Understanding My Brain

When children learn about how their brain works, it enables better decision making and choices to help them feel safe, find calm and to build social-emotional skills. Tips for Adults Using This Book with Their Children: Think of this as a science book for children ages 5-10, made fun through the lens of four animals. Lizzie the Lizard Plays the Hindbrain, Malcolm the Meerkat Plays the Amygdala, Elsie the Elephant Plays the Limbic Brain and Ozzie the Owl Plays the Prefrontal Cortex! Complex topics are broken down to help your child understand the science behind their brain and their behavior. Through learning and exploring, they will have increased self-awareness and the tools to stay healthy, safe and calm - socially and emotionally. What better way to help children learn to identify their emotions and sensations, the size of their emotions/sensations and to promote practices for self-regulation. This book is designed to be read with your child/children over time. Depending on your child's developmental age, some may grasp the concepts faster while others may need more time. The most important thing is to create an enjoyable learning experience for you and your child together. Take their lead! If they continue to be interested, then keep reading. If they show signs they are finished for now, listen to those cues and transition to another activity. Offer moments of pause and reflection throughout the book where you can each talk about how you have experienced the part of the brain you are learning about. Remember when you "teach children" (lecture), they may remember but when you "involve them and have fun" (engage them in a two-way interactive conversation building on their interests) they will learn. (Quote adapted by Benjamin Franklin) About the Author: Julie Kurtz is an author, national speaker and parent coach consulting and training on trauma, social-emotional skills and resilience. She promotes the concept of optimal brain integration to maximize the human growth potential. Julie is the Founder and CEO for the Center for Optimal Brain Integration(R). Julie Kurtz is the creator of the phone/tablet Application Trigger Stop: Sensory and Emotional Check-in designed specifically for children (ages 3-8) to promote sensory and emotional literacy in support of self-regulation. Learn more at www.optimalbrainintegration.com.

You’re no idiot, of course. You know your own mind, but when it comes to understanding what’s really going on in your head—all those synapses! all those neurons!—you feel like you’re just about brain-dead. Don’t let it unnerve you! The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Understanding the Brain proves that you don’t need to be a genius to be in the know—and gives you lots of fun stuff to think about, too. In this Complete Idiot’s Guide®, you get: • The history of human knowledge of the brain. • Insights into what causes brain disorders—and how best to treat them. • Thoughtful tips about the many different ways we learn new information. • Fascinating, little-known facts about the nervous system.

An examination of what makes us human and unique among all creatures—our brains. No reader curious about our “little grey cells” will want to pass up Harvard neuroscientist John E. Dowling’s brief introduction to the brain. In this up-to-date revision of his 1998 book Creating Mind, Dowling conveys the essence and vitality of the field of neuroscience—examining the progress we’ve made in understanding how brains work, and shedding light on discoveries having to do with aging, mental illness, and brain health. The first half of the book provides the nuts-and-bolts necessary for an up-to-date understanding of the brain. Covering the general organization of the brain, early chapters explain how cells communicate with one another to enable us to experience the world. The rest of the book touches on higher-level concepts such as vision, perception, language, memory, emotion, and consciousness. Beautifully illustrated and lucidly written, this introduction elegantly reveals the beauty of the organ that makes us uniquely human.

The brain ... There is no other part of the human anatomy that is so intriguing. How does it develop and function and why does it sometimes, tragically, degenerate? The answers are complex. In Discovering the Brain, science writer Sandra Ackerman cuts through the complexity to bring this vital topic to the public. The 1990s were declared the "Decade of the Brain" by former President Bush, and the neuroscience community responded with a host of new investigations and conferences. Discovering the Brain is based on the Institute of Medicine conference, Decade of the Brain: Frontiers in Neuroscience and Brain Research. Discovering the Brain is a "field guide" to the brainâ€"an easy-to-read discussion of the brain's physical structure and where functions such as language and music appreciation lie. Ackerman examines: How electrical and chemical signals are conveyed in the brain. The mechanisms by which we see, hear, think, and pay attentionâ€"and how a "gut feeling" actually originates in the brain. Learning and memory retention, including parallels to computer memory and what they might tell us about our own mental capacity. Development of the brain throughout the life span, with a look at the aging brain. Ackerman provides an enlightening chapter on the connection between the brain's physical condition and various mental disorders and notes what progress can realistically be made toward the prevention and treatment of stroke and other ailments. Finally, she explores the potential for major advances during the "Decade of the Brain," with a look at medical imaging techniquesâ€"what various technologies can and cannot tell usâ€"and how the public and private sectors can contribute to continued advances in neuroscience. This highly readable volume will provide the public and policymakersâ€"and many scientists as wellâ€"with a helpful guide to understanding the many discoveries that are sure to be announced throughout the "Decade of the Brain."

