The Myth of Mirror Neurons
The Real Neuroscience of Communication and Cognition
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Eric Jason Martin
-
By:
-
Gregory Hickok
About this listen
An essential reconsideration of one of the most far-reaching theories in modern neuroscience and psychology.
In 1992, a group of neuroscientists from Parma, Italy, reported a new class of brain cells discovered in the motor cortex of the macaque monkey. These cells, later dubbed mirror neurons, responded equally well during the monkey's own motor actions, such as grabbing an object, and while the monkey watched someone else perform similar motor actions. Researchers speculated that the neurons allowed the monkey to understand others by simulating their actions in its own brain.
Mirror neurons soon jumped species and took human neuroscience and psychology by storm. In the late 1990s theorists showed how the cells provided an elegantly simple new way to explain the evolution of language, the development of human empathy, and the neural foundation of autism. In the years that followed, a stream of scientific studies implicated mirror neurons in everything from schizophrenia and drug abuse to sexual orientation and contagious yawning.
In The Myth of Mirror Neurons, neuroscientist Gregory Hickok reexamines the mirror neuron story and finds that it is built on a tenuous foundation - a pair of codependent assumptions about mirror neuron activity and human understanding. Drawing on a broad range of observations from work on animal behavior, modern neuroimaging, neurological disorders, and more, Hickok argues that the foundational assumptions fall flat in light of the facts. He then explores alternative explanations of mirror neuron function while illuminating crucial questions about human cognition and brain function: Why do humans imitate so prodigiously? How different are the left and right hemispheres of the brain? Why do we have two visual systems? Do we need to be able to talk to understand speech? What's going wrong in autism? Can humans read minds?
The Myth of Mirror Neurons not only delivers an instructive tale about the course of scientific progress - from discovery to theory to revision - but also provides deep insights into the organization and function of the human brain and the nature of communication and cognition.
©2014 Gregory Hickok (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Biocentrism
- How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to the True Nature of the Universe
- By: Robert Lanza, Bob Berman
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The whole of Western natural philosophy is undergoing a sea change, forced upon us by the experimental findings of quantum theory. At the same time, these findings have increased our doubt and uncertainty about traditional physical explanations of the universe's genesis and structure. Biocentrism completes this shift in worldview, turning the planet upside down again with the revolutionary view that life creates the universe instead of the other way around.
-
-
The Copenhagen Interpretation Resurrected
- By S. Kozlowski on 12-14-09
By: Robert Lanza, and others
-
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
- The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman
- By: Richard P. Feynman
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is a magnificent treasury of the best short works of Richard P. Feynman, from interviews and speeches to lectures and printed articles. A sweeping, wide-ranging collection, it presents an intimate and fascinating view of a life in science - a life like no other. From his ruminations on science in our culture to his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, this book will delight anyone interested in the world of ideas.
-
-
Interesting, but material is covered in better book.
- By Erlend on 04-06-16
-
The Consciousness Instinct
- Unraveling the Mystery of How the Brain Makes the Mind
- By: Michael S. Gazzaniga
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do neurons turn into minds? The problem of consciousness has gnawed at us for millennia. In the last century there have been massive breakthroughs that have rewritten the science of the brain, and yet the puzzles faced by the ancient Greeks are still present. In The Consciousness Instinct, the neuroscience pioneer Michael S. Gazzaniga puts the latest research in conversation with the history of human thinking about the mind, giving a big-picture view of what science has revealed about consciousness.
-
-
Not recommended
- By PMonaco on 01-19-19
-
The Science of Trust
- Emotional Attunement for Couples
- By: John M. Gottman Ph.D.
- Narrated by: J. Charles
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the past 35 years, John Gottman’s research has been internationally recognized for its unprecedented ability to precisely measure interactive processes in couples and to predict the long-term success or failure of relationships. In this groundbreaking book, he presents a new approach to understanding and changing couples: a fundamental social skill called “emotional attunement,” which describes a couple’s ability to fully process and move on from negative emotional events, ultimately creating a stronger relationship.
