The Executive Brain is the first book to explore in popular scientific terms one of the most important and rapidly evolving topics in contemporary neuropsychology, the most "human" and recently evolved region of the brain--the frontal lobes. Crucial for all high-order functioning, it is only in humans that the frontal lobes are so highly developed. They hold the key to our judgment, our social and ethical behavior, our imagination, indeed, to our "soul." The author shows how the frontal lobes enable us to engage in complex mental processes, how vulnerable they are to injury, and how devastating the effects of damage often are, leading to chaotic, disorganized, asocial, and even criminal behavior. Made up of fascinating case histories and anecdotes, Goldberg's book offers a panorama of state-of-the-art ideas and advances in cognitive neuroscience. It is also an intellectual memoir, filled with vignettes about the author's early training with the great Russian neuropsychologist A.R. Luria, Goldberg's escape from the Soviet Union, and his later interactions with patients and professionals around the world.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

A Worthwhile Read:

I had managed to obtain "Executive Brain" after reading Dr. Goldberg's intriguing The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older, and this book certainly brings additional understanding of neuropsychology and neurobiology as it can be a useful resourceful book.
This book explores the frontal lobes of the brain as well the understanding of how this part of our brain works. Not only frontal lobes and neurons are discussed in this book, but a sort of autobiography of the... more info

Interesting, not despite its slightly unscientifical approach, but because of it:

Yes, it was personal. But liked it. A lot of pop-science ultimately fails to deliver a clear understanding of the subjects it's about. That's because they're presenting essentially a watered down account of the scientifical approach, i.e. they consist mostly of a superficial collection of studies and theories that have been created only to prove what we already know. That goes for text books too.
On the other side we have books that push things further. They'll help us orientate by being honestly... more info

I loved the book!:

I loved the way it was written, integrating science and context (year, country, people's backgrounds) Because after all, we must not forget that our minds and brains are part of the huge dinamic context of the life and environment we are living. The way we look at things, what we conclude and give importance to, ...are not just random events.

So so:

As a psychologist, I found Goldberg's discussions of the frontal lobes rather good. However, readers should be aware that many of his claims regarding the halves of the brain are rather controversial, such as all the nonsense about specialization wherein one half processes information while in the "novice" stage until it's handed over to the other half in the "expert" stage. Pretty far-fetched stuff.

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