Brain Science

Abby's weird computer program is working again. And it comes in handy when she and her friends agree to help the Old Dears with their family tree. Except Abby and John learn more about one of the ladies' ancestors than they ever wanted to know. Convicted in 1871 of murder and arson, Reuben Buchanan is a blight on the family's reputation. But was he really guilty?

This is the story of our quest to understand the most mysterious object in the universe. Today we tend to picture the brain as a computer. Earlier scientists thought about it in their own technological terms: as a telephone switchboard, or a clock, or all manner of fantastic mechanical or hydraulic devices. Could the right metaphor unlock the brain's deepest secrets once and for all? Galloping through centuries of wild speculation and ingenious, sometimes macabre anatomical investigations, scientist and historian Matthew Cobb reveals how we came to our present state of knowledge.

En este brillante y provocador ensayo, Jorge Volpi destierra la vieja idea de la ficción como entretenimiento y sostiene, por el contrario, que las novelas y los cuentos han sido esenciales para la evolución de la especie humana.

The topic of neurotheology has garnered increasing attention in the academic, religious, scientific, and popular worlds. But there have been no attempts to explore more specifically how Jewish religious thought and experience may intersect with neurotheology. The Rabbi's Brain engages this groundbreaking area.

Cuteness is an area where culture and biology get tangled up. Seeing a cute animal triggers some of the most powerful psychological instincts we have – the ones that elicit our care and protection – but there is a deeper story behind the broad appeal of Japanese cats and saccharine greetings cards. Joshua Paul Dale, a pioneer in the burgeoning field of cuteness studies, explains how the cute aesthetic spread around the globe, from pop brands to Lolita fashion, kids' cartoons and the unstoppable rise of Hello Kitty.

Imagine controlling a machine with your mind. Imagine a communication line direct from your mind to someone else's. Imagine controlling a prosthetic limb with a thought or "seeing" through a camera located miles away. Once the stuff of science fiction, such remarkable feats are now within the grasp of neuroscience. Malcolm Gay tells the fascinating stories of the researchers delving into the intricate workings of the brain to map the neural signals that make up our thoughts.

This extraordinary travel book tells the true story of how in 1997 writer Michael Paterniti agreed to take a road trip from New Jersey to California, reuniting the preserved brain of the great scientist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) with his granddaughter Evelyn. Paterniti's improbable travelling companion is 84-year-old Thomas Harvey, the pathologist who not only removed Einstein's brain from his head during the autopsy but purloined it from Princeton Hospital also!

Alzheimer’s disease, a haunting and harrowing ailment, is one of the world’s most common causes of death. Alzheimer’s lingers for years, with patients’ outward appearance unaffected while their cognitive functions fade away. Patients lose the ability to work and live independently, to remember and recognize. There is still no proven way to treat Alzheimer’s because its causes remain unknown. Mind Thief is a comprehensive and engaging history of Alzheimer’s that demystifies efforts to understand the disease.

Written by professor of cognitive neuroscience at UCL Sophie Scott and composed of 10 mind-blowing yet accessible essays, The Brain guides you through the astounding complexities of the organ that makes you, you. From diving into the networks of neurons that are vital to our functioning, to the way our brains differ from one another and how neuroscience is shaping up for the future, this book is a guide to our most powerful and awe-inspiring body part.

In this audio program from expert David Krueger, MD, listeners will learn: a proven system to consistently perform under pressure; success strategies for dealing with stress in high pressure circumstances; the self-regulation system that pro athletes and actors use; a way to enter and sustain a mindset of optimum performance; how to avoid chokes and slumps; and how to develop proven pressure management tools to sustain focus and enhance success.

What happens to our brain at night? Are we really fully asleep? And if so, how is it that some individuals end up doing what they do? Or can it be the case that perhaps the brain never fully goes to sleep and that in some individuals there is a disconnect between the sleeping part of their brain and the active part of their brain so that the two become confused? Does this happen to all of us in varying degrees, and can the reverse be the case, too - so that some individuals are actually asleep during the day while appearing to be awake?!

What is it like to try to heal the body when the mind is under attack? In this gripping and illuminating audiobook, Dr Allan Ropper reveals the extraordinary stories behind some of the life-altering afflictions that he and his staff are confronted with at the Neurology Unit of Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital.Neurologists diagnose and treat serious illnesses of the brain by combining the hard science of medical knowledge with the art of intuitive reasoning.

In this path-breaking volume, engagingly written for the general public, psychiatrist Jeffrey Kahn reveals that the Angst of anxiety and depression ultimately results from our transformation, over tens of thousands of years, from biologically shaped, almost herd-like prehistoric tribes, to rational and independent individuals in modern civilization. Because of our Reason, we don't choose to act like sheep.

En tiempos en que la (auto) ficción está al servicio de la cobardía, Eduardo Herrera nos ofrece su testimonio franco como un ex operador de la corrupción de cuello blanco...

In Losing It, William Ian Miller brings his inimitable wit and learning to the subject of growing old: too old to matter, of either rightly losing your confidence or wrongly maintaining it, culpably refusing to face the fact that you are losing it. The "it" in Miller's "losing it" refers mainly to mental faculties - memory, processing speed, sensory acuity, the capacity to focus. But it includes other evidence as wel l- sags and flaccidities, aches and pains, failing joints and organs. What are we to make of these tell-tale signs?

In this smart and timely book, the distinguished moral philosopher Sissela Bok ponders the nature of happiness and its place in philosophical thinking and writing throughout the ages. With nuance and elegance, Bok explores notions of happiness - from Greek philosophers to Desmond Tutu, Charles Darwin, Iris Murdoch, and the Dalai Lama - as well as the latest theories advanced by psychologists, economists, geneticists, and neuroscientists.

World Brain is a collection of essays and addresses by the English science fiction pioneer, social reformer, evolutionary biologist and historian H. G. Wells, dating from the period of 1936–1938. Throughout the book, Wells describes his vision of the World Brain: a new, free, synthetic, authoritative, permanent “World Encyclopedia” that could help world citizens make the best use of universal information resources and make the best contribution to world peace.

A vast yet compact view of cognitive neuroscience, a groundbreaking, personal and comprehensive guide into understanding our thoughts. In the last 20 years, Mariano Sigman has journeyed to the core of the brain, an organ formed by nearly an infinity of neurons that manufacture how we perceive, reason, feel, dream and communicate. After more than two decades of research, he has zoomed out from a thorough excursion to the neurons to seeing the brain from afar, where thoughts begin to take shape.

A Life That Matters separates lies from truth, myth from facts, and politics from people. It challenges us to hear the words and feel the emotions of the warm, intensely private family who never sought the media storm that accosted them, or the devastating legal battle that broke their hearts. The book asks us what we would do if we found ourselves, as the Schindlers did, wanting nothing more than to love and care for a daughter as long as she could live.

Visiting another century... not the summer vacation she had planned.Those who have read Time and Again and Unclaimed Legacy know that Abby Thomas is a college student on a summer service project with 11-year-old Merri. And they know that the summer is not going the way Abby had expected - but in a good way. For one thing, she meets a very nice guy named John Roberts.