-
-
Technical version of his other book
- By SoCalSkills on 07-26-17
-
The Elegant Universe
- Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
- By: Brian Greene
- Narrated by: Erik Davies
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a rare blend of scientific insight and writing as elegant as the theories it explains, Brian Greene, one of the world's leading string theorists, peels away the layers of mystery surrounding string theory to reveal a universe that consists of 11 dimensions where the fabric of space tears and repairs itself, and all matter-from the smallest quarks to the most gargantuan supernovas-is generated by the vibrations of microscopically tiny loops of energy.
-
-
Well Written, Good Narration
- By Verena on 06-12-09
By: Brian Greene
-
IntraConnected
- MWe (Me + We) as the Integration of Self, Identity, and Belonging
- By: Daniel J. Siegel MD
- Narrated by: Daniel J. Siegel MD
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Both a personal and general meditation on identity and belonging, Daniel J. Siegel’s book combines personal reflections with scientific discussions of how the mind, brain, and our relationships shape who we are. Weaving the internal and external, the subjective and objective, IntraConnected reveals how our culture may give us a message of separation as a solo, isolated self, but a wider perspective unveils that who we are may be something more―broader than the brain, bigger even than the body―and fundamental to social systems and the natural world.
-
-
Brilliantly integrated & timely
- By ChiDoc on 01-17-23
-
Biocentrism
- How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to the True Nature of the Universe
- By: Robert Lanza, Bob Berman
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The whole of Western natural philosophy is undergoing a sea change, forced upon us by the experimental findings of quantum theory. At the same time, these findings have increased our doubt and uncertainty about traditional physical explanations of the universe's genesis and structure. Biocentrism completes this shift in worldview, turning the planet upside down again with the revolutionary view that life creates the universe instead of the other way around.
-
-
The Copenhagen Interpretation Resurrected
- By S. Kozlowski on 12-14-09
By: Robert Lanza, and others
-
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
- The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman
- By: Richard P. Feynman
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is a magnificent treasury of the best short works of Richard P. Feynman, from interviews and speeches to lectures and printed articles. A sweeping, wide-ranging collection, it presents an intimate and fascinating view of a life in science - a life like no other. From his ruminations on science in our culture to his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, this book will delight anyone interested in the world of ideas.
-
-
Interesting, but material is covered in better book.
- By Erlend on 04-06-16
-
The Consciousness Instinct
- Unraveling the Mystery of How the Brain Makes the Mind
- By: Michael S. Gazzaniga
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do neurons turn into minds? The problem of consciousness has gnawed at us for millennia. In the last century there have been massive breakthroughs that have rewritten the science of the brain, and yet the puzzles faced by the ancient Greeks are still present. In The Consciousness Instinct, the neuroscience pioneer Michael S. Gazzaniga puts the latest research in conversation with the history of human thinking about the mind, giving a big-picture view of what science has revealed about consciousness.
-
-
Not recommended
- By PMonaco on 01-19-19
-
The Science of Trust
- Emotional Attunement for Couples
- By: John M. Gottman Ph.D.
- Narrated by: J. Charles
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the past 35 years, John Gottman’s research has been internationally recognized for its unprecedented ability to precisely measure interactive processes in couples and to predict the long-term success or failure of relationships. In this groundbreaking book, he presents a new approach to understanding and changing couples: a fundamental social skill called “emotional attunement,” which describes a couple’s ability to fully process and move on from negative emotional events, ultimately creating a stronger relationship.
-
-
Technical version of his other book
- By SoCalSkills on 07-26-17
-
The Elegant Universe
- Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
- By: Brian Greene
- Narrated by: Erik Davies
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a rare blend of scientific insight and writing as elegant as the theories it explains, Brian Greene, one of the world's leading string theorists, peels away the layers of mystery surrounding string theory to reveal a universe that consists of 11 dimensions where the fabric of space tears and repairs itself, and all matter-from the smallest quarks to the most gargantuan supernovas-is generated by the vibrations of microscopically tiny loops of energy.
