BRILLIANTLY EXPLORING TODAY'S CUTTING-EDGE BRAIN RESEARCH, "MIND WIDE OPEN" IS AN UNPRECEDENTED JOURNEY INTO THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN PERSONALITY, ALLOWING READERS TO UNDERSTAND THEMSELVES AND THE PEOPLE IN THEIR LIVES AS NEVER BEFORE. Using a mix of experiential reportage, personal storytelling, and fresh scientific discovery, Steven Johnson describes how the brain works -- its chemicals, structures, and subroutines -- and how these systems connect to the day-to-day realities of individual lives. For a hundred years, he says, many of us have assumed that the most powerful route to self-knowledge took the form of lying on a couch, talking about our childhoods. The possibility entertained in this book is that you can follow another path, in which learning about the brain's mechanics can widen one's self-awareness as powerfully as any therapy or meditation or drug. In "Mind Wide Open, " Johnson embarks on this path as his own test subject, participating in a battery of attention tests, learning to control video games by altering his brain waves, scanning his own brain with a $2 million fMRI machine, all in search of a modern answer to the oldest of questions: who am I? Along the way, Johnson explores how we "read" other people, how the brain processes frightening events (and how we might rid ourselves of the scars those memories leave), what the neurochemistry is behind love and sex, what it means that our brains are teeming with powerful chemicals closely related to recreational drugs, why music moves us to tears, and where our breakthrough ideas come from. Johnson's clear, engaging explanation of the physical functions of the brain reveals not only the broad strokes of our aptitudes and fears, our skills and weaknesses and desires, but also the momentary brain phenomena that a whole human life comprises. Why, when hearing a tale of woe, do we sometimes smile inappropriately, even if we don't want to? Why are some of us so bad at remembering phone numbers but brilliant at recognizing faces? Why does depression make us feel stupid? To read "Mind Wide Open" is to rethink family histories, individual fates, and the very nature of the self, and to see that brain science is now personally transformative -- a valuable tool for better relationships and better living.

史蒂文•約翰遜（Steven Johnson）

美國著名科普作傢，TED演講者，被《展望》雜誌（Prospect）譽為“數字化未來十大思想傢”之一。

他的寫作主題多集中於技術、科學和創新領域，著有How We Got to Now，Where Good Ideas Come From，The Ghost Map，Emergence等10部暢銷書，被譯成多種語言，在全世界廣為傳播。

他在《發現》雜誌上設有專欄，也是《連綫》雜誌的特約編輯，作品齣現在《紐約時報》、《華爾街日報》、《國傢》、《紐約客》等報刊雜誌中。他還齣現在許多高知名度的電視節目中，包括查理•羅斯秀，喬恩•斯圖爾特每日秀和吉姆•萊勒新聞時間。他創建瞭三個非常有影響力的網站，並為一些互聯網公司服務。

譯者簡介

洪蘭

中國颱灣著名教育傢，加州大學實驗心理學博士，腦科學傢，颱灣地區第一位認知神經科學研究所所長，翻譯瞭大量歐美優秀的腦科學相關著作，並撰寫教育類雜誌專欄二十年，齣版諸多暢銷作品。