Neuropath
Author: R. Scott Bakker
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2009-10-13
Total Pages: 317
ISBN-13: 0765321890
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFrom the dark mind of R. Scott Bakker comes a psychological thriller that will get inside your head, literally.
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Left Neglected
Author: Lisa Genova
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2011-03-03
Total Pages: 340
ISBN-13: 0857202685
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe moving second novel from the author of international hit Still Alice, which explores the life of a woman struck by a brain disorder, Left Neglect 'I think some small part of me knew I was living an unsustainable life. Every now and then, it would whisper, slow down. You don't need all this.' Sarah Nickerson has it all: a high-flying career, a loving husband and children, a second home. But does she have time to enjoy it? Too busy to pay full attention, can she see what's left neglected? One fateful day while driving to work, Sarah looks away from the road for one second too long. In the blink of an eye, her overfull life comes to a screeching halt. In the wake of a devastating accident that affects her body and mind in surprising ways, it's time for her to choose: who does she really want to be?
Stories and the Brain
Author: Paul B. Armstrong
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2020-05-26
Total Pages: 272
ISBN-13: 1421437759
DOWNLOAD EBOOKTaking up the age-old question of what our ability to tell stories reveals about language and the mind, this truly interdisciplinary project should be of interest to humanists and cognitive scientists alike.
The First Brain
Author: Oné R. Pagán
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2014-03-18
Total Pages: 281
ISBN-13: 0199965056
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPlanarians, a class of flatworm, are extraordinary: they possess the remarkable ability to regenerate lost body parts, including complete regeneration of the nervous system. If cut into pieces, each piece of the planarian can regenerate into a complete organism. They are also unique among invertebrates in that they display addiction-like behaviors to many drugs abused by humans. Because of these distinct neurological traits, the planarian is often used as an animal model in neurological research, being used most recently for developments in neuropharmacology. The First Brain is a discussion of how planarians have been used in neuropharmacology, and what role they have played in scientific developments that have a high impact on our culture. Planarians have been the animal models for research in drug addiction, antidepressant development, and various other topics in biology, neurobiology, and even zoology. Pagán uses these flatworms as a framework to explore the history of biological research. The book provides accessible background information on how biomedical research is impacted by evolution, and defines neurobiology and neuropharmacology in ways that are easy to understand. At the same time, Pagán provides enough detail for the book to useful for scientists working in various subsections of biology. The planarian has played a key role in the history biological, neuropharmacological, and zoological research, and has even made appearances in a few unexpected places in popular culture. Oné Pagán explores all these roles, and shows us why the planarian truly is one of the most extraordinary and influential organisms in scientific research today.
Idlewild
Author: Nick Sagan
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2008-01-02
Total Pages: 264
ISBN-13: 1101643277
DOWNLOAD EBOOK“GRIPPING . . . the kind of book you simply don’t want to stop reading.”—Neil Gaiman He calls himself Halloween. He is a unique student attending a most prestigious boarding school—the Idlewild Immersive Virtual Reality Academy. While his body sleeps, his mind interacts with those of his fellow students under the tutelage of the enigmatic artificial intelligence known as Maestro. An inexplicable energy surge has damaged the IVR and fragmented Halloween’s mind. Convinced this anomaly was deliberately triggered to kill him, Halloween is desperate to recover his memories—only to discover a devastating revelation about his true existence. “Idlewild builds, not just in tension but in what it demands from the reader, ending up as a dark exploration of hidden realities.”—The Guardian “Sagan provides plenty of suspense and perfectly captures the angry adolescent solipsism that makes kids into hackers and superheroes.”—Entertainment Weekly
Guitar Zero
Author: Gary Marcus
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2012-01-19
Total Pages: 252
ISBN-13: 110155228X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOn the eve of his 40th birthday, Gary Marcus, a renowned scientist with no discernible musical talent, learns to play the guitar and investigates how anyone—of any age —can become musical. Do you have to be born musical to become musical? Do you have to start at the age of six? Using the tools of his day job as a cognitive psychologist, Gary Marcus becomes his own guinea pig as he takes up the guitar. In a powerful and incisive look at how both children and adults become musical, Guitar Zero traces Marcus’s journey, what he learned, and how anyone else can learn, too. A groundbreaking peek into the origins of music in the human brain, this musical journey is also an empowering tale of the mind’s enduring plasticity. Marcus investigates the most effective ways to train body and brain to learn to play an instrument, in a quest that takes him from Suzuki classes to guitar gods. From deliberate and efficient practicing techniques to finding the right music teacher, Marcus translates his own experience—as well as reflections from world-renowned musicians—into practical advice for anyone hoping to become musical, or to learn a new skill. Guitar Zero debunks the popular theory of an innate musical instinct while simultaneously challenging the idea that talent is only a myth. While standing the science of music on its head, Marcus brings new insight into humankind’s most basic question: what counts as a life well lived? Does one have to become the next Jimi Hendrix to make a passionate pursuit worthwhile, or can the journey itself bring the brain lasting satisfaction? For all those who have ever set out to play an instrument—or wish that they could—Guitar Zero is an inspiring and fascinating look at the pursuit of music, the mechanics of the mind, and the surprising rewards that come from following one’s dreams.
