Neuroscience Books

Whenever a person engages with music--when a piano student practices a scale, a jazz saxophonist riffs on a melody, a teenager sobs to a sad song, or a wedding guest gets down on the dance floor--countless neurons are firing. Playing an instrument requires all of the resources of the nervous system, including cognitive, sensory, and motor functions. Composition and improvisation...

What is focus? By focusing on three types of focus—“inner,” “outer,” and “other”—Daniel Goleman’s new book explores how focus affects our daily activities and abilities. Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, draws on his life’s work as a psychologist and journalist to dig into scientific research, specific case studies, and his own experiences to define and describe the concepts of focus as...

Navigation skills are easy to take for granted, but the ability to find our way is a key to humanity's evolutionary success. Sharing illustrative stories of the lost and found, Michael Bond explores the science of our mental maps and their vital relationship with imagination, memory, abstract thinking, and other cognitive functions.

For centuries, scientists have argued that there are inherent differences between male and female brains, which accounts for their different roles in society. That’s not true, argues Gina Rippon in Gender and Our Brains. She makes the case that much of that research suffers from bias; researchers confirmed what they already “knew” to be true. Instead, she believes, our brains are gendered...

A lot of us set goals for ourselves—like eating more healthily or resisting the lure of our smartphone, for example—only to feel like failures when our willpower isn’t up to the task. But according to psychologist Wendy Wood, there are more practical ways to create good habits and break bad ones. In particular, we need to stop relying entirely on...

Most of the books we review in this newsletter are about the astounding capabilities of the human brain. This book is no different—except that the author isn’t sure those capabilities are, in fact, assets. Funny, insightful, and illuminating, If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal uses wonderful research on animal brains to point out the ways in which we might not be the “superior”...

Most of us walk around on two feet every day—as part of our commute, on a hike, to the store, or just through the house. According to author and neuroscientist Shane O’Mara, this seemingly simple ability is an important part of what defines humanity. What has to happen, in the brain and body, for us to achieve this skill? How...

Often, we think of our conscious thoughts as the major players in our brains. But in Incognito, neuroscientist David Eagleman makes the case that our conscious minds are out of the loop in most of what we do. Our instincts, our desires, our motor functions—many of the things we think, feel, and accomplish happen in neural sub-routines outside our conscious control....

In Inspired, New York Times reporter Matt Richtel tells the story of creativity by taking a deep dive into new research, sharing historical insights, and considering the relationship between creativity and faith. This multifaceted examination of the nature of creativity ultimately helps Inspired become a guide to igniting (or re-igniting) your creative spark.

In his latest book, neuroscientist Adrian Owen explores the “gray zone”—the space between full consciousness and brain death, where people have working minds in damaged bodies. Dr. Owen’s research suggests that up to 20% of people once thought to be in vegetative states are actually in this “gray zone”—aware and capable of thought on some level, but immobile. What are...

Neurosurgeon Jim Doty is the director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University. In Into the Magic Shop (named for a transformative experience he had as a boy), Doty shares his own story of moving past his successful-but-unhappy life by changing both his brain and his heart, and gives scientific and practical guidance...

Kensho, which literally means “awakening”, is a book that brings together the expertise of dozens of people to weigh in on personal development in the modern era. One chapter in particular, entitled “Neuro What?” offers particularly salient and useful advice for anyone hoping to gain insight to the inner workings of the brain and find practical, step-by-step advice for how...