Your Brain, Explained by Dingman, Marc -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Praise for Your Brain, Explained Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 1 FEAR

The almond of the brain Monkeys, mescaline, and the amygdala Learning about fear The amygdala as a threat detector Afraid before you know it The “fear center” Beyond fear A new view of fear Fear gone wrong

2 MEMORY

Memory basics Forming connections, making memories Memory and . . . sea slugs? Seahorses on the brain The life of a memory Where are memories stored? The rest of the story Alzheimer’s disease

A grim prognosis Neurodegeneration and Alzheimer’s disease Plaques, tangles, and dying neurons

3 SLEEP

Why do we sleep? The origins of sleep science Measuring sleep with the EEG Night moves The sleeping brain Getting more specific Narcolepsy and the sleep control center The sleep switch You’re getting sleepy

Adenosine and sleep 24/7

America’s favorite drug Caffeine’s lingering effects

4 LANGUAGE

Broca meets “Tan” Wernicke gets an area of his own Dueling hemispheres The often overlooked role of the right hemisphere The classic model of language A more complicated picture When language is missing Critical periods

5 SADNESS

Broca and the “great limbic lobe” A new lobe Enter the limbic system Moving on from one “system” for emotion Finding sadness in the brain The subgenual cingulate in depression The depression network The serotonin hypothesis Connecting the dots Reuptake and recycling neurotransmitters The belle of the ball Flaws in the serotonin hypothesis Searching for answers

6 MOVEMENT

The search for movement in the brain The motor cortex The motor cortex in action Fine-tuning movement

The “little brain” The basal ganglia

Parkinson’s disease

Moving in slow motion A deficiency of dopamine L-DOPA for Parkinson’s: a miracle drug?

7 VISION

The eyes have it An amazing layer of cells Color blindness: myths and truth The diverse landscape of the retina Leaving the eye Vision in the cortex The amazing specificity of visual perception Vision is an imperfect reconstruction Blindness A very particular set of skills Denying the obvious

8 PLEASURE

Indelible memories The search for the reward system Dopamine and reward The pleasure neurotransmitter New perspectives on dopamine What about the pleasure? Addiction

A vicious cycle A new view of addiction

9 PAIN

The path of pain—from receptors to the brain A hub for touch and pain Rubbing the pain away Higher mechanisms An important discovery Natural pain relievers The problem of chronic pain Treating pain: a double-edged sword

10 ATTENTION

Cocktail parties and attention Attention in the brain The limited resource of attention Multitasking Supertaskers Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

The ADHD brain ADHD, dopamine, and the rest of the story

Afterword Endnotes About the Author Index