Welcome to Your Brain
Read Welcome to Your Brain Online
Authors: Sam Wang,Sandra Aamodt
Tags: #Neurophysiology-Popular works., #Brain-Popular works
MANTESh
Welcome to Your Brain
Mantesh
Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and
Other Puzzles of Everyday Life
Sandra Aamodt, ph.D. and Sam Wang, ph.D.
Bloomsbury USA
From Sandra, to Ken and Aquila
From Sam, to Dad, Becca, and Vita
Mantesh
Contents
Quiz How Well Do You Know Your Brain?
Introduction Your Brain: A User’s Guide
Part 1—Your Brain and the World
Chapter 1 Can You Trust Your Brain?
Chapter 2 Gray Matter and the Silver Screen: Popular Metaphors of How the
Chapter 3 Thinking Meat: Neurons and Synapses
Chapter 4 Fascinating Rhythms: Biological Clocks and Jet Lag
Chapter 5 Bring Your Swimsuit: Weight Regulation
Chapter 6 Looking Out for Yourself: Vision
Chapter 7 How to Survive a Cocktail Party: Hearing
Chapter 8 Accounting for Taste (and Smell)
Chapter 9 Touching All the Bases: Your Skin’s Senses
Part 3—How Your Brain Changes Throughout Life
Chapter 10 Growing Great Brains: Early Childhood
Chapter 11 Growing Up: Sensitive Periods and Language
Chapter 12 Rebels and Their Causes: Childhood and Adolescence
Chapter 13 An Educational Tour: Learning
Chapter 14 Reaching the Top of the Mountain: Aging
Chapter 15 Is the Brain Still Evolving?
Chapter 16 The Weather in Your Brain: Emotions
Chapter 17 Did I Pack Everything? Anxiety
Chapter 18 Happiness and How We Find It
Chapter 19 What’s It Like in There? Personality
Chapter 20 Sex, Love, and Pair-Bonding
Chapter 21 One Lump or Two: How You Make Decisions
Mantesh
Chapter 22 Intelligence (and the Lack of It)
Chapter 23 Vacation Snapshots: Memory
Chapter 24 Rationality Without Reason: Autism
Chapter 25 A Brief Detour to Mars and Venus: Cognitive Gender Differences
Part 6 — Your Brain in Altered States
Chapter 26 Do You Mind? Studying Consciousness
Chapter 27 In Your Dreams: The Neuroscience of Sleep
Chapter 28 A Pilgrimage: Spirituality
Chapter 29 Forgetting Birthdays: Stroke
Chapter 30 A Long, Strange Trip: Drugs and Alcohol
Chapter 31 How Deep Is Your Brain? Therapies that Stimulate the Brain’s Core
In our careers so far, we have written over half a million words about the brain, but that experience
only partially prepared us for writing this book. We have wondered why acknowledgments run so
long. Now we know.
When Jack Horne learned that both of us were planning to write the same book, he suggested we
combine our efforts. Sandy Blakeslee and Jeff Hawkins recommended their agency, Levine
Greenberg, to us, and vice versa. Our agent, Jim Levine, and his assistant, Lindsay Edgecombe,
helped us shape the book’s tone and content. All authors should have such expert guides for their first
book. Beth Fisher connected us with publishers around the world. At Bloomsbury USA we have been
lucky to work with our editor, Gillian Blake, who has been enthusiastic from the beginning and has
provided an experienced hand. She, Ben Adams, and the Bloomsbury crew have improved our words
and thoughts and kept us moving forward. Thanks are also due to Lisa Haney and Patrick Lane for
beautiful illustrations and to Ken Catania, Pete Thompson, Ted Adelson, and Michael MacAskill for
permission to use technical images.
