Download or read book So You Want to Be a Neuroscientist written by Ashley Juavinett and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-08 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The pursuit to understand the human brain in all its intricacy is a fascinatingly complex challenge and neuroscience is one of the fastest-growing scientific fields worldwide. There is a wide range of career options open to those who wish to pursue a career in neuroscience, yet there are few resources that provide students with inside advice on how to go about it. So You Want to Be a Neuroscientist? is a contemporary and engaging guide for aspiring neuroscientists of diverse backgrounds and interests. Fresh with the experience of having recently launched her own career, Ashley Juavinett provides a candid look at the field, offering practical guidance that explores everything from programming to personal stories. Juavinett begins with a look at the field and its history, exploring our evolving understanding of how the brain works. She then tackles the nitty-gritty: how to apply to a PhD program, the daily life of a graduate student, the art of finding mentors and collaborators, and what to expect when working in a lab. Finally, she introduces readers to diverse young scientists whose career paths illustrate what you can do with a neuroscience degree. For anyone intrigued by the brain or seeking advice on how to further their ambitions of studying it, So You Want to Be a Neuroscientist? is a practical and timely overview of how to learn and thrive in this exciting field.
Download or read book The Spike written by Mark Humphries and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of a neural impulse and what it reveals about how our brains work We see the last cookie in the box and think, can I take that? We reach a hand out. In the 2.1 seconds that this impulse travels through our brain, billions of neurons communicate with one another, sending blips of voltage through our sensory and motor regions. Neuroscientists call these blips “spikes.” Spikes enable us to do everything: talk, eat, run, see, plan, and decide. In The Spike, Mark Humphries takes readers on the epic journey of a spike through a single, brief reaction. In vivid language, Humphries tells the story of what happens in our brain, what we know about spikes, and what we still have left to understand about them. Drawing on decades of research in neuroscience, Humphries explores how spikes are born, how they are transmitted, and how they lead us to action. He dives into previously unanswered mysteries: Why are most neurons silent? What causes neurons to fire spikes spontaneously, without input from other neurons or the outside world? Why do most spikes fail to reach any destination? Humphries presents a new vision of the brain, one where fundamental computations are carried out by spontaneous spikes that predict what will happen in the world, helping us to perceive, decide, and react quickly enough for our survival. Traversing neuroscience’s expansive terrain, The Spike follows a single electrical response to illuminate how our extraordinary brains work.
Download or read book The Neuroscience of You written by Chantel Prat and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-08-02 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Guide to Research Techniques in Neuroscience written by Matt Carter and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2022-03-26 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern neuroscience research is inherently multidisciplinary, with a wide variety of cutting edge new techniques to explore multiple levels of investigation. This Third Edition of Guide to Research Techniques in Neuroscience provides a comprehensive overview of classical and cutting edge methods including their utility, limitations, and how data are presented in the literature. This book can be used as an introduction to neuroscience techniques for anyone new to the field or as a reference for any neuroscientist while reading papers or attending talks. - Nearly 200 updated full-color illustrations to clearly convey the theory and practice of neuroscience methods - Expands on techniques from previous editions and covers many new techniques including in vivo calcium imaging, fiber photometry, RNA-Seq, brain spheroids, CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, and more - Clear, straightforward explanations of each technique for anyone new to the field - A broad scope of methods, from noninvasive brain imaging in human subjects, to electrophysiology in animal models, to recombinant DNA technology in test tubes, to transfection of neurons in cell culture - Detailed recommendations on where to find protocols and other resources for specific techniques - "Walk-through" boxes that guide readers through experiments step-by-step
Download or read book Why We Sleep written by Matthew Walker and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity ... An explosion of scientific discoveries in the last twenty years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now ... neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming"--Amazon.com.
Download or read book Models of the Mind written by Grace Lindsay and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-03-04 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The human brain is made up of 85 billion neurons, which are connected by over 100 trillion synapses. For more than a century, a diverse array of researchers searched for a language that could be used to capture the essence of what these neurons do and how they communicate – and how those communications create thoughts, perceptions and actions. The language they were looking for was mathematics, and we would not be able to understand the brain as we do today without it. In Models of the Mind, author and computational neuroscientist Grace Lindsay explains how mathematical models have allowed scientists to understand and describe many of the brain's processes, including decision-making, sensory processing, quantifying memory, and more. She introduces readers to the most important concepts in modern neuroscience, and highlights the tensions that arise when the abstract world of mathematical modelling collides with the messy details of biology. Each chapter of Models of the Mind focuses on mathematical tools that have been applied in a particular area of neuroscience, progressing from the simplest building block of the brain – the individual neuron – through to circuits of interacting neurons, whole brain areas and even the behaviours that brains command. In addition, Grace examines the history of the field, starting with experiments done on frog legs in the late eighteenth century and building to the large models of artificial neural networks that form the basis of modern artificial intelligence. Throughout, she reveals the value of using the elegant language of mathematics to describe the machinery of neuroscience.
