How It Works Inside Your Brain - 3rd Edition 2022

134 Pages·2022·31 MB·English

W
E
N
IINNSSIIDDEE YYOOUURR
BBRRAAIINN
WHAT DOES IT
HOW DO WE
MEAN TO BE
MAKE AND STORE
CONSCIOUS?
OUR MEMORIES?
CAN WE
READ
MINDS?
DISCOVER THE INNER
WORKINGS OF THE MOST
COMPLEX COMPUTER
IN THE UNIVERSE
WHY DO WE
DREAM?
WHAT MAKES
SOMEONE A
PSYCHOPATH?
WHY IS
SLEEP SO
IMPORTANT?

ln
a
o
t
i
it
g
i
d
i
D
E
STUDY THE SCIENCE EXPLORE THE MEET THE FATHER
BEHIND BEHAVIOURS BRAIN’S STRUCTURE OF NEUROSCIENCE
N
HIRD DITIO n IMAGINATION n EMOTIONS n MINDTRICKS n EXPERIMENTS
TE

Welcome to
INSIDE YOUR
BRAIN
It’s no secret that the human brain is a marvellous thing. From the
movements you rely on every day to the emotions you express, the dreams
that feel real and the thoughts that whizz through your mind, the brain
controls it all. Centuries of study have yielded many answers to its countless
mysteries. We know about the synapses and neurons that make up the brain,
and leading surgeons can now map someone’s brain and perform once
impossible operations. But there is still so much that we don’t understand.
What does it really mean to be conscious? Why do we have cognitive biases
when the facts contradict us? And why are some people psychopaths who see
the world in a totally different way? In this book you’ll explore some of the
answers to these questions, chart the life of a pioneering neurosurgeon and
relive some of the most bizarre experiments ever conducted in the endless
quest to understand the brain.

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Inside Your Brain Third Edition (HIB4492)
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Part of the
bookazine series
CONTENTS
Biology of the brain 032
Power of
010 Evolution of the brain
imagination
014 Left versus right
016 Brain cells
017 The blood-brain barrier
020 The pituitary gland
021 Self-cleaning brain
022 Science of emotions
028 How do we make memories?
052
Xxxxxxxx
021
Self-cleaning
brain
Neuroscience
050 What is consciousness?
056 Why do we sleep and dream?
060 Science of listening to music
074
062 The study of neuroscience Mindtricks
064 Brain surgery
068 Harvey Cushing Tricks of the mind
070 Neural prostheses
074 Mindtricks
082 The placebo effect
050
088 Cognitive biases
What is
consciousness?
Brainpower
032 Power of imagination
036 How the brain sees
038 Facial recognition
042 Anticipatory timing
043 Decision-making
088
044 Fight or flight
Cognitive
biases
006
Damage and disease
096 Diseases of the brain
100 10 famous experiments
108 Psychopaths: mad or bad?
096
122
Disease of
the brain Future of
brain surgery
124
Next steps in
neuroscience
The future of the
human brain
114 Brain technology
100 122 Future of brain surgery
10 famous 124 The next steps in neuroscience
experiments
007
BIOLOGY OF
THE BRAIN
010 Evolution of the brain 010
How do our brains develop?
014 Left versus right
Explaining the myth of the
‘creative’ and the ’logical’ brain
016 Brain cells
The key cells that enable your
brain to function
017 The blood-brain barrier
Find out how this clever cranial
cushion protects your brain while
letting in the nutrients you need
to survive
020 The pituitary gland
All bow to the master gland
021 Self-cleaning brain
When you go to sleep the brain is
preparing for a major clean up
022 Science of emotions
Get to grips with the chemistry
behind your many emotions
028 How do we make memories
Learn how the brain generates
and stores memories in this
unforgettable feature
014
017
008
022
020
028
021
009
BIOLOGY OF THE BRAIN
The human
BRAIN
Described as the most complex thing in the
universe, our brains are truly astonishing
T
he brain makes up just two per cent of our The cell bodies of the neurons, and their in time and space, and by type of chemical, to
total body weight, but crammed inside connections, are contained within the grey decide what to do next.
are approximately 86 billion neurons, matter, which consumes 94 per cent of the Scientists have been electrically and
surrounded by 180,000 kilometres of insulated oxygen delivered to the brain. Different areas chemically stimulating the brain to see how it
fibres connected at 100 trillion synapses. It’s a are responsible for different functions, and responds to different signals, recording
vast biological supercomputer. wiring them together is a fatty network of fibres electrical activity to map thoughts and using
The cells in the brain communicate using called white matter. imaging like functional MRI to track the blood
electrical signals. When a message is sent, When a signal reaches the end of a nerve cell, flow increases that reveal when nerve cells are
thousands of microscopic channels open, tiny packets of chemical signals spill out onto firing. The cells of the brain can also be studied
allowing positively charged ions to flood across the surrounding neurons. These connections, inside the lab. Thanks to these investigations we
the membrane. Afterwards, more than 1 million called synapses, allow messages to be passed know more about this incredible structure than
miniature pumps in each cell move the ions from one cell to the next. Each neuron can ever before, but our understanding is only just
back again ready for the next impulse. receive thousands of inputs, coordinating them beginning. There is so much more to learn.
010