The creative loop : how the brain makes a mind /

Although written for the intelligent general reader, this book not only is a review of some basic ideas but represents several original points of view. Harth studies the nature of "mind," and the treatment benefits from his years of biophysics research into the functioning and structure of the brain. Because he is broadly educated and widely read, his approach includes discussions of problems that are usually the province of conventional philosophy (e.g., the mind-body question, the validity of reductionism, and free will) and psychology (e.g., pattern recognition, and image and memory formation) in addition to examination of ideas that come from physics (e.g., noise, chaos, and quantum effects). A clear presentation of the current state of thinking about the brain, and can serve as a useful introduction to that organ. The last few chapters contain the core of the original contributions and deal with notions of the self, consciousness, the brain as a computer, and the role of "noise." Although thought-provoking, these latter topics are not as persuasive or as convincing as the bulk of Harth's presentation. A book for all college libraries. General; undergraduate; pre-professional. K. L. Schick; Union College (NY)

Rejecting computer-based models of the brain as flawed, Syracuse physics professor Harth sets forth a provocative alternative model according to which simple neural mechanisms account for creativity and imagination. If Harth ( Windows on the Mind ) is correct, the mental image of a rose or a rabbit occurs near the beginning of the sensory pathways, not in a higher ``command center'' of the brain. In his model, the cerebral cortex creates these images using the thalamus as a ``sketchpad'' on which it projects the image and modifies it, drawing on previous sensory input. Similar ``creative loops'' exist for all the senses, combining to form a system of neural networks between the brain and the body that generates messages about the world. Consciousness, in this view, wells up through a reactivation of images, and selfhood arises from a deliberately assembled self-image grounded in experience encoded as neural memory. Based on the author's two decades of research, this elegantly written treatise will challenge neuroscientists, psychologists and students of the mind. Illustrated. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved