Brain and Behavior

Features

• Starting Out scenarios begin each chapter with a gripping real-world example of chapter concepts, from hikers on Mount Everest who make deadly mistakes, to a boy who functions normally following the removal of half of his brain.
• Neuroscience of Everyday Life explains how neuroscience directly relates to our daily lives, like why people have difficulty multitasking.
• A principles-based approach relying on overarching principles rather than lists or facts-to help students see the big picture.
• A progressive structure that begins with the basics of the nervous system before moving on to the brain's interaction with the world and then on to more complex interactions.
• An emphasis on case studies, surprising examples from everyday life, and examples in which advances in neuroscience can benefit society are sprinkled throughout the chapters.
• A clear, modern art program that provides attractive biological drawings to help convey important concepts and information.
• The Bigger Picture connects neuroscience to larger concepts and questions, from social to ethical to legal to historical. Examples include how neuroscience can help us make better decisions and whether we will soon be able to equip our brains with new senses.
• Research Methods show how we know what we know about the brain, presenting important research techniques and indicating the types of research questions that these techniques have been used to investigate.
• Chapter-Ending Key Principles summarize the main points covered in the chapter-with one principle corresponding to each main heading-to remind students of what they have just learned.
• Review Questions test recall and understanding of the key information presented in the chapter to aid with studying.
• Critical-Thinking Questions ask the student to apply and extend information from the chapter to new scenarios to master the material.

About the Author(s)

David Eagleman is a neuroscientist, New York Times best-selling author, and Guggenheim Fellow. He teaches neuroscience at Stanford University and serves as director of the Center for Science and Law. Dr. Eagleman's areas of research include vision, time perception, synesthesia, sensory substitution, and the intersection of neuroscience with the legal system. Dr. Eagleman has written several popular neuroscience books, including Incognito, Livewired, The Brain, and Wednesday Is Indigo Blue. He has also written an internationally best-selling book of literary fiction, Sum, which has been translated into 33 languages and turned into two operas in Sydney and London. Dr. Eagleman is the writer and host of the Emmy-nominated PBS/BBC television series, The Brain with David Eagleman, which poses the question of what it means to be human from the point of view of neuroscience. He is also the host of the popular podcast, Inner Cosmos.

Jonathan Downar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. As a physician-scientist, his clinical work focuses on using non-invasive brain stimulation to treat patients with severe and medication-resistant forms of psychiatric illness, including depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and eating disorders. His research work focuses on developing a new generation of more effective, more accessible, and less costly techniques for brain stimulation in these disorders. In addition to his research and clinical work, he has taught undergraduate courses in the neuroscience of social cognition, emotion regulation, decision-making, and other forms of complex human behavior, and medical students and psychiatry resident physicians on the subjects of neuroanatomy, neuroimaging, and therapeutic brain stimulation.