The Genius Engine: Where Memory, Reason, Passion, Violence, and Creativity Intersect in the Human Brain

by Kathleen Stein

Embarking on a spellbinding journey to the frontiers of neuroscience, acclaimed science editor and writer Kathleen Stein takes an enthralling in-depth look at the prefrontal cortex, the site of our working memory, impulse control, reason, perception, decision making, and emotional processing—all the things that comprise our human genius.

Genres: Neuroscience, Psychology

304 pages, Hardcover

First published December 20, 2006

Reviews

[Sumanth Ƀharadwaj · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best breakdowns of the frontal lobe and the roles it plays in cognition. The author has simplified without any loss of information decades of research. The book was published in 2007 and I believe is still up to date. A perfect read for anyone interested in the frontal lobe and the plethora of roles it plays on behavior and cognition. I especially enjoyed the research on love on page 412 which was new to me. I don't believe the author makes any leaps in logic but works very syllogistically to paint a wonderful picture of the brain! Great read 5/5!

[Tanita Dhiyaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first exposure on research-based book, so the rating may be really biased. Regardless, the book for me is a mind blowing experience to read, not that it shocked me into realization, but shocked me on the abundant information on the part of our brain. It shocked me, because it reminded me that God Is Great.

[MikeFromQueens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent work on the under-the-hood biology, chemistry, and electrical proximity of the brain parts that make humans so complex. This is a great how-it-works book.

[Mark Schomburg · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a geeky & detailed tour of recent discoveries in understanding the local functionality between regions of the prefrontal cortex, and other brain areas, which ends in a short chapter on AI advances which benefited. Prepare for a continual perusal of experimental settings fit with brain scanned subjects in order to discern the realities of what is where in specific brain regions. Before reading this, it was easy to imagine vague boundaries of function which would vary from person to person, but from the data here, all collected from experimental observation, the commonality of brain location function is highly reported. That's to say that very small regions amongst large groups of people do indeed function exactly the same across the spectrum, and the book goes further into the how of it. So, there's a lot of good & new information even for a reader who regularly knocks off popular brain science books. The theory is starting to come together thanks to extensive laboratory brain scanning experiments. It's really a fun book too, chock full of references to a wide range of thought and zaniness - from a former Omni writer.
Not dumbed down at all, this book is detailed and when I say geeky, I mean that the writer obviously had both feet into the whole thing whether or not the reader is willing to jump in to full depth. Thus it can be exhausting to learn the many circuits and discern the details being teased out in various tests, with the benefit that simply reading the material helps a lot to frame this new picture of the brain's complex function.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amazing insight into the operations of the prefrontal cortex and its relationship to memory, reason, passion, violence, and creativity. Very easy to read with lots of interesting case examples but it does get long.

[Adih Respati · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) is dominating these functions --memory, reason, passion, violence, creativity.

[Glynda-lee Hoffmann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Badly written. Too much info about experiments and not enough conclusions about what they mean.

[Scott Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written and extensively researched account of what scientists know about the most human part of human beings-- the prefrontal cortex.