Auditory Perception And Phantom Perception In Brains Minds And Machines

Auditory Perception and Phantom Perception in Brains, Minds and Machines

The Experience Machine

A brilliant new theory of the mind that upends our understanding of how the brain interacts with the world “This thoroughly readable book will convince you that the brain and the world are partners in constructing our understanding.” —Sean Carroll, New York Times bestselling author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion For as long as we’ve studied human cognition, we’ve believed that our senses give us direct access to the world. What we see is what’s really there—or so the thinking goes. But new discoveries in neuroscience and psychology have turned this assumption on its head. What if rather than perceiving reality passively, your mind actively predicts it? Widely acclaimed philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark unpacks this provocative new theory that the brain is a powerful, dynamic prediction engine, mediating our experience of both body and world. From the most mundane experiences to the most sublime, reality as we know it is the complex synthesis of sensory information and expectation. Exploring its fascinating mechanics and remarkable implications for our lives, mental health, and society, Clark nimbly illustrates how the predictive brain sculpts all human experience. Chronic pain and mental illness are shown to involve subtle malfunctions of our unconscious predictions, pointing the way towards more effective, targeted treatments. Under renewed scrutiny, the very boundary between ourselves and the outside world dissolves, showing that we are as entangled with our environments as we are with our onboard memories, thoughts, and feelings. And perception itself is revealed to be something of a controlled hallucination. Unveiling the extraordinary explanatory power of the predictive brain, The Experience Machine is a mesmerizing window onto one of the most significant developments in our understanding of the mind.

Textbook of Tinnitus

This book describes the theoretical background of the different forms of tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and detailed knowledge of state-of-the-art treatments of tinnitus. Tinnitus has many forms, and the severity ranges widely from being non-problematic to severely affecting a person’s daily life. How loud the tinnitus is perceived does not directly relate to how much it distresses the patient. Thus, even tinnitus very close to the hearing threshold can be a disabling symptom. It can reduce the quality of life by generating anxiety and concentration problems, impairing the ability to do intellectual work, making it difficult to sleep, causing depression and sometimes even leading to suicide. Textbook of Tinnitus has filled a void by providing a comprehensive overview about the different forms of tinnitus, their pathophysiology and their treatment. However, since the publication of the first edition of the Textbook of Tinnitus in 2011, tinnitus research has dramaticallyevolved. In view of the substantial increase in knowledge, most chapters in this second edition are newly written and a few original chapters have had major updates. This edition has nine sections, covering the basics of tinnitus, the neurobiology of tinnitus, pathophysiological models, animal research, diagnosis and assessment, various forms of management and treatment, and finally, a look at the future of tinnitus and tinnitus research. The book will be of great interest to otolaryngologists, neurologists, psychiatrists, neurosurgeons, primary care clinicians, audiologists and psychologists, and students. Because of its organization and its extensive subject index, Textbook of Tinnitus, Second Edition can also serve as a reference for clinicians who do not treat tinnitus patients routinely.