We wrote a substantial part of the book at the Villa Serbelloni on the shores of Lake Como in
Bellagio, Italy, an experience made possible by the Rockefeller Foundation and words of support
from Jane Flint, Bob Horvitz, Charles Jennings, Olga Pellicer, Robert Sapolsky, and Shirley
Tilghman. Pilar Palacia, Elena Ongania, and the rest of the Villa Serbelloni staff created an elegant
but relaxed atmosphere for thinking, talking, and writing. Our fellow residents provided a great forum
and we thank them all: Anne Waldman, Ed Bowes, Seemin Qayum, Sinclair Thomson, Raka Ray,
Ashok Bardhan, Richard Cooper, Joan Kennelly, Jane Burbank, Fred Cooper, Russell Gordon,
Jennifer Pierce, Dedre Gentner, Ken Forbus, David and Kathy Ringrose, Len and Gerry Pearlin,
Bishakha Datta, Gautam Ojha, Sushil Sharma, Helen Roberts, Rodney Barker, Cyrus Cassells,
Andrée Durieux-Smith, and Roger Smith.
Friends, colleagues, and students helped and encouraged us tremendously and were the source of
invaluable suggestions, discussions, and corrections. We are especially grateful to Ralph Adolphs,
Daphne Bavelier, Alim-Louis Benabid, Karen Bennett, Michael Berry, Ken Britten, Carlos Brody,
Tom Carmichael, Gene Civillico, Mike DeWeese, David Eagleman, Neir Eshel, Michale Fee, Asif
Ghazanfar, Mark Goldberg, Astrid Golomb, Liz Gould, David Grodberg, Patrick Hof, Hans Hofmann,
Petr Janata, Danny Kahneman, Yevgenia Kozorovitskiy, Ivan Kreilkamp, Eric London, Zach Mainen,
Eve Marder, David Matthews, Becca Moss, Eric Nestler, Elissa Newport, Bill Newsome, Bob
Newsome, Yael Niv, Liz Phelps, Robert Provine, Kerry Ressler, Rebecca Saxe, Clarence Schutt,
Steven Schultz, Mike Schwartz, Mike Shadlen, Debra Speert, David Stern, Chess Stetson, Russ
Swerdlow, Ed Tenner, Leslie Vosshall, Larry Young, and Gayle Wittenberg. Sam thanks his entire
laboratory for accommodating his preoccupation, especially Rebecca Khaitman for excellent
assistance. The Princeton University library was an essential resource. Finally, we thank Ivan
Kaminow for telling us about the cell phone trick. Any remaining problems with the science, of
course, are our responsibility and not theirs.
Our spouses went far beyond the call of duty in supporting us and this project, keeping us as sane
as possible. Sandra thanks Ken Britten for his tolerant amusement at the prospect of entertaining
himself for yet another weekend while she worked on the book and for his enthusiastic contributions
to many shared adventures. She also thanks her parents, Roger and Jan Aamodt, for teaching her that
girls too can take risks in pursuit of their dreams. Sam thanks Becca Moss for her partnership, her
aplomb in the face of yet another crazy idea that got out of hand, and for providing a light when things
got dark. Finally, Sam thanks his parents, Chia-lin and Mary Wang, for planting the seeds of a lifelong
love of science and learning.
Mantesh
How Well Do You Know Your Brain?
Before you start reading this book, find out what you already know about your brain.
1) When are your last brain cells born?
(a) Before birth
(b) At age six
(c) Between the ages of eighteen and twenty-three
(d) In old age
2) Men and women have inborn differences in
(a) spatial reasoning
(b) strategies for navigation
(c) ability to leave the toilet seat down
(d) Both a and b
(e) Both b and c
3) Which of the following is
not
likely to improve brain function in old age?
(a) Eating fish with omega-3 fatty acids
(b) Getting regular exercise
(c) Drinking one or two glasses of red wine per day
(d) Drinking a whole bottle of red wine per day
4) Which of the following strategies is the best one for overcoming jet lag?