Download or read book A Million Things To Ask A Neuroscientist The Brain Made Easy written by Jodi Barnard and published by . This book was released on 2021-03-11 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An easy way to learn about the brain. The most interesting questions you have about the brain are finally answered.◆ How are memories created?◆ Do men and women have different brains?◆ What are dreams and why do we have them?This book makes the brain fun and easy to enjoy. Anyone who is curious about what really goes on in that mushy pink thing inside their head will enjoy this guide to the brain and neuroscience.Join neuroscientist Mike Tranter PhD as he explains the brain in his unique and funny style. He answers questions that were submitted by the public, and the best part is, no scientific background is needed whatsoever. Includes a chapter describing some of the strange mysteries about the brain, and a behind the scenes look at how cutting-edge neuroscience research will change the future.Finally, the brain is made easy.
Download or read book The Feeling of Life Itself written by Christof Koch and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thought-provoking argument that consciousness—more widespread than previously assumed—is the feeling of being alive, not a type of computation or a clever hack In The Feeling of Life Itself, Christof Koch offers a straightforward definition of consciousness as any subjective experience, from the most mundane to the most exalted—the feeling of being alive. Psychologists study which cognitive operations underpin a given conscious perception. Neuroscientists track the neural correlates of consciousness in the brain, the organ of the mind. But why the brain and not, say, the liver? How can the brain—three pounds of highly excitable matter, a piece of furniture in the universe, subject to the same laws of physics as any other piece—give rise to subjective experience? Koch argues that what is needed to answer these questions is a quantitative theory that starts with experience and proceeds to the brain. In The Feeling of Life Itself, Koch outlines such a theory, based on integrated information. Koch describes how the theory explains many facts about the neurology of consciousness and how it has been used to build a clinically useful consciousness meter. The theory predicts that many, and perhaps all, animals experience the sights and sounds of life; consciousness is much more widespread than conventionally assumed. Contrary to received wisdom, however, Koch argues that programmable computers will not have consciousness. Even a perfect software model of the brain is not conscious. Its simulation is fake consciousness. Consciousness is not a special type of computation—it is not a clever hack. Consciousness is about being.
Download or read book So You Want to be a Scientist written by Philip A. Schwartzkroin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-08-27 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "So You Want To Be a Scientist? offers the reader a glimpse into the job of being a research scientist."--Page 4 of cover.
Download or read book Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain written by Zaretta Hammond and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2014-11-13 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold, brain-based teaching approach to culturally responsive instruction To close the achievement gap, diverse classrooms need a proven framework for optimizing student engagement. Culturally responsive instruction has shown promise, but many teachers have struggled with its implementation—until now. In this book, Zaretta Hammond draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain-compatible culturally responsive instruction. The book includes: Information on how one’s culture programs the brain to process data and affects learning relationships Ten “key moves” to build students’ learner operating systems and prepare them to become independent learners Prompts for action and valuable self-reflection
Download or read book Iconoclast written by Gregory Berns and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through vivid accounts of successful innovators ranging from glass artist Dale Chihuly to physicist Richard Feynman to the country/rock trio the Dixie Chicks, Berns reveals the inner workings of the iconoclast’s mind with remarkable clarity. Each engaging chapter goes on to describe practical actions we can each take to understand and unleash our own potential to think differently—such as seeking out new environments, novel experiences, and first-time acquaintances.
Download or read book The Leader s Brain written by Michael Platt and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leadership is a set of abilities with which a lucky few are born. They're the natural relationship builders, master negotiators and persuaders, and agile and strategic thinkers. The good news for the rest of us is that those abilities can be developed. In The Leader's Brain, Wharton Neuroscience Initiative director Michael Platt explains how.
Download or read book A Skeptic s Guide to the Mind written by Robert A. Burton, M.D. and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2013-04-23 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if our soundest, most reasonable judgments are beyond our control? Despite 2500 years of contemplation by the world's greatest minds and the more recent phenomenal advances in basic neuroscience, neither neuroscientists nor philosophers have a decent understanding of what the mind is or how it works. The gap between what the brain does and the mind experiences remains uncharted territory. Nevertheless, with powerful new tools such as the fMRI scan, neuroscience has become the de facto mode of explanation of behavior. Neuroscientists tell us why we prefer Coke to Pepsi, and the media trumpets headlines such as "Possible site of free will found in brain." Or: "Bad behavior down to genes, not poor parenting." Robert Burton believes that while some neuroscience observations are real advances, others are overreaching, unwarranted, wrong-headed, self-serving, or just plain ridiculous, and often with the potential for catastrophic personal and social consequences. In A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind, he brings together clinical observations, practical thought experiments, personal anecdotes, and cutting-edge neuroscience to decipher what neuroscience can tell us – and where it falls woefully short. At the same time, he offers a new vision of how to think about what the mind might be and how it works. A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind is a critical, startling, and expansive journey into the mysteries of the brain and what makes us human.