-
-
Well Written, Good Narration
- By Verena on 06-12-09
By: Brian Greene
-
IntraConnected
- MWe (Me + We) as the Integration of Self, Identity, and Belonging
- By: Daniel J. Siegel MD
- Narrated by: Daniel J. Siegel MD
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Both a personal and general meditation on identity and belonging, Daniel J. Siegel’s book combines personal reflections with scientific discussions of how the mind, brain, and our relationships shape who we are. Weaving the internal and external, the subjective and objective, IntraConnected reveals how our culture may give us a message of separation as a solo, isolated self, but a wider perspective unveils that who we are may be something more―broader than the brain, bigger even than the body―and fundamental to social systems and the natural world.
-
-
Brilliantly integrated & timely
- By ChiDoc on 01-17-23
-
Consciousness Explained
- By: Daniel C. Dennett
- Narrated by: Paul Mantell
- Length: 21 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The national bestseller chosen by The New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 1991 is now available as an audiobook. The author of Brainstorms, Daniel C. Dennett replaces our traditional vision of consciousness with a new model based on a wealth of fact and theory from the latest scientific research.
-
-
Confuses Consciousness with Ego
- By Rahul Yadav on 07-11-19
-
Behave
- The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
- By: Robert Sapolsky
- Narrated by: Michael Goldstrom
- Length: 26 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the celebrated neurobiologist and primatologist, a landmark, genre-defining examination of human behavior, both good and bad, and an answer to the question: Why do we do the things we do? Sapolsky's storytelling concept is delightful but it also has a powerful intrinsic logic: He starts by looking at the factors that bear on a person's reaction in the precise moment a behavior occurs, and then hops back in time from there, in stages, ultimately ending up at the deep history of our species and its evolutionary legacy.
-
-
Insightful
- By Doug Hay on 07-27-17
By: Robert Sapolsky
-
Something Deeply Hidden
- Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime
- By: Sean Carroll
- Narrated by: Sean Carroll
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist and one of this world’s most celebrated writers on science, rewrites the history of 20th-century physics. Already hailed as a masterpiece, Something Deeply Hidden shows for the first time that facing up to the essential puzzle of quantum mechanics utterly transforms how we think about space and time. His reconciling of quantum mechanics with Einstein’s theory of relativity changes, well, everything. Most physicists haven’t even recognized the uncomfortable truth: Physics has been in crisis since 1927.
-
-
The Best Layperson Book on Quantum Physics
- By Conrad Barski on 09-11-19
By: Sean Carroll
-
The Alignment Problem
- Machine Learning and Human Values
- By: Brian Christian
- Narrated by: Brian Christian
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today's "machine-learning" systems, trained by data, are so effective that we've invited them to see and hear for us - and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole - and appear to assess black and white defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And autonomous vehicles on our streets can injure or kill.
-
-
Required reading for any AI course
- By ehan ferguson on 11-16-20
By: Brian Christian
-
Consciousness and the Brain
- Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts
- By: Stanislas Dehaene
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How does the brain generate a conscious thought? And why does so much of our knowledge remain unconscious? Thanks to clever psychological and brain-imaging experiments, scientists are closer to cracking this mystery than ever before. In this lively book, Stanislas Dehaene describes the pioneering work his lab and the labs of other cognitive neuroscientists worldwide have accomplished in defining, testing, and explaining the brain events behind a conscious state.
-
-
I had no idea we knew this much.
- By Tristan on 01-18-16
-
Tales from Both Sides of the Brain
- A Life in Neuroscience
- By: Michael S. Gazzaniga
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the mid-20th century, Michael S. Gazzaniga made one of the great discoveries in the history of neuroscience: split-brain theory, the notion that the right and left hemispheres of the brain can act independently from each other and have different strengths.
-
-
The brain science was all that was interesting
- By 964a5 on 03-25-15
-
Creativity
- The Psychology of Discovery and Invention
- By: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Creativity is about capturing those moments that make life worth living. Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi reveals what leads to these moments - be it the excitement of the artist at the easel or the scientist in the lab - so that this knowledge can be used to enrich people's lives. Drawing on nearly 100 interviews with exceptional people, from biologists and physicists, to politicians and business leaders, to poets and artists, as well as his 30 years of research, Csikszentmihalyi uses his famous flow theory to explore the creative process.
