Entertaining and Readable Without Being Dumbed Down

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	• Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday ... Sandra Aamodt, Sam Wang Bloomsbury USA, 2008 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 12 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A fun way to learn

The layout is appealing, the subjects discussed are fascinating, and the science is solid. I am considering using this book in a new Neuroscience course for freshman biology students. It has the potential to stimulate the interest of students who might otherwise be intimidated by Neuroscience.

Useful, thought-provoking, and funny!

This book is truly a gem. It is all too rare in science writing to find authors who can make complicated topics accessible and also change the way that you look at the everyday world. Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt are among the precious few who can do just that. Their recent New York Times editorials on the brain have generated a tremendous amount of conversation on line, at the dinner table, and at the water cooler. Anyone who is interested in the workings of the brain or just how we do the amazing things that we do in the course of a day would do well to give this book a try.

The authors' website[..]is also a source of interesting information, and their talk at Google [..]is available online as well.

Enjoy!

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Useful even for the graduate student

I must confess that I worked with one of the authors (S. Wang) several years ago. This book is a great resource to get a big picture view of the brain. As a grad student, the book has expanded my knowledge outside of my field of interest. It's an appealing and useful book to anyone curious about neuroscience.

Entertaining and Readable Without Being Dumbed Down

Neurobiology is one of those fields that is finding out new things every day. This book gives an up-to-date and wide-ranging overview of how it all works, and doesn't stint on the science. From jet lag to memory, brain injury to decision-making and intelligence, this book discusses it all. This would be a great starting point for further reading, or (as it was in my case) just a fascinating look at many facets of brain function.

Lively enough to entertain, yet not so dumbed down as to be silly. Highly recommended.

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Very Entertaining!

Who would have guessed that two neuroscientists could write such an entertaining book about brain function? I knew I was going to enjoy this book when I got to page 10 and, in a discussion of which movies portray brain disorders accurately and which don't, I read: "Another offender is the movie 50 First Dates (2004), which portrays a pattern of memory loss that never occurs in any known neurological condition. Drew Barrymore plays a character who collects new memories each day and then discards them all overnight, clearing the way for a brand-new beginning the next day. In this way she is able to tolerate more than one date with Adam Sandler."

Written with humor and chock-full of real and practical information about your brain, this book is a worthwhile read for anyone. Interspersed with the chapers are "snippet boxes" of "Did you know?" "Myth" and "Practical tip" sections where you will learn things like: why we sometimes sneeze when we look into a bright light, why we yawn, why we can't tickle ourselves, that listening to Mozart WON'T make your child smarter, but learning to play an instrument will, how to overcome jet lag, how to hear better on your cell phone in noisy situations. You'll find sections on how your senses work, how your brain changes as you age, how your brain affects your emotions - even a chapter on how drugs affect your brain. Very interesting reading, from start to finish

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

You: The Owner?s Manual for the brain: an expert, comprehensive, and lively guide that makes sense of all the latest scientific findings about how your brain really works.

We are using our brains at practically every moment of our lives, and yet few of us have the first idea how they work. Much of what we think we know comes from folklore: that we only use 10 percent of our brain, or that drinking kills brain cells. These and other brain myths are wrong, as demonstrated by the work of neuroscientists who have spent decades studying this complex organ. However, most of what scientists have learned is not known to the world outside their laboratories.

In this readable, lively book, Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang dispel common myths about the brain and provide a comprehensive, useful overview of how it really works. In its pages, you?ll discover how to cope with jet lag, how your brain affects your religion, and how men?s and women?s brains differ. With witty, accessible prose decorated by charts, trivia, quizzes, and illustrations, this book is great for quick reference or extended reading.

Both practical and fun, Welcome to Your Brain is perfect whether you want to impress your friends or simply use your brain better.

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