Mind Wide Open
Author: Steven Johnson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2004-02-27
Total Pages: 289
ISBN-13: 0743258797
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBRILLIANTLY EXPLORING TODAY'S CUTTING-EDGE BRAIN RESEARCH, MIND WIDE OPEN IS AN UNPRECEDENTED JOURNEY INTO THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN PERSONALITY, ALLOWING READERS TO UNDERSTAND THEMSELVES AND THE PEOPLE IN THEIR LIVES AS NEVER BEFORE. Using a mix of experiential reportage, personal storytelling, and fresh scientific discovery, Steven Johnson describes how the brain works -- its chemicals, structures, and subroutines -- and how these systems connect to the day-to-day realities of individual lives. For a hundred years, he says, many of us have assumed that the most powerful route to self-knowledge took the form of lying on a couch, talking about our childhoods. The possibility entertained in this book is that you can follow another path, in which learning about the brain's mechanics can widen one's self-awareness as powerfully as any therapy or meditation or drug. In Mind Wide Open, Johnson embarks on this path as his own test subject, participating in a battery of attention tests, learning to control video games by altering his brain waves, scanning his own brain with a $2 million fMRI machine, all in search of a modern answer to the oldest of questions: who am I? Along the way, Johnson explores how we "read" other people, how the brain processes frightening events (and how we might rid ourselves of the scars those memories leave), what the neurochemistry is behind love and sex, what it means that our brains are teeming with powerful chemicals closely related to recreational drugs, why music moves us to tears, and where our breakthrough ideas come from. Johnson's clear, engaging explanation of the physical functions of the brain reveals not only the broad strokes of our aptitudes and fears, our skills and weaknesses and desires, but also the momentary brain phenomena that a whole human life comprises. Why, when hearing a tale of woe, do we sometimes smile inappropriately, even if we don't want to? Why are some of us so bad at remembering phone numbers but brilliant at recognizing faces? Why does depression make us feel stupid? To read Mind Wide Open is to rethink family histories, individual fates, and the very nature of the self, and to see that brain science is now personally transformative -- a valuable tool for better relationships and better living.
Neuroscience for the Study of Communicative Disorders
Author: Subhash Chandra Bhatnagar
Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 486
ISBN-13: 9780781723466
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis revised, updated Second Edition continues to give students a strong foundation in neuroanatomy as it applies to speech-language pathology and audiology. New features include: additional and revised color illustrations and tables to reinforce technical details; an expanded clinical discussion section with more case studies; and a technical glossary in the appendix. This concise, yet comprehensive, user-friendly book is the only neuroscience text that meets the educational needs of students who study communication disorders. For more information, visit http://connection.LWW.com/go/bhatnager.
Neurotribes
Author: Steve Silberman
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2016-08-23
Total Pages: 562
ISBN-13: 0399185615
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis New York Times–bestselling book upends conventional thinking about autism and suggests a broader model for acceptance, understanding, and full participation in society for people who think differently. What is autism? A lifelong disability, or a naturally occurring form of cognitive difference akin to certain forms of genius? In truth, it is all of these things and more—and the future of our society depends on our understanding it. Wired reporter Steve Silberman unearths the secret history of autism, long suppressed by the same clinicians who became famous for discovering it, and finds surprising answers to the crucial question of why the number of diagnoses has soared in recent years. Going back to the earliest days of autism research, Silberman offers a gripping narrative of Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger, the research pioneers who defined the scope of autism in profoundly different ways; he then goes on to explore the game-changing concept of neurodiversity. NeuroTribes considers the idea that neurological differences such as autism, dyslexia, and ADHD are not errors of nature or products of the toxic modern world, but the result of natural variations in the human genome. This groundbreaking book will reshape our understanding of the history, meaning, function, and implications of neurodiversity in our world.
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Neuroscience
Author: John Bickle
Publisher: OUP USA
Published: 2009-07-27
Total Pages: 652
ISBN-13: 0195304780
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis title is a collection of interdisciplinary research from contributors including both philosophers and neuroscientists. Topics covered include the neurobiology of learning and memory perception and sensation, neurocomputational modelling neuroanatomy, neuroethics, and neurology and clinical neuropsychology.