-
-
squishy
- By GoingGoingGone... on 07-06-16
-
Surfaces and Essences
- Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking
- By: Douglas Hofstadter, Emmanuel Sander
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 33 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Analogy is the core of all thinking. This is the simple but unorthodox premise that Pulitzer Prize-winning author Douglas Hofstadter and French psychologist Emmanuel Sander defend in their new work. Hofstadter has been grappling with the mysteries of human thought for over 30 years. Now, with his trademark wit and special talent for making complex ideas vivid, he has partnered with Sander to put forth a highly novel perspective on cognition.
-
-
An analogy to describe this 33-hour book
- By George C. on 11-08-19
By: Douglas Hofstadter, and others
-
Thinking, Fast and Slow
- By: Daniel Kahneman
- Narrated by: Patrick Egan
- Length: 20 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The guru to the gurus at last shares his knowledge with the rest of us. Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman's seminal studies in behavioral psychology, behavioral economics, and happiness studies have influenced numerous other authors, including Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman at last offers his own, first book for the general public. It is a lucid and enlightening summary of his life's work. It will change the way you think about thinking. Two systems drive the way we think and make choices, Kahneman explains....
-
-
Difficult Listen, but Probably a Great Read
- By Mike Kircher on 01-12-12
By: Daniel Kahneman
-
The Idea of the Brain
- The Past and Future of Neuroscience
- By: Matthew Cobb
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An "elegant", "engrossing" (Carol Tavris, Wall Street Journal) examination of what we think we know about the brain and why - despite technological advances - the workings of our most essential organ remain a mystery.
-
-
Informative and interesting but mispronunciation
- By Stephanie Romer on 05-16-22
By: Matthew Cobb
-
Who's in Charge?
- Free Will and the Science of the Brain
- By: Michael S. Gazzaniga
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The father of cognitive neuroscience and author of Human offers a provocative argument against the common belief that our lives are wholly determined by physical processes and we are therefore not responsible for our actions.
-
-
Use Your Credit On "Who's In Charge"
- By Dan on 04-03-12
-
The Tell-Tale Brain
- A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human
- By: V. S. Ramachandran
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
V. S. Ramachandran is at the forefront of his field - so much so that Richard Dawkins dubbed him the "Marco Polo of neuroscience". Now, in a major new work, Ramachandran sets his sights on the mystery of human uniqueness. Taking us to the frontiers of neurology, he reveals what baffling and extreme case studies can teach us about normal brain function and how it evolved.
-
-
Great if you like understanding how brains work
- By Michael on 12-25-11
Related to this topic
-
Consciousness and the Social Brain
- By: Michael S. A. Graziano
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is consciousness and how can a brain, a mere collection of neurons, create it? In Consciousness and the Social Brain, Princeton neuroscientist Michael Graziano lays out an audacious new theory to account for the deepest mystery of them all. In Graziano's theory, the machinery that attributes awareness to others also attributes it to oneself. Damage that machinery and you disrupt your own awareness. Graziano discusses the science, the evidence, the philosophy, and the surprising implications of this new theory.
-
-
Cutting edge...
- By Douglas on 08-07-14
-
The Ravenous Brain
- How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning
- By: Daniel Bor
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Consciousness is our gateway to experience: it enables us to recognize Van Gogh’s starry skies, be enraptured by Beethoven’s Fifth, and stand in awe of a snowcapped mountain. Yet consciousness is subjective, personal, and famously difficult to examine: philosophers have for centuries declared this mental entity so mysterious as to be impenetrable to science. In The Ravenous Brain, neuroscientist Daniel Bor departs sharply from this historical view, and proposes a new model for how consciousness works.
-
-
Effectively demystifies consciousness
- By Gary on 11-18-12
By: Daniel Bor
-
Out of Our Heads
- You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness
- By: Alva Noe
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alva Noë is one of a new breed - part philosopher, part cognitive scientist, part neuroscientist - who are radically altering the study of consciousness by asking difficult questions and pointing out obvious flaws in the current science. In Out of Our Heads, he restates and reexamines the problem of consciousness, and then proposes a startling solution: Do away with the 200-year-old paradigm that places consciousness within the confines of the brain.
