A Brain for Innovation

The Neuroscience of Imagination and Abstract Thinking

Min W. Jung (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

240 Seiten

2023
Columbia University Press (Verlag)
978-0-231-21336-3 (ISBN)

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What sets humans apart from other animals? Perhaps more than anything else, it is the capacity for innovation. The accumulation of discoveries throughout history, big and small, has enabled us to build global civilizations and gain power to shape our environment. But what makes humans as a species so innovative?

Min W. Jung offers a new understanding of the neural basis of innovation in terms of humans’ exceptional capacity for imagination and high-level abstraction. He provides an engaging account of recent advances in neuroscience that have shed light on the neural underpinnings of these profoundly important abilities. Jung examines key discoveries concerning the hippocampus and neural circuits that have demystified the processes underlying imagination and abstract thinking. He also considers how these capacities might have evolved as well as possible futures for intelligence.

Bringing together disparate findings in neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, and artificial intelligence, A Brain for Innovation develops a unified perspective on the mechanisms of imagination, abstract thought, and creativity. Presenting cutting-edge neuroscientific research in a way that is accessible to readers without a background in the subject, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the biological basis of one of the most fundamental aspects of human nature.

Min W. Jung is a vice director of the Center for Synaptic Brain Dysfunctions at the Institute for Basic Science in South Korea and a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. He received his PhD from the University of California, Irvine. His primary interests are the neural mechanisms of memory, imagination, and decision making.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Hippocampus and Imagination
1. Hippocampus: From Memory to Imagination
2. False Memory
3. Place Cells and Hippocampal Replay
Part II: The Neural Symphony of Imagination
4. Neural Circuits of the Hippocampus
5. Value-Based Decision-Making
6. Remembering Rewarding Futures
7. The Evolution of Imagination
Part III: The Neural Foundation of Abstraction
8. Abstract Thinking and Neocortex
9. Prefrontal Cortex
10. The Human Revolution and Associated Brain Changes
11. Deep Neural Network
Part IV: Beyond Imagination and Abstraction
12. Sharing Ideas and Knowledge through Language
13. On Creativity
14. The Future of Innovation
Epilogue
Appendix 1: Dentate Gyrus
Appendix 2: Value-Coding Neurons
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	19.12.2023
Zusatzinfo	50 figures
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 235 mm
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Allgemeine Psychologie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Verhaltenstherapie
	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Humanbiologie
	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Zoologie
ISBN-10	0-231-21336-0 / 0231213360
ISBN-13	978-0-231-21336-3 / 9780231213363
Zustand	Neuware