The brain is booming. Just ask your neighborhood librarian. Stunning developments in neuroscience research are shedding new light in the many fields related to the human brain. We now know that the physical features of the brain play the major
The brain is booming. Just ask your neighborhood librarian. Stunning developments in neuroscience research are shedding new light in the many fields related to the human brain. We now know that the physical features of the brain play the major role in shaping our thoughts and emotions. This changes our historical understanding of the nature of conscience and consciousness. In some fields this new knowledge has brought about a change of focus from examining mental activity to studying the brain’s physical activity. It all amounts to new ways of understanding thinking and behavior, and that, of course, applies to all of us. This week Book Buzz highlights a few gems from the large body of work currently being published about the brain.
Happy reading!
A Day in the Life of Your Brain
From Scientific American
By Judith Horstman
616.8 Ho
This fun, breezy, fact-filled and eye-opening book introduces us to the neural machinery that navigates us through every moment of the day: sleep, dream, wake, work, play, fight, love, worry, compete, hope, change and make decisions. It illustrates the relevance of the new brain science in helping us understand ourselves more fully. Feel as if you’re right alongside the scientists working on the brain today as you read Sharon Moffett’s The Three Pound Enigma: The Human Brain and the Quest to Unlock Its Mysteries. See also Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life by Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang, The Owner’s Manual for the Brain: Everyday Applications from Mind-Brain Research, or Your Brain on Food: How Chemicals Control Your Thoughts and Feelings by Gary L. Wenk.
How We Decide
By Jonah Lehrer
153.83 Le
Reporting from the frontiers of neuroscience and armed with fascinating case studies Lehrer presents an account of how we made decisions, what’s happening in our heads as we do so, and how we might become better ‘deciders.’ According to behavioral economist Dan Ariely, we do not behave in fundamentally rational ways. For more on decision-making check out Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell or Th!nk: Why Crucial Decisions Can’t Be Made in the Blink of an Eye by Michael R. LeGault. In Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions the author explains how expectations, emotions, social norms and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities.
Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique
By Michael S. Gazzaniga
612.8233 Ga
This read is as entertaining as it is informative. By describing the evolution of the brain Gazzaniga identifies what separates humans from other animals and describes what abilities we share. While addressing the nature of consciousness he makes some surprising observations about morality and religion. In A Brief Tour of Human Consciou5ness internationally acclaimed neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran investigates five great mysteries of the brain from phantom limbs to illusions, and from delusions to how the brain relates to mind. You can also journey with author Jeff Warren in the fun and quirky The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness into the slippery nature of human consciousness. Or check out Hardwired Behavior: What Neuroscience Reveals about Morality by Laurence Tancredi.
Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs
By Ellen Galinsky
305.231 Ga
Galinsky’s insights into the new science of early learning inform the author’s list of life skills children need to master such as focus and self control, perspective taking, and critical thinking. See also Making a Good Brain Great: The Amen Clinic Program for Achieving and Sustaining Optimal Mental Performance by Daniel G. Amen, Your Child’s Growing Mind: Brain Development and Learning from Birth to Adolescence by Jane M. Healy, and Parenting the Teenage Brain: Understanding a Work in Progress by Sheryl Feinstein.
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey
By Jill Bolte Taylor
362.19861 Ta
A fascinating journey into the mechanics of the human mind, this is both a valuable recovery guide for anyone touched by a brain injury, and an emotionally stirring testimony that deep internal peace truly is accessible to anyone, at any time. Today the author is convinced that her stroke was the best thing that could have happened to her. It has taught her that the feeling of nirvana is never more than a mere thought away. See also From Dementia to Schizophrenia: How New Discoveries about the Brain are Revolutionizing Science and Medicine by Douglas R. Fields, Your Brain after Chemo: A Practical Guide to Lifting the Fog and Getting Back Your Focus by Dan Silverman and Idelle Davidson, or Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost.
Thinking Like Einstein: Returning to Our Visual Roots with the Emerging Revolution in Computer Information Visualization
By Thomas G. West
153.32 We
According to the author Einstein was a classic example of a strong visual thinker, a person who tends to think in images and visual patterns and sometimes has difficulty with words and numbers. West investigates the new world of visual thinking, insight and creativity made possible by computer graphics and information visualization technologies. He suggests we are moving from a world based mainly on words and numbers to one where high level work in all fields will involve insights based on the display and manipulation of complex information using moving computer images.
You might also enjoy driving across country accompanying Einstein’s brain with author Michel Paterniti in Driving Mr. Albert. Or look for Postcards from the Brain Museum: The Improbable Search for Meaning in the Matter of Famous Minds by Brian Murrell.
• Carolyn Larson, head librarian at Lihu‘e Public Library, brings you the buzz on new, popular and good books available at your neighborhood library. Book annotations are culled from online publishers’ descriptions and published reviews.
