Brain Science

Ever wondered why we yawn and have eyebrows, what happens at absolute zero and why some tunes get stuck in our heads? If you’ve spent your days searching for the answers to these and life’s other big questions then look no further. Why We Yawn From the bestselling author of Why Don't Penguin's Feet Freeze and Farts Aren’t Invisible is the gift of enlightenment that you never knew you needed! Shining a light on some of life’s trickiest questions across science, history, society and the universe.

Zombies love to feast on brains and flesh - so do some organisms in nature! Listeners will learn all about creatures that eat brains.

Humans are awesome. Our brains are gigantic, seven times larger than they should be for the size of our bodies. The human brain uses 25 percent of all the energy the body requires each day. And it became enormous in a very short amount of time in evolution, allowing us to leave our cousins, the great apes, behind. So the human brain is special, right? Wrong, according to Suzana Herculano-Houzel. Humans have developed cognitive abilities that outstrip those of all other animals but not because we are evolutionary outliers.

What does a three-pound brain have to do with one’s sex life? A lot, actually. Hooked is about what’s happening to your brain when you’re having sex. Learn about your brain, the positive effects of sex within permanently committed relationships, and how you can protect yourself (especially your brain) from the dangers of casual sex.

Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence shows you how to tap the hidden power of everyday experiences to change your brain and your life for the better. Grounded in neuroscience, Hardwiring Happiness is super-practical, full of easy-to-use methods and guided practices to grow a steady well-being, self-worth, and inner peace. And it has special sections on children, motivation, relationships, trauma, and spiritual practice.

In Practice the Pause, spiritual director and writer Caroline Oakes offers easy-to-understand explanations of how this new brain science is confirming what every spiritual tradition has been telling us for millennia: by practicing the pause, we become more self-aware and better able to understand others.

You've probably seen it before: a human brain dramatically lit from the side, the camera circling it like a helicopter shot of Stonehenge, and a modulated baritone voice exalting the brain's elegant design in reverent tones... to which this book says: Pure nonsense.

Combining social and cognitive neuroscience with real-life accounts from genocide perpetrators, this book sheds light on the process through which obedience influences cognition and behavior. Emilie Caspar, a leading expert in the field, translates this neuroscientific approach into a clear, uncomplicated explanation, even for those with no background in psychology or neuroscience. By better understanding humanity's propensity for direct orders to short-circuit our own independent decision-making, we can edge closer to effective prevention processes.

More than 90 percent of sexually active women have only been given a very limited amount of information about how birth control works, often right at the beginning when they start their first pill or patch. Not all of us enjoy biology lessons, and figuring out the complexities of hormones, cycles, and our bodies can feel a little too much. But it doesn’t need to be rocket science. Getting a better insight into how your body really works can empower you and open up choices and possibilities so that you make the best decisions for yourself. After all, this is your body!

Framed by the historical journey and teachings of the Buddha, Siddhartha's Brain shows how meditative and Buddhist practices anticipated the findings of modern neuroscience. Moving from the evolutionary history of the brain to the disorders and neuroses associated with our technology-driven world, James Kingsland explains why the ancient practice of mindfulness has been so beneficial to and so important for human beings across time.

Will increased scientific understanding of our brains overturn our beliefs about moral and ethical behavior? How will increasingly powerful brain imaging technologies affect the ideas of privacy and of self-incrimination? Such thought-provoking questions are rapidly emerging as new discoveries in neuroscience have raised difficult legal and ethical dilemmas. Michael Gazzaniga, widely considered to be the father of cognitive neuroscience, investigates with an expert eye some of these controversial and complex issues.

Have you ever asked yourself, "What makes me, me?" From our ancestors pondering their reflections in ancient lakes to modern AI on the brink of self-recognition, the question of self and consciousness has always intrigued us. "Does Your Brain Need You?" takes you on a journey through the complexities of neuroscience and consciousness, raising vital questions: What is the self? Does your brain even need a "self"? What gives rise to our subjective experiences? How do we think, dream, feel, and make decisions? This book is your gateway to understanding: The mind-body connection The evolution ...

Each of us will know physical pain in our lives, but none of us knows when it will come or how long it will stay. Today as much as 10 percent of the population of the United States suffers from chronic pain. It is more widespread, misdiagnosed, and undertreated than any major disease. While recent research has shown that pain produces pathological changes to the brain and spinal cord, many doctors and patients still labor under misguided cultural notions and outdated scientific dogmas.

Hormonal contraception is something most women will use at some point during their life. But the reach of the pill goes far beyond the small number of targeted effects we take it for. It affects almost every system in our body. Column inches and anecdotal conversations prove there are many questions about the pill and its effects yet until now we have known very little about. In this trailblazing book expert psychologist Dr Hill reveals the latest science on the pill and how it's changing women and the world, for better and for worse.

The Woman Who Couldn't Wake Up tells Anna's story-and the broader story of her diagnosis, idiopathic hypersomnia (IH), a shadowy sibling of narcolepsy that has emerged as a focus of sleep research and patient advocacy. Quinn Eastman explores the science around sleepiness, recounting how researchers have been searching for more than a century for the substances that tip the brain into slumber.

The 1950s were a transformative, even revolutionary decade in the history of brain science. Using new techniques for probing brain activity and function, researchers in neurosurgery, psychiatry, and psychology achieved dramatic breakthroughs in the treatment of illnesses like epilepsy and schizophrenia, as well as the understanding of such faculties as memory and perception. Memory was the site of particularly startling discoveries.

This audiobook covers different topics, including synesthesia, a neurological condition that makes you combine senses; hypnotherapy, a solution for different bad habits; and about neurology. This is a perfect guide book for those interested in knowing better about brain function.

A leading science writer examines how the brain's capacity reaches its peak in middle ageFor many years, scientists thought that the human brain simply decayed over time and its dying cells led to memory slips, fuzzy logic, negative thinking, and even depression.

Understanding the human mind and how it relates to the world of experience has challenged scientists and philosophers for centuries. How do we even begin to think about ‘minds’ that are not human? That is the question explored in this ground-breaking book. Award-winning science writer Philip Ball argues that in order to understand our own minds and imagine those of others, we need to move on from considering the human mind as a standard against which all others should be measured.

Human brains are the powerhouse of the body - complex, intricate, and reactive. Explore fascinating features of our brains including how they're organized, how different sicknesses, and feelings affect them, and more.