You: The Owner’s Manual for the brain: an expert, comprehensive, and lively guide that makes sense of all the latest scientific findings about how your brain really works.

We are using 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 brain myths are wrong, as demonstrated by the work of neuroscientists who have spent decades studying this complex organ. However, most of what scientists have learned is not known to the world outside their laboratories.

In this readable, lively book, Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang dispel common myths about the brain and provide a comprehensive, useful overview of how it really works. In its pages, 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 witty, accessible prose decorated by charts, trivia, quizzes, and illustrations, this book is great for quick reference or extended reading.

Both practical and fun, Welcome to Your Brain is perfect whether you want to impress your friends or simply use your brain better.

“An insightful and playful guide to the most mysterious part of the universe -- Welcome to Your Brain unravels some of the fascinating discoveries and puzzles of this marvelous organ.”—Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational

 

“Welcome To Your Brain is a lucid and fascinating journey into the inner life of the mind, an essential manual for one of nature's most amazing technologies. You'll never think about yourself -- or think about thinking -- quite the same way again.”—Steven Johnson, author of Mind Wide Open and The Ghost Map

 

“If all scientists could write like this, professional science writers would be out of a job.  Welcome to Your Brain is clear, understandable, entertaining and fascinating.  A description of how, in a noisy room, to hear a caller on your cell phone is just one of the many good reasons to buy this book.”—Sandra Blakeslee, co-author, The Body Has a Mind of its Own

 

“People need to know how the brain works. How else can you competently serve on a jury, or vote for what the government should spend money on, or decide what to make of your child having trouble learning to read? But here's the problem: lots of people find science difficult. Welcome to Your Brain is a great solution. Written by two top neuroscientists, it's great on the facts—accurate, up to date, focuses on all the important topics—AND it's crystal clear and witty and irreverent and wonderfully written. This is a terrific book.”—Robert Sapolsky, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers

 

“Welcome to Your Brain is a delightful and engaging romp through neuroscience by two of its leading lights -- a marvelous collection of facts and findings that answer the questions we all have about our own minds. If the human brain came with an owner's manual, it might well look like this.”—Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness

Sandra Aamodt, Ph.D., is the editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience, the leading scientific journal in the field of brain research. Before becoming an editor, she did her graduate work at the University of Rochester and was a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at Yale University. She lives in California with her husband, a professor of neuroscience.

 

Sam Wang, Ph.D., is an associate professor of neuroscience at Princeton University. Before becoming a professor, he studied at Caltech, Stanford, and Bell Labs. He has published over forty articles on the brain in leading scientific journals and has received numerous awards. He and his wife, a physician, live in Princeton, New Jersey, with their daughter.

Quiz: How well do you know your brain?

1.When are the last neurons born in your brain?
a) before birth
b) the age of six
c) between the ages of 18 and 23
d) in old age

 

2. Which of the following strategies is the best one for overcoming jet lag?
a) taking melatonin the night after you arrive at your destination
b) avoiding daylight for several days
c) getting sunlight in the afternoon at your destination
d) sleeping with the lights on

 

3. Your brain uses about as much energy as
a) a refrigerator light
b) a laptop computer
c) an idling car
d) a car moving down a freeway

 

4. Which of the following activities before a test might help you to perform better? (you may choose more than one)
a) having a drink
b) having a cigarette
c) eating a candy bar
d) telling yourself with great conviction that you are good at this kind of test

 

5. You are in a noisy room, attempting to talk to your friend on your cell phone. To have a clearer conversation you should
a) talk more loudly
b) cover one ear and listen through the other
c) cover your ear when you talk
d) cover the mouthpiece when you listen

 

6. Which of the following is the hardest thing your brain does?
a) doing long division
b) looking at a photograph
c) playing chess
d) sleeping

 

7. Memory starts to get worse in which decade of life?
a) 30s
b) 40s
c) 50s
d) 60s

 

8. Which activities kill neurons?
a) drinking three bottles of beer in an evening
b) smoking a joint
c) dropping acid
d) all of the above
e) none of the above

 

9. Which depiction of neurological damage is least realistic?
a) Guy Pearce’s character Leonard in Memento
b) Drew Barrymore’s character Lucy in 50 First Dates
c) Dora the Fish in Finding Nemo
d) John Nash in A Beautiful Mind

Answers: 1) d, 2) c, 3) a, 4) b and d, 5) d, 6) b, 7) a, 8) e, 9) b

Imprint: Bloomsbury USA
Distributor: MPS
Publication Date: 03-04-2008
Pages: 240
Measurements: 9.25in X 7.50in