| Description |
1 online resource (xx, 220 pages) : illustrations |
| Note |
Includes index. |
| Summary |
We use our brains at practically every moment of our lives, and yet few of us have the first idea how they work. Much of what we think we know comes from folklore: that we only use 10 percent of our brain, or that drinking kills brain cells. These and other myths are wrong, as shown by neuroscientists who have spent decades studying this complex organ. However, most of what they have learned is not known to the world outside their laboratories. Here, the authors dispel common myths about the brain and provide a comprehensive, useful overview of how it really works. You'll discover how to cope with jet lag, how your brain affects your religion, and how men's and women's brains differ. With accessible prose decorated by charts, trivia, quizzes, and illustrations, this book is suitable for quick reference or extended reading.--From publisher description. |
| Contents |
pt. 1: Your brain and the world. Can you trust your brain? -- Gray matter and the silver screen: popular metaphors of how the brain works -- Thinking meat: neurons and synapses -- Fascinating rhythms: biological clocks and jet lag -- Bring your swimsuit: weight regulation -- pt. 2: Coming to your senses. Looking out for yourself: vision -- How to survive a cocktail party: hearing -- Accounting for taste (and smell) -- Touching all the bases: your skin's senses -- pt. 3: How your brain changes throughout life. Growing great brains: early childhood -- Growing up: sensitive periods and language -- Rebels and their causes: childhood and adolescence -- An educational tour: learning -- Reaching the top of the mountain: aging -- Is the brain still evolving? |
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pt. 4: Your emotional brain. The weather in your brain: emotions -- Did I pack everything? Anxiety -- Happiness and how we find it -- What's it like in there? Personality -- Sex, love, and pair-bonding -- pt. 5: Your rational brain. One lump or two: how you make decisions -- Intelligence (and the lack of it) -- Vacation snapshots: memory -- Rationality without reason: autism -- A brief detour to Mars and Venus: cognitive gender differences -- pt. 6: Your brain in altered states. Do you mind? Studying consciousness -- In you dreams: the neuroscience of sleep -- A pilgrimage: spirituality -- Forgetting birthdays: stroke -- A long, strange trip: drugs and alcohol -- How deep is your brain? Therapies that stimulate the brain's core. |
| Subject |
Brain -- Popular works.
|
|
Neurophysiology -- Popular works.
|
| Genre |
Electronic books.
|
| Added Author |
Wang, Sam, 1967-
|
| Other Form: |
Print version: Aamodt, Sandra. Welcome to your brain. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Bloomsbury : Distributed to the trade by Macmillan, c2008 9781596912830 (DLC) 2007026739 (OCoLC)148729954 |
| ISBN |
9781596917064 (electronic bk.) |
|
1596917067 (electronic bk.) |
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