Download or read book Never Enough written by Judith Grisel and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2019-02-19 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From a renowned behavioral neuroscientist and recovering addict, a rare page-turning work of science that draws on personal insights to reveal how drugs work, the dangerous hold they can take on the brain, and the surprising way to combat today's epidemic of addiction. Judith Grisel was a daily drug user and college dropout when she began to consider that her addiction might have a cure, one that she herself could perhaps discover by studying the brain. Now, after twenty-five years as a neuroscientist, she shares what she and other scientists have learned about addiction, enriched by captivating glimpses of her personal journey. In Never Enough, Grisel reveals the unfortunate bottom line of all regular drug use: there is no such thing as a free lunch. All drugs act on the brain in a way that diminishes their enjoyable effects and creates unpleasant ones with repeated use. Yet they have their appeal, and Grisel draws on anecdotes both comic and tragic from her own days of using as she limns the science behind the love of various drugs, from marijuana to alcohol, opiates to psychedelics, speed to spice. With more than one in five people over the age of fourteen addicted, drug abuse has been called the most formidable health problem worldwide, and Grisel delves with compassion into the science of this scourge. She points to what is different about the brains of addicts even before they first pick up a drink or drug, highlights the changes that take place in the brain and behavior as a result of chronic using, and shares the surprising hidden gifts of personality that addiction can expose. She describes what drove her to addiction, what helped her recover, and her belief that a “cure” for addiction will not be found in our individual brains but in the way we interact with our communities. Set apart by its color, candor, and bell-clear writing, Never Enough is a revelatory look at the roles drugs play in all of our lives and offers crucial new insight into how we can solve the epidemic of abuse.
Download or read book You and Me The Neuroscience of Identity written by Susan Greenfield and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 107 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is it that makes you distinct from me? Identity is a term much used but hard to define. For that very reason, it has long been a topic of fascination for philosophers but has been regarded with aversion by neuroscientists—until now. Susan Greenfield takes us on a journey in search of a biological interpretation of this most elusive of concepts, guiding us through the social and psychiatric perspectives and ultimately to the heart of the physical brain. Greenfield argues that as the brain adapts exquisitely to environment, the cultural challenges of the twenty-first century with its screen-based technologies mean that we are facing unprecedented changes to identity itself.
Download or read book Neuroscience for Learning and Development written by Stella Collins and published by Kogan Page Publishers. This book was released on 2019-08-03 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In order to design and deliver effective learning and development initiatives, it is essential to understand how our brains process and retain information. Neuroscience for Learning and Development introduces the latest research and concepts, equipping L&D and training professionals with an understanding of the inner workings of the mind. Covering areas such as how to create effective learning environments, promoting motivation and how to make learning 'stickier' through the use of stories, the book offers practical tools and ideas that can be applied in a variety of contexts, from digital learning and in-person training sessions, to coaching conversations, to lectures and presentations. Neuroscience for Learning and Development also features insights from L&D practitioners who have applied these approaches. Readers will not only find new techniques they can implement straight away, but will also discover research that backs up what they are already doing well, enabling them to put convincing cases to budget holders. This updated second edition contains new chapters on digital learning and on the importance of sleep, as well as updated wider content and new material on mindfulness, learning through your senses and the neuroscience of habits.
Download or read book How to Create a Mind written by Ray Kurzweil and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-08-27 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The bold futurist and renowned author of The Singularity Is Near explores the limitless potential of reverse-engineering the human brain. “This book is a Rosetta Stone for the mystery of human thought.”—Martine Rothblatt, chairman and CEO, United Therapeutics, and creator of Sirius XM Satellite Radio “Kurzweil’s vision of our super-enhanced future is completely sane and calmly reasoned, and his book should nicely smooth the path for the earth’s robot overlords, who, it turns out, will be us.”—The New York Times In How to Create a Mind, Ray Kurzweil presents a provocative exploration of the most important project in human-machine civilization: reverse-engineering the brain to understand precisely how it works and using that knowledge to create even more intelligent machines. Kurzweil discusses how the brain functions, how the mind emerges, brain-computer interfaces, and the implications of vastly increasing the powers of our intelligence to address the world’s problems. He also thoughtfully examines emotional and moral intelligence and the origins of consciousness and envisions the radical possibilities of our merging with the intelligent technology we are creating. Drawing on years of advanced research and cutting-edge inventions in artificial intelligence, How to Create a Mind is an incredible synthesis of neuroscience and technology and provides a road map for the future of human progress.
