Educating the Human Brain

Michael I. Posner, PhD, is currently professor emeritus at the University of Oregon, Eugene, and adjunct professor of psychology in psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, where he served as founding director of the Sackler Institute. Dr. Posner is best known for his work with Marcus E. Raichle on imaging the human brain during cognitive tasks. He has worked on the anatomy, circuitry, development, and genetics of three attentional networks underlying maintaining alertness, orienting to sensory events, and voluntary control of thoughts and ideas. His methods for measuring these networks have been applied to a wide range of neurological, psychiatric, and developmental disorders. Since 98 , he has worked with Mary K. Rothbart to understand the interaction of specific experience and genes in the development and efficiency of attentional networks.  Mary K. Rothbart, PhD, is a distinguished professor emerita at the University of Oregon, Eugene. She studies temperament and emotional and social development, and for the last 25 years she has worked with Michael I. Posner studying the development of attention and its relation to temperamental effortful control. She coedited the book Temperament in Childhood and coauthored, with Holly Ruff, the book Attention in Early Development. She has also made contributions to the education and support of new parents through the Birth to Three organization in Eugene, Oregon. This year, the group honored her as a amp quot Champion for Children. amp quot

In their new book, Educating the Human Brain, Michael Posner and Mary Rothbart boldly bring the newest branch of developmental psychology - developmental cognitive neuroscience-into this tradition. The authors' goal is straightforward - to take our burgeoning knowledge of the development of the human brain and apply that information to the way we educate. It is an ambitious undertaking, and the authors have done an admirable job. Their volume is at once true to the complexity of the science of brain development and to the techniques used to measure brain activity (functional neuroimaging, electroencephalography and evoked response potentials), and at the same time highly approachable for the novice to neuroscience. It is a worthwhile read, both for educators looking for guidance on how new neuroscientific research can inform their practice and for developmental psychologists hoping to bend their research programs toward practical applications in the classroom.(Cognitive Development)

• List of Tables and FiguresPrefaceOverviewChapter : Education, Psychology, and the BrainChapter 2: Relating Brain and MindChapter 3: Learning to LookChapter 4: A Mind of One's OwnChapter 5: Genes and EnvironmentChapter : Temperament and LearningChapter 7: LiteracyChapter 8: NumeracyChapter 9: ExpertiseChapter : Preparing for SchoolReferencesAuthor IndexSubject IndexAbout the Authors