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How does my brain work? Why am I conscious? Where is my memory?Is what I perceive around me reality or just an illusion?We all ask these questions, which we could sum up in a single question: Who am I?How is it that I have memories and that I feel I exist?What does it mean that my mind is free in time and space,and yet I am imprisoned in a body that is doomed to disappear?What happens to my mind when my body disappears?What are the risks of my suffering from a brain disease?Could my whole being eclipse because of a disease in whichmy body survives but my mind ceases to exist?What remedies are there? What hope does reasearch hold out?Recent discoveries about the brain allow us to ask such questions more pointedly,hoping to define more clearly the relations of the brain with the mind, of man with his body.This book is based on numerous discussions with specialists.It attempts to determine the state of the art.It is organized in chapters that can be read in continuity,but it is equally possible to discover the chapters in a different way.ContentsIntroduction1 The Controversial Seat of MyselfThe Dualist FantasyInsanity and Criminal ResponsibilityNervous Diseases, or Psychological Diseases?Western Medicine and CartesianismThe History of Errors About the Brain2 A Simple Architecture of the BrainThe NeuronThe Glial CellThe Fantasies of the NeuronThe Structure of the Nervous SystemThe Limbic SystemReticular Activating SystemCortical AreasThe Visual CortexThe Auditory CortexThe Motor CortexThe Prefrontal CortexThe Limits of Functional LocalizationThe Blood-Brain BarrierThe Development of the BrainApprenticeshipLanguageThought3 Seeing Through Oneself: Brain ImagingMagnetoencephalograhy (MEG)Tomography: CT and PETMagnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)Research Using ImageryThe Brain as a Black BoxVirtual Reality4 Dispersed MemoriesStorage in NeuronsThe Generation of Neurons in the CanaryThe Hippocampus of the London Taxi DriverTwo Diseases of Memory5 The Prevention of Parkinson DiseaseA Problematical TreatmentThe Complications of TherapyNon-Pharmacological TreatmentImproving Surgical PrecisionFuture Perspectives6 The Treatment of Alzheimer DiseaseThe Consequences of ADToday’s TreatmentsResearch for New Therapy7 The Cerebrovascular AccidentA Typical StrokeClassic TherapyCVA and Higher FunctionsPreventionHope from ResearchRehabilitation8 The Fatality of TumorsClassification of TumorsThe Search for Treatment9 Altered States of ConsciousnessNeurology of the OBENeurology of NDEDivergent Opinions10 The Myth of the Artificial BrainThe Hesitant Birth of the ComputerTwo Decisive InventionsThe Two Limits of von Neumann’s ComputerVoice ProcessingPractically Insoluble Mathematical ProblemsComparison Between Computer and BrainArtificial Neuronal NetworksBraitenberg’s Project: Mechanical and Evolutionary PsychologyThe Blue Brain ProjectBio-Inspired ComputingCreation of ConsciousnessThe Essential QuestionAnswers to the Essential QuestionEngineers and Biologists Afflicted with the Karl Marx Syndrome11 The Power and the Fragility of OneselfThe End of VitalismThe Trap of ReductionismA Model is not RealityExistence of the MindProof by PlaceboOpinions on Free WillBibliographyIndexSpringer | 2008-12-01 | ISBN: 3540875220 | 120 pages | PDFby Jacques Neirynck………..