States of Mind: New Discoveries about How Our Brains Make Us Who We Are (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780471299639)

J. ALLAN HOBSON, author of the groundbreaking The Dreaming Brain, leads us on a tour of dream states, the reasons we dream, and what dream studies reveal about our minds. STEVEN HYMAN, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, traces the links between nature and nurture, particularly in addiction and mental illness, to explain the relationship between inherited tendencies and the impact of life experience. KAY REDFIELD JAMISON, bestselling author of An Unquiet Mind, explains manic depression, its prevalence among gifted artists, writers, and musicians, and the societal questions raised by trying to eradicate the "depression gene." JEROME KAGAN, director of Harvard's Mind-Brain-Behavior Initiative, presents the latest findings on how a child's environment and inborn biology combine to shape and reshape personality and temperament. ERIC KANDEL, director of Columbia's Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, takes us along the chain of biological events that create long-term memories, revealing how we stand at the brink of helping those who suffer from grave mental and memory disorders. JOSEPH LEDOUX, author of the acclaimed The Emotional Brain, guides us through the pathways of emotion and describes his pioneering work in the biology of the emotion of fear. BRUCE MCEWEN, director of the Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at Rockefeller University, reports on the growing problem of stress and reveals the damage it can inflict on both biological health and cognitive abilities, such as memory. ESTHER STERNBERG, chief of the section on neuroendocrine immunology and behavior at the National Institute of Mental Health, shares her findings in the study of the brain and disease, demonstrating the substances at work in the nervous and immune systems and the reaction of these systems to strong emotions. States of Mind enables you to share in the thrill and wonder of the very latest explorations into the nature and function of the human mind. ROBERTA CONLAN is a regular contributor to the publications of the National Academy of Sciences.