Neuroscience for Dummies

Investigating how your senses work, how you move, and how you think and feel, Neuroscience For Dummies, 2^nd 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, 2^nd Edition

Frank Amthor is a professor of psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he also holds secondary appointments in the UAB Medical School Department of Neurobiology, the School of Optometry, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering. His research is focused on retinal and central visual processing and neural prostheses.

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

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