Attention, the awareness and selection of elements in our physical or mental environments, is a central concept in neuroscience. Michael I Posner and colleagues have proposed a three-network model of attention. 'Alerting' involves increased readiness for immanent stimuli, 'orienting' refers to selecting amid various stimuli; whereas 'executive attention' links attention to decision making, planning and other higher cognitive functions. Though ignorant of the neural mechanisms underlying human attention, magicians are skilled at exploiting human attention to achieve their effects. Recent interest in the neuroscience of magic has built bridges between the practice of magic and the study of attention. However, beyond illustrating how our attention systems can be tricked, magic can be employed in research to explore otherwise unachievable conditions. Such methods provide a unique opportunity to study atypical attention, providing important insights into the function of human attention and other key cognitive domains.
Reviews the book, "Cerebrum 2008: Emerging ideas in brain science" by Cynthia A. Read (see record 2008-04790-000). This book features contributions spanning numerous facets of our lives that brain science either has or will likely transform: from medicine, education, and architecture, all the way to the creative arts. Compared with other compilations with a similar flavor, "Cerebrum 2008" stands out in communicating a few key issues in contemporary neuroscience while gearing the presentation toward a wide, uninitiated readership. "Cerebrum 2008" successfully captures the promise and future prospects of brain science. Each contribution reports current developments in a major area of neuroscience while amply contextualizing the overarching implications. These readable essays appeal to a wide readership as they provide an accessible glimpse into current issues in brain science, including several that compel us all to reexamine our concept of self. "Cerebrum 2008" reaffirms that we have much to look forward to from future research in brain science. Beyond striving for a better understanding of the organ of behavior, neuroscience offers us the potential to transform our brains, minds, and humanity.
Reviews the book, "Placebo effects: Understanding the mechanisms in health and disease" by Fabrizio Benedetti (see record 2009-02085-000). Benedetti's book is a lucid and extensive review entrenched in the neuroscience of placebo research and heralding the importance of this area of study. Benedetti addresses his book to medical students, doctors, and nurses, who will surely find his compilation a useful source of timely information. He also addresses his book to social scientists, but they may find his exposition unbalanced, with only cursory allusions to relevant placebo studies from their purview. This latter crowd would be wide of the mark to take Benedetti for a rabid fan of neurobiological reductionism because his superb research and careful presentations suggest that he is keenly aware of other perspectives, including those of Anne Harrington, Daniel Moerman, and Irving Kirsch. Alas, the field is vast and the cover of Benedetti's book-depicting a structural brain scan, an electrophysiological trace, and molecule charts-may cue the intelligent reader to the author's choice of tenor. This choice was likely both strategic and pragmatic. With definitional imprecision of elementary terms continuing to present a major shortcoming, however, Benedetti must realize that many practitioners simultaneously construe placebos as a screening tool to unmask malingering, a method to control for psychogenic effects, and a compelling example of the power of the mind (Harrington, 2006). While Benedetti acknowledges that we should sort out ethical and practical conceptualizations regarding placebos in order to forge clear directions for future research, placebos-including their responses and effects-will likely remain a moving target until we refine an overarching approach to this burgeoning field.
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