mission, neurotransmitters, and how poisons and drugs affect neurotransmitter activity. He next covers interaction through the bloodstream created by the endocrine system. Under discussion of the main structures of the nervous system and the evolution of central control, Gleitman discusses the emergence of hierarchic control, hierarchies in small neural circuits, and disinhibition. He then covers the peripheral and central nervous systems, describing the hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain, including the thalmus, hypothalamus, and limbic system.
Next Gleitman turns to the cerebral cortex, and discusses the sensory and motor projection areas, the association areas, including what has been learned about them from organically based disorders of action, perception, attention, and language. Asking ôHow neat is the hierarchy?ö he discusses the motor systems, the cortex, and the lower functions.
On the recent issue of whether we have one brain or two, Gleitman discusses evidence from split brains, lateralization in normal subjects, the two modes of mental functioning that seem to be associated with the two hemispheres, and what the brain can tell us about the mind. On how humans can recover from brain injury, he deals with repair from within (healing), repair from without (surgery), and rehabilitation.
This chapter covers the kinds of motivations that humans share with the other animals. In thinking of motivation as direction, Gleitman deals with the concepts of control systems, self-regulation, and homeostasis. As an example of such motivation, he uses temperature regulation, covering temperature control from within, temperature control by behavior, the autonomic nervous system and temperature control, and how the hypothalamus is involved in sensing the external environment. Thirst-quenching behavior is discussed in terms of volume receptors and osmoreceptors. Under the topic of ôHunger,ö Gleitman covers: how signals for...