The Scientific American Brave New Brain

This fascinating and highly accessible book presents fantastic but totally feasible projections of what your brain may be capable of in the near future. It shows how scientific breakthroughs and amazing research are turning science fiction into science fact. In this brave new book, you'll explore: How partnerships between biological sciences and technology are helping the deaf hear, the blind see, and the paralyzed communicate. How our brains can repair and improve themselves, erase traumatic memories How we can stay mentally alert longer—and how we may be able to halt or even reverse Alzheimers How we can control technology with brain waves, including prosthetic devices, machinery, computers—and even spaceships or clones. Insights into how science may cure fatal diseases, and improve our intellectual and physical productivity Judith Horstman presents a highly informative and entertaining look at the future of your brain, based on articles from Scientific American and Scientific American Mind magazines, and the work of today’s visionary neuroscientists.

Twenty-six articles first published in Scientific American are arranged in sections on mapping the brain, reasoning and intelligence, memory and learning, behavior, disease of the brain and disorder of the mind, and consciousness. The authors, experts in the various aspects of neuroscience, address such topics as the genetics of cognitive abilities and disabilities, the split brain revisited, the neurobiology of fear, depression, Parkinson's disease, and the puzzle of conscious experience. The material is written at a level accessible to the serious lay person or nonspecialist. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Good news about getting older from Scientific American and Scientific American Mind The Scientific American Healthy Aging Brain taps into the most current research to present a realistic and encouraging view of the well-aged brain, a sobering look at what can go wrong––and at what might help you and your brain stay healthy longer. Neurologists and psychologists have discovered the aging brain is much more elastic and supple than previously thought, and that happiness actually increases with age. While our short-term memory may not be what it was, dementia is not inevitable. Far from disintegrating, the elder brain can continue to develop and adapt in many ways and stay sharp as it ages. Offers new insights on how an aging brain can repair itself, and the five best strategies for keeping your brain healthy Shows how older brains can acquire new skills, perspective, and productivity Dispels negative myths about aging Explores what to expect as our brains grow older With hope and truth, this book helps us preserve what we’ve got, minimize what we’ve lost, and optimize the vigor and health of our maturing brains.

Who do we love? Who loves us? And why? Is love really a mystery, or can neuroscience offer some answers to these age-old questions? In her third enthralling book about the brain, Judith Horstman takes us on a lively tour of our most important sex and love organ and the whole smorgasbord of our many kinds of love-from the bonding of parent and child to the passion of erotic love, the affectionate love of companionship, the role of animals in our lives, and the love of God. Drawing on the latest neuroscience, she explores why and how we are born to love-how we're hardwired to crave the companionship of others, and how very badly things can go without love. Among the findings: parental love makes our brain bigger, sex and orgasm make it healthier, social isolation makes it miserable-and although the craving for romantic love can be described as an addiction, friendship may actually be the most important loving relationship of your life. Based on recent studies and articles culled from the prestigious Scientific American and Scientific American Mind magazines, The Scientific American Book of Love, Sex, and the Brain offers a fascinating look at how the brain controls our loving relationships, most intimate moments, and our deep and basic need for connection.

Publisher description

Boy or girl? Even before a person is born, that's the first thing everyone wants to know—underscoring just how much value human societies of all types place on gender. In this eBook, His Brain, Her Brain, we take a closer look at the anatomical, chemical and functional differences in the brains of men and women—as well as some surprising similarities. For instance, studies of infants—such as those described in "Big Answers from Little People," by David Dobbs—find few differences in cognitive skills between boys and girls; but there is no denying that boys love trucks, whereas girls prefer dolls. While some gender differences are evident even on the first day of a baby's life, most of these discrepancies start out small but get amplified by our gender-obsessed culture. As neuroscientist Lise Eliot explains in "The Truth about Boys and Girls," tea parties and wrestling matches leave their stamp on growing brains, but the gap that separates boys and girls would be less noticeable if parents encouraged activities such as reading for boys and video games for girls. By adulthood, males and females not only have nonidentical brain architectures but also divergent ways of speaking, parenting and responding to both tragedy and comedy. "The Humor Gap," by Christie Nicholson, and "Different Shades of Blue," by Erica Westly, explore these divides. She wants someone who can make her laugh; he wants someone who will laugh at his jokes. And when she's depressed, she gets sad; he gets mad. But men and women aren't from different planets. Few sex disparities are as hardwired as popular accounts make them out to be. A better understanding of the real—and imagined—differences between his brain and her brain can help us overcome cultural biases, improve communication and strengthen relationships.

Here, leading neuroscientist Nancy Andreasen offers a state-of-the-art look at what we know about the human brain and the human genome--and shows how these two vast branches of knowledge are coming together in a boldly ambitious effort to conquer mental illness. Andreasen gives us an engaging and readable description of how it all works---from billions of neurons, to the tiny thalamus, to the moral monitor in our prefrontal cortex. She shows the progress made in mapping the human genome, whose 30,000 to 40,000 genes are almost all active in the brain. We read gripping stories of the people who develop mental illness, the friends and relatives who share their suffering, the physicians who treat them, and the scientists who study them so that better treatments can be found. Four major disorders are covered--schizophrenia, manic depression, anxiety disorders, and dementia--revealing what causes them and how they affect the mind and brain. Finally, the book shows how the powerful tools of genetics and neuroscience will be combined during the next decades to build healthier brains and minds. By revealing how combining genome mapping with brain mapping can unlock the mysteries of mental illness, Andreasen offers a remarkably fresh perspective on these devastating diseases.

Provides an authoritative and accessible overview of the relationship between mind and brain. The eleven chapters and the epilogue originally appeared as articles in the September 1992 issue of Scientific American