-
-
A bold, yet ultimately unsupported, hypothesis
- By Keith Pyne-Howarth on 01-17-10
By: Alva Noe
-
Louder Than Words
- The New Science of How the Mind Makes Meaning
- By: Benjamin K. Bergen
- Narrated by: Benjamin K. Bergen
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether it’s brusque, convincing, fraught with emotion, or dripping with innuendo, language is fundamentally a tool for conveying meaning - a uniquely human magic trick in which you vibrate your vocal cords to make your innermost thoughts pop up in someone else’s mind. You can use it to talk about all sorts of things - from your new labradoodle puppy to the expansive gardens at Versailles, from Roger Federer’s backhand to things that don’t exist at all, like flying pigs.
-
-
Fun But Technical--Glad I Got It On Sale
- By Gillian on 05-22-17
-
On Intelligence
- By: Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee
- Narrated by: Jeff Hawkins, Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jeff Hawkins, the man who created the PalmPilot, Treo smart phone, and other handheld devices, has reshaped our relationship to computers. Now he stands ready to revolutionize both neuroscience and computing in one stroke, with a new understanding of intelligence itself.
-
-
Epiphany
- By James on 03-14-05
By: Jeff Hawkins, and others
-
How Language Began
- The Story of Humanity's Greatest Invention
- By: Daniel L. Everett
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mankind has a distinct advantage over other terrestrial species: we talk to one another. But how did we acquire the most advanced form of communication on Earth? Daniel L. Everett, a "bombshell" linguist and "instant folk hero" (Tom Wolfe, Harper's), provides in this sweeping history a comprehensive examination of the evolutionary story of language, from the earliest speaking attempts by hominids to the more than 7,000 languages that exist today.
-
-
Hard to endure
- By Michael D. Busch on 09-09-18
-
Consciousness and the Social Brain
- By: Michael S. A. Graziano
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is consciousness and how can a brain, a mere collection of neurons, create it? In Consciousness and the Social Brain, Princeton neuroscientist Michael Graziano lays out an audacious new theory to account for the deepest mystery of them all. In Graziano's theory, the machinery that attributes awareness to others also attributes it to oneself. Damage that machinery and you disrupt your own awareness. Graziano discusses the science, the evidence, the philosophy, and the surprising implications of this new theory.
-
-
Cutting edge...
- By Douglas on 08-07-14
-
The Ravenous Brain
- How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning
- By: Daniel Bor
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Consciousness is our gateway to experience: it enables us to recognize Van Gogh’s starry skies, be enraptured by Beethoven’s Fifth, and stand in awe of a snowcapped mountain. Yet consciousness is subjective, personal, and famously difficult to examine: philosophers have for centuries declared this mental entity so mysterious as to be impenetrable to science. In The Ravenous Brain, neuroscientist Daniel Bor departs sharply from this historical view, and proposes a new model for how consciousness works.
-
-
Effectively demystifies consciousness
- By Gary on 11-18-12
By: Daniel Bor
-
Out of Our Heads
- You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness
- By: Alva Noe
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alva Noë is one of a new breed - part philosopher, part cognitive scientist, part neuroscientist - who are radically altering the study of consciousness by asking difficult questions and pointing out obvious flaws in the current science. In Out of Our Heads, he restates and reexamines the problem of consciousness, and then proposes a startling solution: Do away with the 200-year-old paradigm that places consciousness within the confines of the brain.
-
-
A bold, yet ultimately unsupported, hypothesis
- By Keith Pyne-Howarth on 01-17-10
By: Alva Noe
-
Louder Than Words
- The New Science of How the Mind Makes Meaning
- By: Benjamin K. Bergen
- Narrated by: Benjamin K. Bergen
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether it’s brusque, convincing, fraught with emotion, or dripping with innuendo, language is fundamentally a tool for conveying meaning - a uniquely human magic trick in which you vibrate your vocal cords to make your innermost thoughts pop up in someone else’s mind. You can use it to talk about all sorts of things - from your new labradoodle puppy to the expansive gardens at Versailles, from Roger Federer’s backhand to things that don’t exist at all, like flying pigs.
-
-
Fun But Technical--Glad I Got It On Sale
- By Gillian on 05-22-17
-
On Intelligence
- By: Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee
- Narrated by: Jeff Hawkins, Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jeff Hawkins, the man who created the PalmPilot, Treo smart phone, and other handheld devices, has reshaped our relationship to computers. Now he stands ready to revolutionize both neuroscience and computing in one stroke, with a new understanding of intelligence itself.
