This Thursday, 23rd of April, we celebrated World Book Day, an annual event organised by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing, and copyright.
Why not make it World NeuroBook Day?
Here we provide you some of the well known and most acclaimed neuroscience-related popular books (from GoodReads’ “Best Neuroscience Books in 2019”) :
“The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat” by Oliver Sacks £8.99
A 1985 book by neurologist Oliver Sacks describing the case histories of some of his patients, such as “Dr. P” (as Sacks calls him) who has visual agnosia, a neurological condition characterised by the inability to recognise even familiar faces and objects. The book is divided into 4 sections: Losses, Excesses, Transports, and The World of the Simple.
BUY IT (Waterstones): The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks, Will Self
“The Brain that Changes itself” by Norman Doidge £10.99
A book on neuroplasticity by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge.
Norman Doidge traveled through the United States to write about both the scientists investigating neuroplasticity, its healing powers and effects, and the people who have directly benefited from it —”people whose mental limitations, brain damage or brain trauma were seen as unalterable.”
BUY IT (Waterstones): The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge
“Phantoms in the Brain” by V.S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee £10.99
A 1998 popular science book by neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran and New York Times science writer Sandra Blakeslee, discussing neurophysiology and neuropsychology as revealed by case studies of neurological disorders. Ramachandran discusses his work with patients exhibiting phantom limbs, the Capgras delusion, pseudobulbar affect and hemispatial neglect following stroke, and religious experiences associated with epileptic seizure...
BUY IT (Waterstones): Phantoms in the Brain by VS Ramachandran, Sandra Blakeslee
“The Tell-Tale Brain: a neuroscientist’s quest for what makes us human” by V.S. Ramachandran £8.99
A 2010 nonfiction book that explores, from a neurological viewpoint, the uniqueness of human nature. Ramachandran discusses seven main concepts which define the human aspect of self and how each may be disrupted by a specific neurological disorder. The concepts are unity, continuity, embodiment, privacy, social embedding, free-will, and self-awareness.
BUY IT (Waterstones): The Tell-Tale Brain by VS Ramachandran
“Incognito: the secret lives of the brain” by David Eagleman £9.99
If the conscious mind—the part you consider you—accounts for only a tiny fraction of the brain’s function, what is the rest of your brain doing? This is the question that David Eagleman—renowned neuroscientist and acclaimed author of Sum—tries answering in this evidence-based book written in 2011.
BUY IT (Waterstones): Incognito by David Eagleman
“Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain” by Oliver Sacks £10.99
A book written in 2007 in which neurologist Oliver Sacks explores a range of psychological and physiological ailments and their intriguing connections to music. It is broken down into four sections: Haunted by Music examines mysterious onsets of musicality, musicophilia and musicophobia; A Range of Musicality looks at musical oddities and musical synesthesia; Memory, Movement, and Music; and finally Emotions, Identity, and Music.
BUY IT (Waterstones): Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks
“Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain” by Antonio Damasio £10.99
A 1994 book by neurologist António Damásio, essentially focusing on the mind-body dualism. Damásio presents the "somatic marker hypothesis", a mechanism by which emotions guide (or bias) behavior and decision-making, also affirming that rationality requires emotional input. He argues that René Descartes' "error" was the dualist separation of mind and body, rationality and emotion.
BUY IT (Waterstones): Descartes' Error by Antonio Damasio
“How the Mind Works” by Steven Pinker £12.99
A 1997 book by the Canadian-American cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, in which he attempts to explain some of the human mind's poorly understood functions and quirks in evolutionary terms. Pinker writes about subjects such as vision, emotion, feminism, and "the meaning of life". He argues for both a computational theory of mind and a neo-Darwinist / adaptationist approach to evolution (essential to evolutionary psychology according to Pinker).
BUY IT (Waterstones): How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker
“Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman £12.99
A best-selling book published in 2011 by Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences laureate Daniel Kahneman. This book summarizes research that Kahneman conducted over decades, often in collaboration with Amos Tversky. It covers the three main areas of his career: his early days working on cognitive biases, his work on prospect theory, and his later work on happiness. The central thesis is the dichotomy between two modes of thought: "System 1" is fast, instinctive, and emotional; "System 2" is slower, more deliberative, and more logical.
BUY IT (Waterstones): Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
“An Anthropologist on Mars” by Oliver Sacks £9.99
A 1995 book by neurologist Oliver Sacks consisting of seven medical case histories or “paradoxical tales” of individuals with neurological conditions such as autism, amnesia and Tourette syndrome. This book also follows up on many of the themes Sacks explored in his earlier book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.
BUY IT (Waterstones): An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks
“Synaptic Self” by Joseph LeDoux from £6.24
This book, written in 2003, has a critical story to tell: how the little spaces between the neurons—the synapses—are the channels through which we think, act, imagine, feel, and remember. They encode the essence of personality, enabling each of us to function as a distinctive and integrated individual. Synaptic Self explores incredibly diverse topics, such as the functioning of memory, the synaptic basis of mental illness and drug addiction, and the mechanism of self-awareness.
