptions of Quan Yin and her role in Buddhist thought are well done and ideally suited to the non-academic reader. While a lesser part of the book, they are a joyful addition. I would not recommend this book as a first source for Quan Yin study, but it is a pleasant benefit for those seeking information on elder care.
I feel that the weakest part of the book is the Quan Yin iconography. Either absent, poorly reproduced in black and white plates, or sketched by the author they leave me craving more. The author does provide a 6 page listing of "Sources for Art Works Described or Reproduced" for those like me who cry out for more. However full-color prints would have been a delight to match the gentle prose of the text.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Moon in the Water: Reflections on an Aging Parent

Named a Best Book of 2008 by Library Journal
In a series of moving vignettes, the author begins by describing a particular representation of Water-Moon Kuan Yin, a Buddhist teacher and goddess associated with compassion, who often sits on a precarious overhang or floats on a flimsy petal.Then Kuan Yin steps out of the frame to join the author in the mundane challenges of caring for her father-transferring his health insurance, struggling with a wheelchair van, managing adult diapers, or playing in the fictions of dementia.From perplexed to poignant to funny, the vignettes record the working-class English of a fading but still wise dad, and they find other human versions of Kuan Yin in a doctor who will still make house calls or kind strangers in the street.
The book includes ten illustrations: both classical representations of Kuan Yin and also the author's own drawings, which adapt Kuan Yin in an act of practical spirituality, reading art through life and life through art. Each vignette invites the harried caregiver to take a deep breath and meditate on the trials and joys of caring for an aging parent.

Get 22% OFF

Click here for more information about The Moon in the Water: Reflections on an Aging Parent

Read More...