-
-
Epiphany
- By James on 03-14-05
By: Jeff Hawkins, and others
-
How Language Began
- The Story of Humanity's Greatest Invention
- By: Daniel L. Everett
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mankind has a distinct advantage over other terrestrial species: we talk to one another. But how did we acquire the most advanced form of communication on Earth? Daniel L. Everett, a "bombshell" linguist and "instant folk hero" (Tom Wolfe, Harper's), provides in this sweeping history a comprehensive examination of the evolutionary story of language, from the earliest speaking attempts by hominids to the more than 7,000 languages that exist today.
-
-
Hard to endure
- By Michael D. Busch on 09-09-18
-
Your Brain Is a Time Machine
- The Neuroscience and Physics of Time
- By: Dean Buonomano
- Narrated by: Aaron Abano
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Your Brain Is a Time Machine, brain researcher and best-selling author Dean Buonomano draws on evolutionary biology, physics, and philosophy to present his influential theory of how we tell and perceive time. The human brain, he argues, is a complex system that not only tells time but creates it; it constructs our sense of chronological flow and enables "mental time travel" - simulations of future and past events.
-
-
Great book on an underrated subject
- By Neuron on 05-09-17
By: Dean Buonomano
-
The Accidental Mind
- How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God
- By: David J. Linden
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You've probably seen it before: a human brain dramatically lit from the side, the camera circling it like a helicopter shot of Stonehenge, and a modulated baritone voice exalting the brain's elegant design in reverent tones... to which this book says: Pure nonsense.
-
-
Best general-public Brain Science book to date
- By Francisco on 02-14-11
By: David J. Linden
-
Mind in Motion
- How Action Shapes Thought
- By: Barbara Tversky
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Mind in Motion, psychologist Barbara Tversky shows that spatial cognition isn't just a peripheral aspect of thought, but its very foundation, enabling us to draw meaning from our bodies and their actions in the world. Our actions in real space get turned into mental actions on thought, often spouting spontaneously from our bodies as gestures. Spatial thinking underlies creating and using maps, assembling furniture, devising football strategies, designing airports, understanding the flow of people, traffic, water, and ideas.
-
-
Physically difficult to listen to
- By Claire Hay on 11-08-19
By: Barbara Tversky
-
The Age of Insight
- The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present
- By: Eric R. Kandel
- Narrated by: James Anderson Foster
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A brilliant book by Nobel Prize winner Eric R. Kandel, The Age of Insight takes us to Vienna 1900, where leaders in science, medicine, and art began a revolution that changed forever how we think about the human mind - our conscious and unconscious thoughts and emotions - and how mind and brain relate to art.
-
-
Worth the listen
- By Amazon Customer on 01-28-19
By: Eric R. Kandel
-
A User's Guide to the Brain
- Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain
- By: John J. Ratey
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Ratey, best-selling author and clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, lucidly explains the human brain's workings, and paves the way for a better understanding of how the brain affects who we are. Ratey provides insight into the basic structure and chemistry of the brain, and demonstrates how its systems shape our perceptions, emotions, and behavior. By giving us a greater understanding of how the brain responds to the guidance of its user, he provides us with knowledge that can enable us to improve our lives.
-
-
Great book, mediocre narration
- By Dr. B on 09-25-18
By: John J. Ratey
-
Ungifted
- Intelligence Redefined
- By: Scott Barry Kaufman
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Ungifted, cognitive psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman - who was relegated to special education as a child - sets out to show that the way we interpret traditional metrics of intelligence is misguided. Kaufman explores the latest research in genetics and neuroscience, as well as evolutionary, developmental, social, positive, and cognitive psychology, to challenge the conventional wisdom about the childhood predictors of adult success. He reveals that there are many paths to greatness, and argues for a more holistic approach to achievement that takes into account each young person’s personal goals, individual psychology, and developmental trajectory.
