The Body Has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better

by Matthew Blakeslee and Sandra Blakeslee

Book Overview

Your body has a mind of its own. You know it's true. You can sense it, even though it may be hard to articulate. You know that your body is more than a vehicle for your brain to cruise around in, but how deeply are mind and body truly interwoven? Answers can be found in the emerging science of body maps. Just as road maps represent interconnections across the landscape, your many body maps represent all aspects of your bodily self. Your self doesn't...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812975278
• ISBN13: 9780812975277
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The Body's Mind Can Changed

Revolving around the general idea of "Body Maps," or your brain's awareness of your body and personal space, The Body Has a Mind of Its Own provides insight into the way we perceive almost every sensation, action, or emotion. In a more attention-keeping and conversational tone that most non-fiction, fairly complex psychological ideas are explained quite concisely, and in the lexicon of the average person. Starting with the basic underlying principle of how the brain maps out your person, usually with very large areas on the map for hands and mouth (which makes quite a lot of sense), it continues to glide through ways to actualize and strengthen the relationship between your body and mind. The Blakeslees have come up with an informative and clear diagram of some very useful connections that exist within your being, documenting them thoroughly and even producing methods of exercising them. A delightful read from front to back, The Body Has a Mind of Its Own will, not surprisingly, provoke thought and meditation. Reviewed by Jordan Dacayanan

Interesting relationships between the body and brain for all readers

The Body has a Mind of its Own was an enjoyable read and was not at all a "textbook," as some science non-fiction writing can be. As a student in a Neuroscience class, I could scientifically appreciate what the Blakeslees were saying, but also as someone who doesn't find time to sit down and read a book often, I found that they managed to keep my attention through their interesting examples and obvious enthusiasm. The underlying theme of the book, as portrayed in the text's subtitle, is how the combination of multiple neural circuits in the brain helps to map out pretty much everything that we do. This topic appeals to a broad audience because the examples that the authors present show that in fact, we use these maps on a daily basis. The book has 10 chapters, each looking at a different aspect of how these body maps and their plasticity help us get through our lives. The introduction and first chapter provide a basis for what will be discussed throughout the rest of the book, the idea that we understand our bodies using a "tightly integrated network" of body maps. The next three chapters present the idea of the homunculus as well as how this "little man" can sense such things as how we perceive touch, how we perform athletically, and even why your last diet failed. The following two chapters provide several interesting, yet strange examples of what happens when these body maps go wrong. The authors use one chapter apiece to describe when the maps "go blurry" and what happens when they flat out "break." Chapters 7 and 8 begin to explain where the body maps end when it comes to proprioception, and chapter 9 provides extremely interesting information on mirror neurons, including how they make sports fans as crazy as we are. The final chapter of the book takes a look at body maps created by interoception and emotion. I have a very high opinion of the book, and thought that the authors did a great job of portraying several somewhat complex ideas in a way that almost anyone could understand. Specific Opinions Throughout the book, there are several text boxes and illustrations that provide sometimes extra, sometimes necessary, but always interesting information on the topic being discussed. I especially enjoyed reading these additional text boxes and illustrations that provided an extra reinforcement for the information being provided in the text itself. Not to mention that most of the text boxes presented interesting real-life examples such as the NCAA runner with two prosthetic legs and the fourteen-year-old boy who could play computer games without even lifting a finger, but instead with his mind. I felt this was an interesting way of portraying the facts, but I liked seeing them separated rather than just another paragraph. In my opinion, this made the book far easier to read. I liked that the authors provided background on the first instances of understanding functional integration within the primary somatosensory area as we

Understanding Us

I heard this author interviewed on a local NPR station and knew I had to get the book when she started talking about the anatomy and neurophysiology of "out of body" experiences. The information is scientifically sound and the presentation superb. There were many "Ah! So that's why..." moments. I still think about this book when I see a yawn or a smile, experience cold, itch, or pain, or when I load a mapquest map into my cerebral cortex and "know" exactly where I am going.

