Reading in the Brain The New Science of How We Read [Paperback]

Brings together the cognitive, the cultural, and the neurological in an elegant, compelling narrative. A revelatory work. --Oliver Sacks, M.D.

The act of reading is so easily taken for granted that we forget what an astounding feat it is. How can a few black marks on white paper evoke an entire universe of meanings? It's even more amazing when we consider that we read using a primate brain that evolved to serve an entirely different purpose. In this riveting investigation, Stanislas Dehaene, author ofHow We Learn, explores every aspect of this human invention, from its origins to its neural underpinnings. A world authority on the subject, Dehaene reveals the hidden logic of spelling, describes pioneering research on hiw we process languages, and takes us into a new appreciation of the brain and its wondrous capacity to adapt.Stanislas Dehaene is the director of the Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit in Saclay, France, and the professor of experimental cognitive psychology at the Collège de France. He is the author of Reading in the Brain, Consciousness and the Brain,andHow We Learn.

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READING IN THE BRAIN

French scientist Stanislas Dehaene was trained as a mathematician and psychologist before becoming one of the world’s most active researchers on the cognitive neuroscience of language and number processing in the human brain. He is the director of the Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit in Saclay, France; professor of experimental cognitive psychology at the Collège de France; and a member of both the French Academy of Sciences and the pontifical Academy of Sciences. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed scientific journals and is the author of several books, includingThe Number Sense.

 

Praise forReading in the Brain

AWashington PostBest Science Book of 2009

ALibrary JournalBest Sci-Tech Book of 2009