(a) Taking melatonin the night after you arrive at your destination
(b) Avoiding daylight for several days
(c) Getting sunlight in the afternoon at your destination
(d) Sleeping with the lights on
5) Your brain uses about as much energy as
(a) a refrigerator light
(b) a laptop computer
(c) an idling car
(d) a car moving down a freeway
6) Your friend is trying to tickle your belly. You can reduce the tickling sensation by
(a) putting your hand on his to follow the movement
(b) biting your knuckles
(c) tickling him back
(d) drinking a glass of water
7) Which of the following activities is likely to improve performance in school?
(a) Listening to classical music while you sleep
(b) Listening to classical music while you study
(c) Learning to play a musical instrument as a child
(d) Taking breaks from studying to play video games
(e) Both c and d
8) Which of the following things is a blow to the head least likely to cause?
(a) Loss of consciousness
(b) Memory loss
(c) Restoration of memory after suffering amnesia
(d) Personality change
9) Which of the following activities before a test might help you to perform better? (You may
choose more than one.)
(a) Having a drink
(b) Having a cigarette
(c) Eating a candy bar
(d) Telling yourself with great conviction that you are good at this kind of test
10) You are in a noisy room, attempting to talk to your friend on your cell phone. To have a clearer
conversation, you should
(a) talk more loudly
(b) cover one ear and listen through the other
(c) cover your ear when you talk
(d) cover the mouthpiece when you listen
11) Which of the following is an effective way to reduce anxiety?
(a) Antidepressant drugs
(b) Exercise
(c) Behavioral therapy
(d) All of the above
12) Which of the following is the hardest thing your brain does?
(a) Doing long division
(b) Looking at a photograph
(c) Playing chess
(d) Sleeping
13) Blind people are better than sighted people at which of the following?
(a) Understanding words
(b) Hearing sounds
(c) Remembering stories
(d) Training dogs
14) Your mother was improving your brain capacity when she told you which of the following
things?
(a) “Turn that music down”
(b) “Go out and play”
(c) “Practice your instrument”
(d) All of the above
15) Memory starts to get worse in which decade of life?
(a) Thirties
(b) Forties
(c) Fifties
(d) Sixties
16) Which activities kill brain cells?
(a) Drinking three bottles of beer in an evening
(b) Smoking a joint
(c) Dropping acid
(d) All of the above
(e) None of the above
17) Which depiction of neurological damage is least realistic?
(a) Guy Pearce’s character Leonard in
Memento
(b) Drew Barrymore in
50 First Dates
(c) Dory in
Finding Nemo
(d) John Nash in
A Beautiful Mind
18) What percentage of mammalian species are monogamous?
(a) 5%
(b) 25%
(c) 50%
(d) 90%
19) What percentage of your brain do you use?
(a) 10%
(b) 5% when you are sleeping, 20% when you are awake
(c) 100%
(d) Varies according to intelligence
20) When Einstein’s brain was compared with the average person’s, it
(a) was larger
(b) was indistinguishable in size
(c) had more folds on the surface
(d) had an extra part
Answers: 1) d, 2) d, 3) d, 4) c, 5) a, 6) a, 7) e, 8) c, 9) b and d, 10) d, 11) d, 12) b, 13) c, 14) d,
15) a, 16) e, 17) b, 18) a, 19) c, 20) b
Your Brain: A User’s Guide
I used to think my brain was my most important organ. But then I thought: wait a minute, who’s
telling me that?
—Emo Phillips
In our decades of studying and writing about neuroscience, we have often found ourselves discussing
the brain in strange places: at the salon, in taxicabs, and even in the occasional elevator. Believe it or
not, people don’t run away (usually). Instead, they ask us all sorts of interesting questions: “When I
drink, am I killing my brain cells?” “Does cramming for an exam work?” “Will playing music during
pregnancy make my baby smarter?” “What is wrong with my teenager [or parent]?” “Why can’t you
tickle yourself?” “Do men and women think differently?” “Can you really get amnesia from being hit
on the head?”
All these questions lead to your brain, the amazing three pounds in your skull that make you