Excellent introduction to a complex and fascinating topic

This is an excellent book. The authors have a gift for making a complex subject understandable. Another plus is that, like the best of nonfiction authors, they stick to the subject and rely on facts rather than opinion. This book provides a wonderful introduction into an area of science formerly limited to neurologists and other highly-trained specialists. Central theme The central theme of this book is that the brain maps the body. In fact, different areas of the brain contain different kinds of body maps with different functions. These body maps in the brain determine such things as how you perceive reality and how you respond to that perception. One of the most fascinating aspects is the plasticity of these maps. For example, have you ever noticed that you can "feel" with the end of a tool? You put a wrench on a nut, and you suddenly have several important bits of information about that nut. This is because your body map extends to include the tool. And it's why mechanics can accurately work without actually seeing what their hands or tools are touching. Body maps extend from the rider to include the horse and from the horse to include the rider. Lovers share body maps, and the book explores what goes on there also. This book explores the effects of dysfunctional body maps, too, shedding light on such things as eating disorders and out of body experiences. And it looks at the interplay between body maps and culture, language, music, emotions, pain, and even parenting. The brain and the body are not separate entities, but are intertwined, interdependent, and interfunctional. Understanding this fact is essential to understanding how and why body maps work. This book explains that lucidly. You may have heard of the "little man" theory, or the homunculus theory. If not, perhaps you recall the drawing of the skull being opened to reveal a little man operating control levers. That drawing represents the theory. We all know there's not an actual physical person of tiny stature pulling levers in our heads. But it's commonly thought that the "me" of us is a central entity that works like that little man. Another common analogy for this theory is the symphony conductor. Because of this theory, many early researchers of body maps looked for the master map. As it turns out, there isn't one. There is not "little man," no master homunculus, no conductor, no central authority. The brain is a collection of homunculi or body maps working together. If this doesn't sound possible, think of an ant colony. There is no master ant giving out directions. Each ant does its part in a concert of ants with no conductor. The many body maps of the brain are similarly independent yet cooperative. The brain also contains body maps that facilitate the communication between these disparate parts and the various body maps those parts use. Only flaw The book runs a couple hundred pages, in an unusually small typeface. It would be better, in a future release, to be produce

Fascinating description of how the brain/body work together

The Body Has a Mind of Its Own is a new book by Sandra Blakeslee and Matthew Blakeslee, a mother-son partnership with a history of writing good science books and articles. I found this book from an article they wrote for Scientific American's Mind magazine. The book is a fascinating summary of current research on how the brain and body interact, well-written and enjoyable. It starts with the brain map that processes incoming touch signals and the motor map that sends out signals to your muscles. We all have much larger areas for our fingers, lips and tongue relative to the rest of our bodies, because accurate input from these areas is so important. These maps change dynamically with use, so that pianists have much larger area for all their fingers, violinists have a much larger area for just their left hand. When two fingers are taped together, their maps merge; when they are untaped the maps revert to normal. Improper overlapping of these sensory/motor maps can cause performance problems, such as the "yips" that some golfers develop that make them jerk erratically on some strokes. Mental practice can be as good as physical practice in some circumstances. When you have something down, and know how to do it, mental practice has the same effect on your mental body maps as physical practice. So at a certain level, you can cut down on wear-and-tear on your body and continue to improve by phasing in some mental rehersal. Your brain has a tremendous degree of flexibility in how it integrates what it sees into your sense of reality. In a virtual-reality world, you can be given longer arms, or lobster arms, or a tentacle in the middle of your stomach, and your brain will accept what it sees and you will feel as if these changes are "natural". Jaron Lanier, who coined the phrase "virtual reality", calls this "homuncular flexibility" (from the old idea of a homunculus in your brain, a little man who drives your body). Mirror neurons are a recent discovery: when someone lifts a cup to their mouth, your mirror neurons will fire, and you can learn something new just by watching someone else do it. Mirror neurons respond to actions, to intentions, and also react to other people's emotion: when someone is sad or happy or angry, your mirror neurons give you the same feeling. When someone feels pain, you feel the same pain via your mirror neurons. Mirror neurons help babies and children develop and pick up the things they need to know in their culture. Autism may be cause by problems with mirror neurons, where autistic people don't produce the right brain signals to recognize other people's intentions or emotions. The insula is the part of your brain where all of your internal sensory input comes together, from your heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, and so on. They signal needs such as thirst, hunger, and the need to breathe. The insula also gets input from a separate set of receptors on your skin and mouth: temperature, pain, itch, ache, and touch. Many