박문호의 베스트북
뇌속의 신체지도
샌드라 블레크슬리, 매슈 블레크슬리
신경가소성
신체지도
호문쿨루스
2012.01.24 16:38:46
뇌와 몸은 어떻게 결합하는가? 서문의 제목입니다.
신체를 부호화한 신체지도에 관한 이야기입니다.
뇌가 몸을 지도화 하는 방식, 몸 주변의 공간을 지도화하는 방식, 사회와 관계를 지도화하는 방식을 알고나면
이를 응용할 수 있는 범위가 끝도 없이 넓어진다고 합니다.
운동수행능력 개선, 골프선수들의 입스현상 치료, 뇌졸증 회복, 비디오 게임과 가상현실에의 몰입치유,
인간의 온갖 감정의 이해, 다이어트,........목록을 나열하자면 끝이없습니다.
인류의 과거와 현재와 미래를 알 수 있는 실마리가 신체지도임에도 불구하고 너무 과소평가되었다고 합니다.
저자소개
저자 샌드라 블레이크슬리는 오랫동안(뉴욕 타임스)에 과학 기사를 정기적으로 기고한 뇌과학 전문 저널리스트이다. 뇌과학의 어려운 내용을 재미있고 쉽게 풀어니면서 과학 저널리즘을 선도하고 있다. 『라마찬드란 박사의 두뇌 실험실』(V.S 라마찬드란과 공저),『생각하는 뇌, 생각하는 기계』(제프 호킨스와 공저) 등 공동으로 집필한 책이 베스트셀러가 되면서 세계적인 명성을 얻었다. 현재 뉴멕시코 주 산타페에 살고 있다.
저자 : 매슈 블레이크슬리
저자 매슈 블레이크슬리는 미국을 대표하는 과학 저술가 집안의 명성을 4대째 이어가는 과학 전문 저술가이다. 증조할아버지 하워드 블레이크슬리는 AP 통신에 근무하면서 미국의 과학 저널리즘을 확립했다. 하워드의 아들 올튼은 AP 통신의 과학 편집자로 활약했다. 이런 가족의 전통 속에서 생활하며 과학에 젖어 살았던 샌드라와 매슈는 뇌과학 분야의 책을 펴낸 세계 최초의 모자母子일 것이다. 현재 로스앤젤레스에 살고 있다.
Average Customer Review ( |
101 of 107 people found the following review helpful:
Fascinating description of how the brain/body work together, September 24, 2007
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Body Has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better (Hardcover)
The Body Has a Mind of Its Own is a new book by Sandra Blakeslee and Matthew Blakeslee, a mother-son partnership with a history of writing good science books and articles. I found this book from an article they wrote for Scientific American's Mind magazine. The book is a fascinating summary of current research on how the brain and body interact, well-written and enjoyable.
It starts with the brain map that processes incoming touch signals and the motor map that sends out signals to your muscles. We all have much larger areas for our fingers, lips and tongue relative to the rest of our bodies, because accurate input from these areas is so important.
These maps change dynamically with use, so that pianists have much larger area for all their fingers, violinists have a much larger area for just their left hand. When two fingers are taped together, their maps merge; when they are untaped the maps revert to normal. Improper overlapping of these sensory/motor maps can cause performance problems, such as the "yips" that some golfers develop that make them jerk erratically on some strokes.
Mental practice can be as good as physical practice in some circumstances. When you have something down, and know how to do it, mental practice has the same effect on your mental body maps as physical practice. So at a certain level, you can cut down on wear-and-tear on your body and continue to improve by phasing in some mental rehersal.
Your brain has a tremendous degree of flexibility in how it integrates what it sees into your sense of reality. In a virtual-reality world, you can be given longer arms, or lobster arms, or a tentacle in the middle of your stomach, and your brain will accept what it sees and you will feel as if these changes are "natural". Jaron Lanier, who coined the phrase "virtual reality", calls this "homuncular flexibility" (from the old idea of a homunculus in your brain, a little man who drives your body).
Mirror neurons are a recent discovery: when someone lifts a cup to their mouth, your mirror neurons will fire, and you can learn something new just by watching someone else do it. Mirror neurons respond to actions, to intentions, and also react to other people's emotion: when someone is sad or happy or angry, your mirror neurons give you the same feeling. When someone feels pain, you feel the same pain via your mirror neurons. Mirror neurons help babies and children develop and pick up the things they need to know in their culture. Autism may be cause by problems with mirror neurons, where autistic people don't produce the right brain signals to recognize other people's intentions or emotions.
The insula is the part of your brain where all of your internal sensory input comes together, from your heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, and so on. They signal needs such as thirst, hunger, and the need to breathe. The insula also gets input from a separate set of receptors on your skin and mouth: temperature, pain, itch, ache, and touch. Many inputs, such as being pinched, will signal both the insula and your body touch maps.
The insula is a critical part of what it means to be human, to have "sentiment, sentience, and emotional awareness". Of all the mamals, only humans and other primates have this rich set of input into the insula. "It is here that the mind and body unite. It is the foundation for emotional intelligence."
The insula plays a key role in pain management. Pain is handled in the same way as an emotion, both of which result in elevated activity in the insula. This is why meditation and biofeedback can both be effective ways to deal with chronic pain. By helping someone learn to turn down the activity in their insula, they can learn to reduce the ongoing sensation and stress from pain. The same kind of learning can help people who are anxious, and have a generally high level of arousal in their insula, to be less anxious and stressed.
Highly recommended.
아는 지인이 소지하고 있어서 잠깐 목차만 봤을뿐인데 "그래 이책이야"라는 말이 절로 나오던 책이더군요.
여기 오시는 회원중에 신경계손상 환자를 보시는 회원분들은 아마 필독서가 되야할 책이 아닌가 싶습니다.