-
-
Great content for the intellectually curious
- By ZestyFresh on 08-11-17
-
The Bilingual Brain
- And What It Tells Us About the Science of Language
- By: Albert Costa, John W. Schwieter - translator
- Narrated by: Luis Soto
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do two languages coexist in the same brain? Why is it possible to forget a language? What are the advantages and challenges of being bilingual? Over half of the world's population is bilingual, and yet this fascinating, complex ability is understood by few. In The Bilingual Brain, leading expert Albert Costa explores the science of language through a wide range of cutting-edge studies and examples from South Korea to Spain and Canada.
-
-
Brains make language and language makes brains
- By Andy P. on 08-25-20
By: Albert Costa, and others
-
Entangled Minds
- Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality
- By: Dean Radin PhD
- Narrated by: Al Kessel
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Is everything connected? Can we sense what's happening to loved ones thousands of miles away? Why are we sometimes certain of a caller's identity the instant the phone rings? Do intuitive hunches contain information about future events? Is it possible to perceive without the use of the ordinary senses? Many people believe that such "psychic phenomena" are rare talents or divine gifts. Others don't believe they exist at all. But the latest scientific research shows that these phenomena are both real and widespread.
-
-
Boring as all get out but…
- By rebekah higgins on 01-12-20
By: Dean Radin PhD
-
Permanent Present Tense
- The Unforgettable Life of the Amnesic Patient, H.M.
- By: Suzanne Corkin
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Permanent Present Tense tells the incredible story of Henry Gustav Molaison, known only as H. M. until his death in 2008. In 1953, at the age of 27, Molaison underwent a dangerous "psychosurgical" procedure intended to alleviate his debilitating epilepsy. The surgery went horribly wrong, and when Molaison awoke he was unable to store new experiences. For the rest of his life, he would be trapped in the moment. But Molaison’s tragedy would prove a gift to humanity.
-
-
Read Luke Dittrich's "Patient H.M." first...
- By Douglas on 11-07-16
By: Suzanne Corkin
-
Wild Justice
- The Moral Lives of Animals
- By: Marc Bekoff, Jessica Pierce
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scientists have long counseled against interpreting animal behavior in terms of human emotions, warning that such anthropomorphizing limits our ability to understand animals as they really are. Yet what are we to make of a female gorilla in a German zoo who spent days mourning the death of her baby? Or a wild female elephant who cared for a younger one after she was injured by a rambunctious teenage male?
-
-
What Some Of Us Have Always Known...
- By Douglas on 12-12-13
By: Marc Bekoff, and others
-
The Self Illusion
- Why There Is No "You" Inside Your Head
- By: Bruce Hood
- Narrated by: Bruce Hood
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Self Illusion provides a fascinating examination of how the latest science shows that our individual concept of a self is in fact an illusion. Most of us believe that we possess a self - an internal individual who resides inside our bodies, making decisions, authoring actions and possessing free will. The feeling that a single, unified, enduring self inhabits the body is compelling and inescapable. But that sovereignty of the self is increasingly under threat from science as our understanding of the brain advances.
-
-
Disappointing
- By David R Pinsof on 05-10-12
By: Bruce Hood
-
Supernormal
- Science, Yoga, and the Evidence for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities
- By: Dean Radin PhD, Deepak Chopra MD
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Can yoga and meditation unleash our inherent supernormal mental powers, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition? Is it really possible to perceive another person's thoughts and intentions? Influence objects with our minds? Envision future events? And is it possible that some of the superpowers described in ancient legends, science fiction, and comic books are actually real, and patiently waiting for us behind the scenes? Are we now poised for an evolutionary trigger to pull the switch and release our full potentials?
-
-
great balance of science and wisdom traditions
- By Jayne on 03-16-18
By: Dean Radin PhD, and others
What listeners say about The Myth of Mirror Neurons
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Heartist
- 06-18-15
Excellent overview of a very dense and viscous topic
Enjoyed listening to this book, though it was tough going in many spots.
Needs a fairly good science and specifically neuroscience background to comprehend to any degree of understanding.
