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Dark and Magical Places

The Neuroscience of How We Navigate

Christopher Kemp
Humans’ innate sense of orientation has allowed us to navigate savannah, rainforest and city streets but some of us have a curious propensity to get lost. Prompted by his own ‘place blindness’ Christopher Kemp investigates how our brains understand space, revealing the latest discoveries on how we employ place or grid cells to build an ever-unfolding map of the world around us.
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RRP £16.99

sale price £4.99 now £8.99

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Product information:
  • Publisher: Profile
  • Year: 2022
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 256pp
  • Illustrated: No
  • Dimensions: 221x142mm
  • ISBN: 9781788164405
  • Condition: New
  • Weight: 0.4kg
Product code:
537234
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"A NATURAL STORYTELLER" Mary Roach

"BRILLIANT AND BEGUILING" Matthew Gavin Frank

"CAPTIVATING ... WILL ALTER THE WAY YOU SEE AND MOVE THROUGH THE WORLD" M. R. O'Connor

"AS ENTERTAINING AS IT IS ENLIGHTENING" Geographical Magazine, Book of the Month

Within our heads, we carry around an infinite and endlessly unfolding map of the world. Navigation is one of the most ancient neural abilities we have - older even than language - and in Dark and Magical Places, Christopher Kemp embarks on a journey to discover the remarkable extent of what our minds can do.

From the secrets of supernavigators to the strange, dreamlike environments inhabited by people with 'place blindness', he will explore the myriad ways in which we find our way. Kemp explains the cutting-edge neuroscience that is transforming our understanding of it - and tries to answer why, for a species with a highly-sophisticated internal navigation system that evolved over millions of years, do humans get lost such a lot?

"I WAS THRILLED TO DISCOVER THIS BOOK" Robert Moor
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