Inside our heads we carry around an infinite and endlessly unfolding map of the world.
And the beauty in understanding how our brains can guide us home..
A book for anyone who has ever felt compelled to venture off the beaten path, Dark and Magical Places is a stirring reminder of the beauty in losing yourself to your surroundings.
How did Neanderthals navigate? Why do even seasoned hikers stray from the trail? What spatial skills do we inherit from our parents? How can smartphones and our reliance on GPS devices impact our brains? In engaging, engrossing language, Kemp unravels the mysteries of navigating and links the brain\'s complex functions to the effects that diseases like Alzheimer\'s, types of amnesia, and traumatic brain injuries have on our perception of the world around us.
From the secrets of supernavigators like the indigenous hunters of the Bolivian rainforest to the confusing environments inhabited by people with place blindness, Kemp charts the myriad ways in which we find our way and explains the cutting-edge Neuroscience behind them.
He examines how the brain plans routes, recognizes landmarks, and makes sure we leave a room through a door instead of trying to leave through a painting.
Grid cells.
Place cells.
Fueled by his own spatial shortcomings, Kemp describes the brain regions that orient us in space and the specialized neurons that do it.
In Dark and Magical Places , Christopher Kemp embarks on a journey to discover the remarkable extent of what our minds can do.
Navigation is one of the most ancient neural abilities we have--older than language.
Inside our heads we carry around an infinite and endlessly unfolding map of the world
