Contents

The Top 10 Fascinating Facts About Your Brain

Introduction

01   A Quick View

      The Two Different Nervous Systems

      How the Central Nervous System Works

      Mixing Chemicals and Electricity: The Neuron

      Other Types of Cells in the CNS

      The Spinal Cord

      Neuroimaging and Other Ways of Looking at the Brain

02   Dividing Up the Brain

      North-South-In-Out: Directional Descriptions

      Forebrain, Midbrain, Hindbrain

      What’s with All the Wrinkles? Gyri and Sulci

      Lateralization: Left Brain or Right Brain

      Cortical and Subcortical Areas

      Lobes of Fun

      Cover My Brain Please: The Meninges

      Holes in Your Brain: The Ventricles

      Important Brain Structures

03   Can You Believe Your Eyes? The Process of Vision

      The Principles of Sensory Organization

      The Process of Seeing

      What Was That Shape?

      How You See Motion

      How You Perceive Color

      Impaired Vision and Visual Illusions

04   Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil: Language and Your Brain

      How You Heard That

      The Process of Speaking

      How You Read

      The Effect of Brain Damage on Language

05   Do You Feel Me? The Sense of Touch

      How You Obtain Balance: Vestibular Sensation

      Touch Me: Somatosensation

      Skin to the Brain

      What a Pain: Pain Perception

      Pain Control

06   Chemicals in Your Brain: Taste and Smell

      How Many Different Tastes Are There?

      The Brain and Taste

      That Smell Went Right to Your Brain

      Olfactory Projections

      Pheromones

07   You Move Me

      Muscles and Their Movements

      Units of Movement

      The Basal Ganglia

      The Cerebellum

      How Your Cortex Moves You

      Programs in Your Head

      Movement Disorders

08   Hot, Hungry, and Thirsty: Internal Body States

      Homeostasis

      Temperature Regulation

      Thirst and Your Brain

      Hunger

      Eating Disorders

09   Sex

      Sex Hormones

      Hormones and Reproductive Behavior in Females and Males

      Development and Puberty

      Determinants of Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation

      Thinking about Sex

      Sex Offenders

10   The Sleeping Brain

      Bodily Rhythms

      Neural Mechanisms of Circadian Rhythms

      Stages of Sleep

      The Dreaming Brain

      The Functions of Sleep

      Disorders of Sleep

11   You Have to Grow Up Sometime: The Developing Brain

      Growth and Brain Differentiation

      The Old Nature Versus Nurture Debate

      Vulnerabilities

      Brain Plasticity

      When Older Is Not Always Better

12   The Big Cheese: The Executive Brain

      Control

      Let’s Be Up Front about This: The Frontal Lobes

      Do You Have a Plan? The Brain and Planning

      Learning from Brain Damage

      Can You Change That? Correcting Errors

      Where Has Free Will Gone?

13   Say That Again? Attention and the Brain

      The Anatomy of Attention

      The Prestriate Area of the Brain and Attention

      Working Memory: Who Does It Work For?

      Why Can’t You Pay Attention?

      Disorders of Attention

14   Who Was the Fifth President? Learning and Memory

      Learning

      Long-Term Potentiation

      Types of Memory

      The Biological Foundations of Memory

      Forgetting

      Learning Disabilities, Brain Damage, and Memory

15   The Emotional Brain

      Why Do You Have Emotions?

      Attack and Escape

      Where in the Brain Are Emotions?

      Structures of the Brain and Emotion

      Stress and Emotions

      How Stress Affects the Immune System

      Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

16   Don’t Be So Smart: Intelligence and the Brain

      What Is Intelligence?

      Are There Different Types of Intelligence?

      Components of Intelligence

      IQ and Intelligence

      How Are Consciousness and Intelligence Related?

      Unconscious Processing

17   Well, They Have a Great Personality

      What Is Personality?

      How Personality Is Measured

      Phineas Gage: The Classic Study

      Nature Versus Nurture and Personality

      Personality Disorders

      Can You Rewire Your Brain or Change Your Personality?

18   The Addicted Brain

      Addiction (Dependence)

      The Reward System

      Brain Pathways Involved in Addiction

      Neurotransmitters and Addiction

      Why Can’t They Stop?

      What Treatments Really Work?

      Is Addiction a Disease?

19   Brain-Related Disorders

      Depression and Mood Disorders

      Schizophrenia

      Autism

      Dementia

      Stroke

20   Some Brain Myths That You May Still Believe

      You Only Use 10 Percent of Your Brain

      Repressed Memories

      Subliminal Persuasion

      Listening to Mozart When You Are Pregnant Can Make Your Kids Smarter

      Some People Have ESP

        Appendix A: Glossary

        Appendix B: References