The Mind's Machine: Foundations of Brain and Behavior, Second Edition
The Mind's Machine: Foundations of Brain and Behavior is a comprehensive textbook that introduces the fundamental concepts of behavioral neuroscience. Throughout the book, the theme of "neural plasticity" the idea that physical and chemical changes in the brain result from every new experience and alter future behaviors persists. Watson and Breedlove use simple language to provide thorough but comprehensible coverage of behavioral neuroscience topics, and also include recent state of the art advances in technologies that have allowed us to better understand healthy and pathological brain functioning. The textbook is organized into three main subsections to provide a concrete introduction of the basics of biological psychology and how this complex brain system may dysfunction to produce different behaviors. The first section describes the basic biological components and functions of the nervous system, including how sensorimotor information is processed, and how hormones and other chemical compounds maintain or disrupt the balance of the nervous system. The second explains the capabilities of neural systems to perceive visual, olfactory, auditory, tactile, and taste stimuli, and how emotional and cognitive changes interfere with the system to produce certain pathologies in critical survival behaviors such feeding, sleeping, and sexual behaviors. The last section focuses on higher level cognitive functions such as learning, memory, and development, which involve emotional and cognitive changes through complex processes. The textbook ends with an appendix, glossary, references, author index, and subject index. The authors also include online material support such as quizzes, study guides, visual summaries, and a downloadable application with activities. Overall, the book describes how the brain adapts in perceiving various types of information and how this leads to the output of behaviors. This is important for understanding how the brain dysfunctions to produce neuropsychiatric diseases. Best suited for undergraduate and graduate students with diverse academic backgrounds, The Mind's Machine: Foundations of Brain and Behavior is an important addition to the fundamental understanding of how the brain's biological components produce behaviors.
The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine