Neuroscience Books

In this New York Times–bestselling book, Dr. Daniel Siegel shows parents how to turn one of the most challenging developmental periods in their children’s lives into one of the most rewarding. Between the ages of 12 and 24, the brain changes in important, and oftentimes maddening, ways. It’s no wonder that many parents approach their child’s adolescence with fear and...

What is morality? Where does it come from? And why do most of us heed its call most of the time? In Braintrust, neurophilosophy pioneer Patricia Churchland argues that morality originates in the biology of the brain. She describes the "neurobiological platform of bonding" that, modified by evolutionary pressures and cultural values, has led to human styles of moral behavior....

We all have an inner voice in our head, one that we talk to and that talks to us. That voice can act as a coach or—all too often—a critic. Through fascinating real-world stories and a look into neuroscience and psychology, Ethan Cross explores the many facets of our inner voice, and highlights the tools you can use to transform...

When Katherine Sharpe arrived at her college health center with an age-old complaint, a bad case of homesickness, she received a thoroughly modern response: a twenty-minute appointment and a prescription for Zoloft—a drug she would take for the next ten years. This outcome, once unlikely, is now alarmingly common. Twenty-five years after Prozac entered the marketplace, 10 percent of Americans...

In Conscience, neurophilosopher Patricia Churchland makes the case that morality is rooted in biology; specifically, in how the brain has evolved to support and reinforce useful norms of behavior that help sustain a successful community. Discussing neurochemicals and brain regions, and everything from political views to prairie voles, Churchland sheds light on how our values are shaped in our brains. It’s...

WINNER OF THE 2014 BRAIN PRIZE From the acclaimed author of Reading in the Brain and How We Learn, a breathtaking look at the new science that can track consciousness deep in the brain How does our brain generate a conscious thought? And why does so much of our knowledge remain unconscious? Thanks to clever psychological and brain-imaging experiments, scientists...

We’ve all felt cravings, and when they’re strong enough, it seems like we’ll do almost anything to satisfy them. In Craving, Dr. Omar Manejwala looks at the neurobiology behind these irrepressible desires, to seek an understanding of how and why our brains make us crave things, and how we can change our brains to take control of the things we crave.

"While we accept that stress or anxiety can damage our health, the idea of 'healing thoughts' was long ago hijacked by New Age gurus and spiritual healers. Recently, however, serious scientists ... have been uncovering evidence that our thoughts, emotions, and beliefs can ease pain, heal wounds, fend off infection and heart disease, even slow the progression of AIDS and...

This brand new book has already been shortlisted for several nonfiction prizes, for its poetic, soul-baring look at the reality of life as a brain surgeon. Marsh reminds us that brain surgeons are above all, imperfect but caring humans.

Offers possible neurological explanations for the behaviors commonly demonstrated by zombies in popular culture, mixing tongue-in-cheek satire with serious explorations of how the brain works according to current neuroscience.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES and LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER “Brilliant… riveting, scary, cogent, and cleverly argued.”—Beth Macy, author of Dopesick As heard on Fresh Air This book is about pleasure. It’s also about pain. Most important, it’s about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We’re living in...

"For millennia, we have viewed thinking and feeling as fundamentally opposed processes. According to this persistent, age-old belief, to truly live well we must marshal our logical and rational capacities to master our emotions. This perceived dichotomy lies at the heart of our historical pursuits in theology, philosophy, and psychology. But extraordinary advances in psychology and neuroscience, including neuroimaging and...