BUY IT (Amazon UK): Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are
“Behave: The Biology of Humans at our Best and Worst” by Robert M. Sapolsky
£10.99
This 2017 book, essentially, is an attempt to answer the question: “Why do we do the things we do?” for good… and for ill, in the precise moment we do these things, and also going back in time to include the story of our species, its evolutionary legacy. Some of the concepts Sapolsky covers: tribalism, xenophobia, hierarchy and competition, morality and free will, war, and peace.
BUY IT (Waterstones): Behave by Robert M. Sapolsky
“In Search of Memory: the Emergence of a New Science of Mind” by Eric R. Kandel
£14.99
Memory binds our mental life together. We are who we are in large part because of what we learn and remember. But how does the brain create memories? Nobel Prize winner Kandel (2007) writes on this science of the mind—a combination of cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and molecular biology—with his own personal quest to understand memory: a combination of memoir and history, modern biology and behavior, this book brings readers from Kandel's childhood in Nazi-occupied Vienna to the forefront of one of the great scientific endeavors of the twentieth century: the search for the biological basis of memory.
BUY IT (Waterstones): In Search of Memory by Eric R. Kandel
“Hallucinations” by Oliver Sacks £9.99
A 2012 book written by the neurologist Oliver Sacks. In Hallucinations, Sacks recounts stories of hallucinations and other mind-altering episodes of both his patients and himself and uses them in an attempt to elucidate certain features and structures of the brain including his own headaches.
BUY IT (Waterstones): Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks
“My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey” by Jill Bolte Taylor £9.99
A 2008 New York Times bestselling and award-winning book written by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard-trained and published neuroanatomist. In it, she tells her experience (1996) of having a stroke in the left hemisphere and how the human brain creates our perception of reality, including tips about how she “rebuilt” her own brain afterward.
BUY IT (Waterstones): My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor
“This is your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession” by Daniel J. Levitin £9.99
A 2006 popular science book written by the McGill University neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin: this book is an attempt of bringing together recent findings in the neuroscience of music and make them accessible to the general public. It describes the components of music (timbre, rhythm, pitch, and harmony) and ties them to neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, cognitive psychology, and evolution.
BUY IT (Waterstones): This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin
“The Future of the Mind” by Michio Kaku £9.99
A 2014 popular science book written by the futurist and physicist Michio Kaku in which he discusses many possibilities of advanced technology that can alter the brain and mind. The book covers a wide range of topics, such as telepathy, telekinesis, consciousness, artificial intelligence, and transhumanism. In it, Kaku presents his "spacetime theory of consciousness".
BUY IT (Waterstones): The Future of the Mind by Michio Kaku
“The Mind’s Eye” by Oliver Sacks £9.99
A 2010 book by neurologist Oliver Sacks. This book contains case studies of some of his patients with limited ability to navigate the world visually and communicate with others. It also includes the author's own experience with cancer of the eye and his lifelong inability to recognise faces (i.e. prosopagnosia)
BUY IT (Waterstones): The Mind's Eye by Oliver Sacks
“On Intelligence” by Jeff Hawkins £11.71
A 2004 book written by Palm Pilot-inventor Jeff Hawkins and New York Times science writer Sandra Blakeslee. The book explains Hawkins' memory-prediction framework theory of the brain and describes some of its consequences. Essentially, Hawkins believes creating true artificial intelligence will only be possible with intellectual progress in the discipline of neuroscience.
“The Brain: The Story of You” by David Eagleman £9.99
“Locked in the silence and darkness of your skull, your brain fashions the rich narratives of your reality and your identity. Join renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman for a journey into the questions at the mysterious heart of our existence. What is reality? Who are “you”? How do you make decisions? Why does your brain need other people? How is technology poised to change what it means to be human?” (from eagleman.com)
BUY IT (Waterstones): The Brain by David Eagleman
“Who’s in Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain” by Michael S. Gazzaniga £9.99
In this book, Michael Gazzaniga puts forward a powerful case against neurological determinism, arguing that, even given current insights into the physical workings of the brain, there is no reason to downgrade human free will or moral responsibility.
BUY IT (Waterstones): Who's in Charge? by Michael Gazzaniga
“The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons” by Sam Kean £9.99
A 2014 non-fiction science book regarding the brain and its functions, written by science reporter Sam Kean. The Daily Telegraph describes it as A dramatic account of the gruesome accidents that shaped modern neuroscience. It includes stories of startling peculiarity, of neurological curiosities: phantom limbs, cannibalism, Siamese brains, and a plethora of other particular topics.
BUY IT (Waterstones): The Tale of the Duelling Neurosurgeons by Sam Kean
“Brain Rules” by John Medina £11.99
Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School was written by John Medina, a developmental molecular biologist and research consultant. It consists of 12 chapters that attempt to describe how our brains work. Each chapter demonstrates things scientists already know about the brain, and things we as people do that can affect how our brain will develop.
(a combination of GoodReads, Waterstones, WIkipedia, Amazon UK descriptions)