Today a brain scan reveals our thoughts, moods, and memories as clearly as an X-ray reveals our bones. We can actually observe a person's brain registering a joke or experiencing a painful memory. Drawing on the latest imaging technology and the expertise of distinguished scientists, Rita Carter explores the geography of the human brain. Her writing is clear, accessible, witty, and the book's 150 illustrations--most in color--present an illustrated guide to that wondrous, coconut-sized, wrinkled gray mass we carry inside our heads.

Mapping the Mind charts the way human behavior and culture have been molded by the landscape of the brain. Carter shows how our personalities reflect the biological mechanisms underlying thought and emotion and how behavioral eccentricities may be traced to abnormalities in an individual brain. Obsessions and compulsions seem to be caused by a stuck neural switch in a region that monitors the environment for danger. Addictions stem from dysfunction in the brain's reward system. Even the sense of religious experience has been linked to activity in a certain brain region. The differences between men and women's brains, the question of a "gay brain," and conditions such as dyslexia, autism, and mania are also explored.

Looking inside the brain, writes Carter, we see that actions follow from our perceptions, which are due to brain activity dictated by a neuronal structure formed from the interplay between our genes and the environment. Without sidestepping the question of free will, Carter suggests that future generations will use our increasing knowledge of the brain to "enhance those mental qualities that give sweetness and meaning to our lives, and to eradicate those that are destructive."

麗塔．卡特 Rita Carter

生於英國，本行是新聞記者，曾經有五年時間擔任倫敦晚間新聞「泰晤士新聞」的主播。在過去十年間中，她從事醫學和科學報導的寫作工作，固定供稿給英國《獨立報》、《新科學家》、《每日郵報》與《電訊報》等報章雜誌。她曾因在醫學報導上的傑出成就，兩度獲得「醫學記者協會」（Medical Journalist's Association）頒發的傑出獎。麗塔．卡特目前正製作一系列報導藝術與科學家的節目，使大眾更能增加對於大腦的知識。

審定者--佛利斯 Christopher Frith

倫敦大學學院之惠康認知神經科學系教授、惠康首席研究員，研究專長為神經心理學。曾著有《精神分裂症的認知神經心理學》一書，獲得英國心理學書獎，並合著有《人類腦部功能》。在腦部研究領域發表過超過200篇文章。

譯者簡介--洪蘭

福建省同安縣人，加州大學實驗心理學博士。曾任聖地牙哥沙克生物研究所研究員，加州大學研究教授。1992年回台任教於中正大學；現任陽明大學神經研究所教授。譯作有：《心理學》、《天生嬰才》、《基因複製》、《記憶VS創憶》、《心理學實驗研究法》、《不同凡想》、《學習樂觀‧樂觀學習》、《活用智慧》、《尋找第一個愛滋病毒》、《改變》、《腦內乾坤》、《快樂就健康》、《腦中有情》、《透視記憶》（以上皆為遠流出版）、《語言本能》、《教養的迷思》、《揭開老化之謎》（以上為商周出版）等20多部，最新著作為《講理就好》（遠流出版）。