Mind Matters: How Mind and Brain Interact to Create Our Conscious Lives

Interaction between mental states and the physiochemical changes in our brains can dramatically alter mood and anxiety, as biofeedback researchers have shown. Gazzaniga carries this insight one step further. In his theory, much of what we feel and think is a kind of rationalization. Our mental condition reflects swings in brain chemistry triggered by physiology or genes, and a ""left-brain interpreter'' steps in to make sense of what we are experiencing on a bodily level. A cognitive scientist at Cornell University Medical Center, the author writes clearly and briskly. Though his report falls flat as a program for managing one's personal life, it contains suggestive insights on topics ranging from pain, depression, phobias and addiction to sleep, schizophrenia and intelligence. (January 29)