A Wall Street Journal Bestselling ebook! Axiom Business Book Bronze Award Winner Push your brain to full power, for success at the office and at home Would you like more control over your life and your work? Would you like greater stamina as you carry out your daily tasks? How about more significance and meaning as you move forward in your career? Scott Halford shows us how we can all find these things if we simply understand how to activate the full potential of the brain. This incredible organ is still full of mystery, but we know enough to harness its power better than ever before. We just have to recognize how the brain works, and understand the actions we can take to help it perform at its best. Combining research, anecdote, and inspiration, Activate Your Brain shows you how small steps toward better brain function and management can eventually lead to success on a whole new level. Each chapter offers “Activations”—exercises that help optimize your brain function to . . . • increase your focus, • build self-confidence and willpower, • manage distractions, • reduce negative stress, • collaborate effectively with others, • and much more. In the end, Activate Your Brain is an indispensable collection of practical things you need to know about your wonderful brain—which, when fully harnessed, can give you more of the fulfilled life you seek.

First released in the Spring of 1999, How People Learn has been expanded to show how the theories and insights from the original book can translate into actions and practice, now making a real connection between classroom activities and learning behavior. This edition includes far-reaching suggestions for research that could increase the impact that classroom teaching has on actual learning. Like the original edition, this book offers exciting new research about the mind and the brain that provides answers to a number of compelling questions. When do infants begin to learn? How do experts learn and how is this different from non-experts? What can teachers and schools do-with curricula, classroom settings, and teaching methodsâ€"to help children learn most effectively? New evidence from many branches of science has significantly added to our understanding of what it means to know, from the neural processes that occur during learning to the influence of culture on what people see and absorb. How People Learn examines these findings and their implications for what we teach, how we teach it, and how we assess what our children learn. The book uses exemplary teaching to illustrate how approaches based on what we now know result in in-depth learning. This new knowledge calls into question concepts and practices firmly entrenched in our current education system. Topics include: How learning actually changes the physical structure of the brain. How existing knowledge affects what people notice and how they learn. What the thought processes of experts tell us about how to teach. The amazing learning potential of infants. The relationship of classroom learning and everyday settings of community and workplace. Learning needs and opportunities for teachers. A realistic look at the role of technology in education.

The wide range of useful information contained in How My Brain Works can help the reader in many ways: basic understanding of this unique organ, advice for anyone concerned about the possibility of a cognitive problem, and the wisdom of the author's experience in helping her many patients and others to keep their brains healthy and working at their highest level. Students with learning problems, young people considering varied career paths, victims of brain injuries or mental disorders, the middle-aged and elderly at risk of dementia-all can gain from the knowledge Dr. Barbara Koltuska-Haskin has gained in her many years as a practicing neuropsychologist. In easy-to-understand language, she explains the countless ways the evaluation process she uses can help people in a wide variety of situations, and how the results can be used for maximum benefit. Plus, building on this information, Dr. Koltuska-Haskin offers a wealth of advice and tips on how to build and maintain optimum brain health. Reaching widely into the physical, psychological, nutritional, and spiritual worlds, she pulls together new research as well as age-old treasured learning to create an everyday guide to harnessing our most powerful mental tools in shaping the healthful and successful lives we all seek.

How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

From University of Washington professor Chantel Prat comes The Neuroscience of You, a rollicking adventure into the human brain that reveals the surprising truth about neuroscience, shifting our focus from what’s average to an understanding of how every brain is different, exactly why our quirks are important, and what this means for each of us. With style and wit, Chantel Prat takes us on a tour of the meaningful ways that our brains are dissimilar from one another. Using real-world examples, along with take-them-yourself tests and quizzes, she shows you how to identify the strengths and weakness of your own brain, while learning what might be going on in the brains of those who are unlike you. With sections like “Focus,” “Navigate,” and “Connect,” The Neuroscience of You helps us see how brains that are engineered differently ultimately take diverse paths when it comes time to prioritize information, use what they’ve learned from experience, relate to other people, and so much more. While other scientists focus on how “the” brain works “on average,” Prat argues that our obsession with commonalities has slowed our progress toward understanding the very things that make each of us unique and interesting. Her field-leading research, employing cutting-edge technology, reveals the truth: Complicated as it may be, no two brains are alike. And individual differences in brain functioning are as pervasive as they are fundamental to defining what “normal” looks like. Adages such as, “I’m not wired that way” intuitively point to the fact that the brains we’re piloting, educating, and parenting are wonderfully distinct, explaining a whole host of phenomena, from how easily a person might learn a second language in adulthood to whether someone feels curious or threatened when faced with new information. This book invites the reader to understand themselves and others by zooming in so close that we all look gray and squishy.

In Your Brain at Work, David Rock takes readers inside the heads—literally—of a modern two-career couple as they mentally process their workday to reveal how we can better organize, prioritize, remember, and process our daily lives. Rock, the author of Quiet Leadership and Personal Best, shows how it’s possible for this couple, and thus the reader, not only to survive in today’s overwhelming work environment but succeed in it—and still feel energized and accomplished at the end of the day.