Brain Storms

A Top 10 Science Book of Fall 2015 - Publishers Weekly A star science journalist with Parkinson's reveals the inner workings of this perplexing disease Seven million people worldwide suffer from Parkinson's, and doctors, researchers, and patients continue to hunt for a cure. In Brain Storms, the award-winning journalist Jon Palfreman tells their story, a story that became his own when he was diagnosed with the debilitating illness. Palfreman chronicles how scientists have worked to crack the mystery of what was once called the shaking palsy, from the earliest clinical descriptions of tremors, gait freezing, and micrographia to the cutting edge of neuroscience, and charts the victories and setbacks of a massive international effort to best the disease. He takes us back to the late 1950s and the discovery of L-dopa. He delves into a number of other therapeutic approaches to this perplexing condition, from partial lobotomies and deep brain stimulation to neural grafting. And he shares inspiring stories of brave individuals living with Parkinson's, from a former professional ballet dancer who tricks her body to move freely again to a patient who cannot walk but astounds doctors when he is able to ride a bicycle with no trouble at all. With the baby boom generation beginning to retire and the population steadily aging, the race is on to discover a means to stop or reverse neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Brain Storms is the long-overdue, riveting, and deeply personal story of that race, and a passionate, insightful, and urgent look into the lives of those affected.

Female and male brains are different, thanks to hormones coursing through the brain before birth. That’s taught as fact in psychology textbooks, academic journals, and bestselling books. And these hardwired differences explain everything from sexual orientation to gender identity, to why there aren’t more women physicists or more stay-at-home dads. In this compelling book, Rebecca Jordan-Young takes on the evidence that sex differences are hardwired into the brain. Analyzing virtually all published research that supports the claims of “human brain organization theory,” Jordan-Young reveals how often these studies fail the standards of science. Even if careful researchers point out the limits of their own studies, other researchers and journalists can easily ignore them because brain organization theory just sounds so right. But if a series of methodological weaknesses, questionable assumptions, inconsistent definitions, and enormous gaps between ambiguous findings and grand conclusions have accumulated through the years, then science isn’t scientific at all. Elegantly written, this book argues passionately that the analysis of gender differences deserves far more rigorous, biologically sophisticated science. “The evidence for hormonal sex differentiation of the human brain better resembles a hodge-podge pile than a solid structure...Once we have cleared the rubble, we can begin to build newer, more scientific stories about human development.”

This collection of 17 essays by the author offers a comprehensive theory of mind, encompassing traditional issues of consciousness and free will. Using careful arguments and ingenious thought-experiments, the author exposes familiar preconceptions and hobbling institutions. This collection of 17 essays by the author offers a comprehensive theory of mind, encompassing traditional issues of consciousness and free will. Using careful arguments and ingenious thought-experiments, the author exposes familiar preconceptions and hobbling institutions. The essays are grouped into four sections: Intentional Explanation and Attributions of Mentality; The Nature of Theory in Psychology; Objects of Consciousness and the Nature of Experience; and Free Will and Personhood.

Can one person survive four brain hemorrhages and two brain surgeries, and still live a normal, joyful life? Join survivor Les Duncan for Brain Storms, a collection of twenty-seven tips for coping with and recovering from catastrophic illness. These easy-to-read chapters-free from confusing technical jargon-will inspire you to take back your life. Full of tips and practical information-like how to find an exceptional doctor, the trick to listening to your body, building a life of sheer determination, and becoming an occasional but likable nuisance when necessary-will enable you to make recovery your full-time job. Applicable both for survivors and caretakers, Brain Storms also deals with the importance of maintaining relationships throughout the difficult healing process. Be inspired to survive.

Millions live with a severe disability caused by a traumatic brain injury (TBI), and families are often at a loss to understand a condition that can leave their loved one a seemingly different person. In warm, accessible prose, a renowned neuropsychiatrist offers this practical, and hopeful, guide.

"Sometimes you've just got to work it out. Follow along as a bad mood pesters a young boy and ends up rubbing off on all those around him. After a frustrating day under his version of a little dark cloud, he discovers that ultimately working through your feelings and emotions begins with you. This unique picture book contains no words so readers are left to "read" the story by interpreting the unique illustrations themselves"--from Amazon.

Puzzles and games that are serious fun - with scripture references that lead you back to answers and wisdom from God's Word!

Rachel Rosenthal is an internationally recognised pioneer in the field of feminist and ecological performance art. Her revolutionary performance technique integrates text, movement, voice, choreography, improvisation, inventive costuming, dramatic lighting and wildly imaginative sets into an unforgettable theatre experience. In the last twenty years she has presented over thirty-five pieces nationally and internationally. She has been called 'a monument and a marvel' and critically ranked with Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman, Ping Chong, Meredith Monk and Laurie Anderson. Her work is passionately dedicated to interrogating, illuminating and improving the relationship between human beings and the planet we share with so many other species. Her performances explore and embody the long history and urgent future of this deeply troubled relationship, and use viscerally compelling performance to draw us into a direct experience of the beauty and power of our lives in nature.

In this New York Times–bestselling book, Dr. Daniel Siegel shows parents how to turn one of the most challenging developmental periods in their children’s lives into one of the most rewarding. Between the ages of twelve and twenty-four, the brain changes in important and, at times, challenging ways. In Brainstorm, Dr. Daniel Siegel busts a number of commonly held myths about adolescence—for example, that it is merely a stage of “immaturity” filled with often “crazy” behavior. According to Siegel, during adolescence we learn vital skills, such as how to leave home and enter the larger world, connect deeply with others, and safely experiment and take risks. Drawing on important new research in the field of interpersonal neurobiology, Siegel explores exciting ways in which understanding how the brain functions can improve the lives of adolescents, making their relationships more fulfilling and less lonely and distressing on both sides of the generational divide.

Neurophysiologic disorders that impair normal learning as well as social and emotional development afflict at least 5-8 percent of the school-aged children in this country. Significant symptoms often persist into adulthood and many people struggle for a lifetime, never understanding what continues to hamper their functioning. Brainstorms examines questions surrounding the possible neurobiological underpinnings of the emotionally hyperactive and hyperreactive components of ADHD and related disorders. These 'pre-psychological' substrata may, for example, be fundamental to what we think of as temperament. Here is where the regulation of selective attention and the filtration of noise reside, along with the neurosystems behind energy, sleep/wakefulness, and emotional intensity.The 'firecracker temperament' often associated with certain subtypes of ADHD is quick to heat up and just as quick to cool down. Episodes of dyscontrol, involving anger or any other strong emotion, can present the most challenging aspects of managing ADHD in people of all ages; on the other hand, what takes shape in one person as a handicap may be a welcome burst of creativity and inspired vision in others-such as Mozart, Edison, Hemingway. Exploration of the many paradoxes of these brainstorms is the business of Dr. Horacek's very different, very necessary book.