Top Brain, Bottom Brain: Harnessing the Power of the Four Cognitive Modes

by Stephen M. Kosslyn, G. Wayne Miller

Overview

One of the world’s leading neuroscientists teams up with an accomplished writer to debunk the popular left-brain/right-brain theory and offer an exciting new way of thinking about our minds.

For the past fifty years, popular culture has led us to believe in the left-brain vs. right-brain theory of personality types. Right-brain people, we’ve been told, are artistic, intuitive, and thoughtful, while left-brain people tend to be more analytical, logical, and objective.

It would be an illuminating theory if it did not have one major drawback: It is simply not supported by science. Dr. Stephen M. Kosslyn, who Steven Pinker calls “one of the world’s great cognitive neuroscientists,” explains with cowriter G. Wayne Miller an exciting new theory of the brain.

Presenting extensive research in an inviting and accessible way, Kosslyn and Miller describe how the human brain uses patterns of thought that can be identified and understood through four modes of thinking: Mover, Perceiver, Stimulator, and Adaptor.

Once you’ve identified your usual mode of thought, the practical applications are limitless, from how you work with others when you conduct business, to your personal relationships, to your voyage of self-discovery.

The second edition of Top Brain, Bottom Brain includes expanded practical applications and highlights how readers can harness the theory to succeed in their own lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451645125
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	02/13/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	209
Sales rank:	81,850
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Stephen M. Kosslyn, PhD, is founding dean of the Minerva Schools at the Keck Graduate Institute. He previously served as director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and as the John Lindsley Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, where he also served as chair of the Department of Psychology and dean of Social Science. Stephen has been recognized by election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, three honorary doctorates, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiatives in Research.

Table of Contents

1 A New Way of Looking at What Your Brain Says About You 1

2 Family, Friends, Colleagues 17

3 Mover Mode 37

4 Perceiver Mode 51

5 Stimulator Mode 61

6 Adaptor Mode 73

7 Choosing to Change 85

8 An Aspect of Personality 97

9 Roots of the Theory 109

10 Sweeping Claims: Left and Right? 117

11 The Science of the Duplex Brain 133

Afterword: Living with the Modes 153

Authors' Note 157

Notes 161

Bibliography 171

Index 183

Editorial Reviews

For decades, pop psychologists have asked the question, "Are you a left brain or right brain person?"

In Top Brain, Bottom Brain, Stanford cognitive neuroscientist Stephen Kosslyn shakes up our notions about mental processes by debunking some of the widely-held myths behind artistic and analytical personality types. In their place, he identifies four information processing styles (Mover, Adaptor, Stimulator, and Perceiver) and explains how each affects our personal and professional relationships. Exciting new cutting-edge findings about how our brains really work that have daily, real-world implications.

Right brainers are presumably intuitive and left brainers analytical, but Kosslyn says there's no scientific proof. Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, he instead argues that the brain operates according to patterns best described as mover, adaptor, stimulator, and perceiver. What's your pattern? Take the test.

Library Journal

"Stephen Kosslyn has long been one of the world’s leading cognitive psychologists. In his new book, along with Wayne Miller, he proposes a novel synthesis for thinking about the modes of cognition and the neurobiology that underlies it. This is an extremely stimulating book and a wonderfully readable one as well, even containing useful information for how each of us can make sense of our own ways of thinking.

Robert M. Sapolsky

A bold new theory, with intriguing practical implications, formulated by one of America’s most original psychologists.

Howard Gardner

"Kosslyn and Miller have written a lively, informative, and easily assimilated summary of several important principles of brain function for the general reader who does not have the time or background to follow the complexities of neuroscience research but would like a scaffolding on which to place the new facts that dominate each day's headlines."

Jerome Kagan

"An exciting new way to think about our brains, and ourselves. Original, insightful, and a sweet read to boot."

Daniel Gilbert

"Kosslyn is one of the world’s great cognitive neuroscientists of the late 20th and early 21st century."

Steven Pinker