The human brain has been studied for millennia, but in the past decades huge advances have occurred in neurology that have allowed scientists to reassess what we really know about the least understood part of the human body. We can now observe the activity of the brain as it performs different functions.
These mental workouts include demanding word games, mathematical bell-ringers, prefix puzzlers, and algebraic twisters guaranteed to rile your brain, and make you feel like a genius when you get the right answer.
Putting Thoughts into Action: Implants Tap the Thinking Brain Researchers are decoding the brain to give a voice and a hand to the paralyzed—and to learn how it controls our movements By Alan S. Brown
Five Ways Brain Scans Mislead Us Colorful scans have lulled us into an oversimplified conception of the brain as a modular machine By Michael Shermer
Never Say Die: Why We Can't Imagine Death Why so many of us think our minds continue on after we die By Jesse Bering
User-friendly, interactive, accessible and practical, the Learning to Learn resources bring science and brain theory pioneered in the past few decades to the arena of learning. Putting into practice an advanced understanding of how the brain works, Garry Burnett leads us through a compelling process of finding the best learning strategies for each individual - a process that involves using the two sides of the brain, revealing different learning talents, and examining every aspect of the learning experience.
Added by: Maria | Karma: 3098.81 | Periodicals | 30 September 2008
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Switching on a lightbulb is a visual cliché for creativity. But a different kind of switch, made of molecules, affects a number of other critical mental processes. Life’s experiences add chemicals to the genes that control brain activity, dialing up or down the expression of various features. A special two-article section explores how these molecular mechanisms change our brains. “The New Genetics of Mental Illness,” by psychiatrist Edmund S. Higgins, starting on page 40, looks at how the environment influences our susceptibility to depression, anxiety and drug addiction. “Unmasking Memory Genes,” by neuroscientist Amir Levine, explains how such molecules shape memory and learning; see page 48. How does our unified conscious experience emerge from the activity of billions of brain cells and numerous processing “modules” (brain regions associated with certain types of thought)? The mystery has long tantalized researchers. In “Spheres of Influence,” neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga finds some clues from his studies of split-brain patients, whose connective tissue between their two hemispheres has been separated. Are two brains better than one for learning about consciousness? Find out beginning on page 32.
