Best of the Brain from Scientific American

Both high school and college health libraries and general-interest public lending libraries will relish The Best of the Brain from Scientific American: Mind, Matter, and Tomorrow's Brain. It provides over twenty of the most revealing articles written by lading neuroscientists and science writers covering three key areas in brain research: behavior and cognition, diseases and interactions between body and brain, and man-machine possibilities and treatments. The result is an outstanding survey of the latest brain research findings, suitable for consumers and healthcare students alike. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

XXXXX "The [21] articles in this collection reflect the promise, excitement, and intrigue in many areas [of brain research] since the official end of [the 1990s or] the `Decade of the Brain.'" The above statement is found in the introduction of this fascinating book edited by Floyd Bloom, M.D. (who is apparently a "top neuroscientist"). This book contains the best neuroscience articles (as selected by Bloom) from the publications "Scientific American" and "Scientific American Mind." All articles are brief with the shortest ones being 7 pages while the longest one is 15 pages. As well, all articles were originally published between the years 2002 and 2006 (except one that was first published in 1999). To give the potential reader a "feel" for this book, I will give the exact brief summary found at the beginning of each article: Part 1 entitled: Mind (1) Moments of brilliance arise from complex cognitive processes. Piece by piece, researchers are uncovering the secrets of creative thinking. (2) Activating the brain's circuitry with pulsed magnetic fields may help ease depression, enhance cognition, even fight fatigue. (3) Neuroscientists are finding that their biological descriptions of the brain may fit together best when integrated by psychological theories that Freud sketched a century ago. (4) Biologists are beginning to tease out how the brain gives rise to a constant sense of being oneself. (5) We have long wondered how the conscious mind comes to be. Greater understanding of brain function ought to lead to an eventual solution. (6) A forecast of the major problems [in neuroscience] scientists need to solve. Part 2: Matter (1) In their search for the mind, scientists are focusing on visual perception--how we interpret what we see. (2) Long thought to be the brain's coordinator of body movement, the cerebellum is now known to be active during a wide variety of cognitive and perceptual activities. (3) How does the human brain process language? New studies of deaf signers hint at the answer. (4) A single mutation [a sudden variation in some inheritable characteristic in a germ cell of an individual, as distinguished from a variation resulting from generations of gradual change] casts the death sentence of Huntington's disease [that is an inherited disease characterized by chronic, progressive mental deterioration and erratic, involuntary muscle movements]. Researchers are pinning down how that mutation ruins neurons--knowledge that may suggest therapies. (5) How do you fix a broken brain? The answer may literally lie within our heads. The same approaches might also boost the power of an already healthy brain. (6) Psychiatric illnesses are often hard to recognize, but genetic testing and neuroimaging could someday be used to improve detection. (7) Drug abuse produces long-term changes in the reward circuitry of the brain. Knowledge of the cellular and molecular details of these adaptations could lead to new treatm