Publisher Annotation: It's a wrinkly, spongy mass the size of a head of cauliflower that sits in our heads and controls everything we do! Welcome to the world of the brain... What is the brain made of? How does it work? Why do we need one at all? Discover the answers to these questions and much more in this fun, fact-packed introduction to the brain.

Have you ever wondered why you have a brain? In seven short essays, neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett reveals mind-expanding lessons from the front lines of neuroscience research.

"A rock star academic explores the final frontier of personal privacy: your mind. Imagine a world where your brain can be interrogated to learn your political beliefs, thought crimes are punishable by law, and your own feelings can be used against you. Where perfumers create customized fragrances to perfectly suit your emotions, and social media titans bypass your conscious mind to hook you to their products. A world where people who suffer from epilepsy...

"What conception of mental architecture can survive the evidence of neuroplasticity and neural reuse in the human brain? In particular, what sorts of modules are compatible with this evidence? This book shows how developmental and adult neuroplasticity, as well as evidence of pervasive neural reuse, forces a revision to the standard conceptions of modularity and spells the end of a hardwired and dedicated language module. It argues from principles...

"How do our brains store-and then conjure up-past experiences to make us who we are? A twinge of sadness, a rush of love, a knot of loss, a whiff of regret. Memories have the power to move us, often when we least expect it, a sign of the complex neural process that continues in the background of our everyday lives. This process shapes us: filtering the world around us, informing our behavior and feeding our imagination. Psychiatrist Veronica O'Keane...

"Kids learn about the brain in this collection of fun, illuminating experiments they can do themselves"--

"This book is the most comprehensive and authoritative work on the topic of seizures in children. This new fourth edition reflects significant changes in the field, and each chapter has been revised to reflect current practice"--

"At age 37, Harvard neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a massive left-hemisphere stroke that took away her ability to speak, walk, read, write, or remember any of her life-and gave her an unprecedented, profound experience of dwelling in the right hemisphere and the sense of oneness and peace to be found there. Her recovery led to her writing the New York Times bestseller My Stroke of Insight, being named one of Time Magazine's Most Influential...