Full Description
Get on the fast track to understanding neuroscience Investigating how your senses work, how you move, and how you think and feel, Neuroscience For Dummies, 2nd Edition is your straight-forward guide to the most complicated structure known in the universe: the brain. Covering the most recent scientific discoveries and complemented with helpful diagrams and engaging anecdotes that help bring the information to life, this updated edition offers a compelling and plain-English look at how the brain and nervous system function.
Simply put, the human brain is an endlessly fascinating subject: it holds the secrets to your personality, use of language, memories, and the way your body operates. In just the past few years alone, exciting new technologies and an explosion of knowledge have transformed the field of neuroscience—and this friendly guide is here to serve as your roadmap to the latest findings and research. Packed with new content on genetics and epigenetics and increased coverage of hippocampus and depression, this new edition of Neuroscience For Dummies is an eye-opening and fascinating read for readers of all walks of life.
Covers how gender affects brain function
Illustrates why some people are more sensitive to pain than others
Explains what constitutes intelligence and its different levels
Offers guidance on improving your learning
What is the biological basis of consciousness? How are mental illnesses related to changes in brain function? Find the answers to these and countless other questions in Neuroscience For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Contents
Introduction 1
Part 1: Introducing the Nervous System 5
Chapter 1: A Quick Trip through the Nervous System 7
Chapter 2: All about the Brain and Spinal Cord 23
Chapter 3: Understanding How Neurons Work 51
Part 2: Translating the Internal and External World through Your Senses 69
Chapter 4: Feeling Your Way: The Skin Senses 71
Chapter 5: Looking at Vision 87
Chapter 6: Sounding Off: The Auditory System 109
Chapter 7: Odors and Taste 127
Part 3: Moving Right Along: Motor Systems 145
Chapter 8: Movement Basics 147
Chapter 9: Coordinating Things More: The Spinal Cord and Pathways 159
Chapter 10: Planning and Executing Actions 173
Chapter 11: Unconscious Actions with Big Implications 191
Part 4: Intelligence: The Thinking Brain and Consciousness 211
Chapter 12: Understanding Intelligence, Consciousness, and Emotions 213
Chapter 13: How the Brain Processes Thoughts 239
Chapter 14: The Executive Brain 259
Chapter 15: Learning and Memory 277
Chapter 16: Developing and Modifying Brain Circuits: Plasticity 301
Chapter 17: Neural Dysfunctions, Mental Illness, and Drugs That Affect the Brain 325
Part 5: The Part of Tens 339
Chapter 18: Ten (Or So) Crucial Brain Structures 341
Chapter 19: Ten Tricks of Neurons That Make Them Do What They Do 349
Chapter 20: Ten Amazing Facts about the Brain 357
Chapter 21: Ten Promising Treatments for the Future 367
Index 375
