Assembly of the Executive Mind
Evolutionary Insights and a Paradigm for Brain Health

Understand the neuro-archeology of the executive brain, in its supervisory function, to better treat illnesses and behavior.

Michael W. Hoffmann (Author)

9781108456005, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 January 2019

242 pages, 44 b/w illus. 9 tables
23.3 x 15.6 x 1.2 cm, 0.43 kg

Over 90% of the brain is concerned with higher cortical functions, yet understanding of syndromes, functions, and measurements remains unchartered. This valuable handbook illuminates brain function, natural environment and human function, by delving into the interdisciplinary study. Multifaceted in its perspective, this book demonstrates bi-directionality of information exchange between disciplines. This book weaves around key case reports, series, control studies and cohort studies from cognitive neurology registries, to present the most current, practical research. Gaining appreciation for the fundamental formation and assembly of the supervisory area of the brain will inform an understanding of conditions and behavior for neuroscience professionals, clinical brain scientists and medical students in neuroscience, worldwide. Authored by a leading expert in cognitive neurology, this book guides the reader through the evolutionary, or neuro-archeological, aspects of how the frontal lobes and their circuitry were assembled, drawing key insights into form, function and treatment.

Introduction
1. Progressively larger brains evolved ever since the vertebrate-invertebrate divide
2. The profound increase in primate gray matter growth
3. Exponential white matter growth and major fiber tract systems assembly
4. Cellular and molecular changes
5. The core frontal systems
6. Major software upgrading, enhanced working memory (EWM): assembled in Southern Africa during a time of extreme environmental hardship
7. Unravelling of these networks in neurological conditions – nature's reductionism
8. Most neurological diseases present as networktopathies with significant diaschisis or remote disconnection phenomena
9. An exquisitely sensitive prefrontal cortex evolved that is vulnerable to the vicissitudes of daily rhythms
10. Implications for treatment and management: a network based approach
11. Sense of self disorders
12. Implications for you and society.

Subject Areas: Clinical psychology [MMJ], Psychiatry [MMH], Neurology & clinical neurophysiology [MJN]