Very thought provoking on the subject of Mirror Neurons that have become the master explanation for all things Brain. Puts the function and theory in its place leaving wide gaping holes that research will fill, hopefully.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- David L. Crogan
- 04-11-15
lots of information, slow reader
I came into this knowing nothing about the subject matter so it was good from that perspective. author went on a wild ride of ideas that were good then disproven then reproven. book reader was very slow, I ended up playing it at 1.5 times normal speed and understood him just fine
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jonathan
- 09-20-19
Highly technical
I find no fault with the logic or science of this book. I'm not a neuroscientist or psychologist but have an interest in these topics. A lot of it would have been easier to follow in print whee I can easily reread sections. That said I think the author did an excellent job debunking mirror neurons and I have a general understanding of why after this.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Conor Cox
- 07-20-15
Great idea terrible execution
What did you like best about The Myth of Mirror Neurons? What did you like least?
The idea of the book, a thorough dissection of a scientific theory for the public audience, is a great one and the first half of the book is excellent. But by the second half of the book he drowns himself in obscure attacks against various critics and half cocked theories about how consciousness might work.
What could Gregory Hickok have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
The book could have been about half the length and it would have been perfect, it felt like it tread the same ground over and over from different angles, a fine idea in a scientific paper but it makes for a disconnected and unpleasant book.
Would you listen to another book narrated by Eric Martin?
The performer was snoozeville, the material was weak but the person reading it did it with so little zest and zeal that I would often get lost halfway through paragraphs. I'd love if he narrated it with the power Dan Carlin brings to the equally dry topic of history. I don't think I'd avoid a book read by him but he wouldn't draw me in.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gary
- 09-30-14
Something to offend all mirror neuronscientist
You get two things with this book. You get an incredible interesting exposition on the workings of the mind (consciousness) and a narrative that ties that story together by showing how mirror neurons almost certainly aren't what you thought they were.
The author does not reject the existence of mirror neurons in humans, but he does poke holes in most of what you probably have been told about them in a host of other books and articles. He gives very nuanced arguments to how the available data doesn't always mean what mirror neuron experts say they do. The author is an expert in the understanding of how we communicate. He'll delve into the "motor theory of speech" and how that deservedly fell out of disrepute over time and was resurrected only because that gave mirror neurons such a central role. The results of various experiments supporting that hypothesis are not always best explained by the ways mirror neuron advocates claim and sometimes they ignore the better explanations.
This is a real strength of the book. While showing how better explanations for the experiments and data are available which don't excessively rely on mirror neurons the author never shies way from educating the listener on the embodied processes of thinking.
I love neuroscience and books about the workings of the mind and human behavior. While reading such books, mirror neurons kept popping up in sections of those books, but over time, I started to realize that the advocates for the magical workings of the mirror neurons did not always make sense and there seemed to be better explanations available. This book tells me why my caution radar was beeping.
I'm sure a lot of experts in the field probably hate this book, but I can recommend this book because it will teach the listener to be cautious about mirror neuron claims, and help the listener learn a little bit more about the way the brain works without overwhelming the listener with too many names of brain parts which I only end up forgetting.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
20 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dan B
- 03-14-18
Emphatically justifies its thesis
This book beats the concept of mirror neurons being the root of so many behaviors that were attributed to them in recent decades well into the ground. Admittedly the continuous returning to that thesis after covering so much evidence for it was a little tiring. However, the side trips into related topics like autism were very interesting.
This is a pretty dry book, but unfortunately the reader made it exceptionally dry. I wish a different reader could have injected more enthusiasm into the topic.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bastian
- 01-15-15
Worst narrator ever
Interesting material, but the narrator was so choppy in disjointed in his speaking that I often found myself repeating things in my head for clarity. I would have preferred to read this in book form.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- serine
- 03-21-16
excellent scientific review of the evidence
Excellent critical review of the available literature on mirror neurons (and how the data have been largely misinterpreted). The chapter on autism was fantastic.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chase White
- 07-03-24
Very serious but useful
Looking into this book is like looking into your own brain, you have some ideas, you have some questions, and over time you get it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- meh
- 07-10-15
WWF style takedown of a poorly conceived hypothesis
Beyond his cutting through the bunk of mirror neuron speculation, Hickok presents a wonderful meditation on how the neuroscience program works on a macro level by tracing through the development of this theory. Very instructive and pleasant listen. 10/10
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful