Layman's brain-book suggestion

[chroot]

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for a gift for my sister. She's educated, but not a biologist. She wants a book about the brain and memory, specifically with some focus on the learning process. She's a musician and an educator, so she'd like to learn more about how different kinds of learning happen (including, for example, phenomena like muscle memory).

Does anyone have any book suggestions?

Thanks,

- Warren

 

[hypnagogue]

Perhaps not exactly what you're looking for, but Eric Kandel's new book In Search of Memory might be a good fit.

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
When, as a medical student in the 1950s, Kandel said he wanted to locate the ego and id in the brain, his mentor told him he was overreaching, that the brain had to be studied "cell by cell." After his initial dismay, Kandel took on the challenge and in 2000 was awarded a Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking research showing how memory is encoded in the brain's neuronal circuits. Kandel's journey into the brain spans five decades, beginning in the era of early research into the role of electrical currents flowing through neurons and ending in the age of genetic engineering. It took him from early studies of reflexes in the lowly squid to the founding of a bioengineering firm whose work could some day develop treatments for Alzheimer's and on to a rudimentary understanding of the cellular mechanisms underlying mental illness. Kandel's life also took him on another journey: from Vienna, which his Jewish family fled after the Anschluss, to New York City and, decades later, on visits back to Vienna, where he boldly confronted Austria's unwillingness to look at its collusion in the Final Solution. For anyone considering a career in science, the early part of this intellectual autobiography presents a fascinating portrait of a scientist's formation: learning to trust his instincts on what research to pursue and how to pose a researchable question and formulate an experiment. Much of the science discussion is too dense for the average reader. But for anyone interested in the relationship between the mind and the brain, this is an important account of a creative and highly fruitful career. 50 b&w illus. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Scientific American
Kandel, who received the Nobel Prize in 2000, traces advances in understanding learning and memory. His own groundbreaking findings showed that learning produces changes in behavior by modifying the strength of connections between nerve cells. He conveys his immense grasp of the science beautifully, but it is his personal recollections that make the book especially compelling. He begins with his searing childhood memories of the German annexation of Austria and his family’s escape to the U.S. when he was nine. And he ends with a conference he organized in Vienna to examine the strange reluctance of Austria (unlike Germany) to acknowledge its role in the Holocaust. One comes away in awe of the scientific advances—and of a life well and fully lived.

Editors of Scientific American

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393058638/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[siddharth]

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?z=y&pwb=1&ean=9780688172176" by V. S. Ramachandran might fit as well. I particularly liked the way he performed simple experiments to check the theories he talks about.

From the Publisher

Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran is internationally renowned for uncovering answers to the deep and quirky questions of human nature that few scientists have dared to address. His bold insights about the brain are matched only by the stunning simplicity of his experiments -- using such low-tech tools as cotton swabs, glasses of water and dime-store mirrors. In Phantoms in the Brain, Dr. Ramachandran recounts how his work with patients who have bizarre neurological disorders has shed new light on the deep architecture of the brain, and what these findings tell us about who we are, how we construct our body image, why we laugh or become depressed, why we may believe in God, how we make decisions, deceive ourselves and dream, perhaps even why we're so clever at philosophy, music and art. Some of his most notable cases: * A woman paralyzed on the left side of her body who believes she is lifting a tray of drinks with both hands offers a unique opportunity to test Freud's theory of denial. * A woman who hallucinates cartoon characters illustrates how, in a sense, we are all hallucinating, all the time. Dr. Ramachandran's inspired medical detective work pushes the boundaries of medicine's last great frontier -- the human mind -- yielding new and provocative insights into the "big questions" about consciousness and the self.

 

[neutrino]

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?z=y&pwb=1&ean=9780688172176" by V. S. Ramachandran might fit as well. I particularly liked the way he performed simple experiments to check the theories he talks about.

I was about to recommend the same when I initially read the post, but I felt that it wasn't exactly what chroot was looking for. It is certainly one of the best layman's brain-book out there.

 

[chroot]

I think both of those books would be very interesting to her -- thanks for the suggestions so far! Does anyone have any others?

- Warren

 

[Integral]

It may be a streach but Douglas Hofstaters GEB, Godel, Esher, Bach- The Eternal Golden Braid Has a very good analogy of the brain. Since your sister is interested in art and music it hits home on 2 of the 3 main topics. He addresses the brain and much much more.

 

[shruth]

It may be a streach but Douglas Hofstaters GEB, Godel, Esher, Bach- The Eternal Golden Braid Has a very good analogy of the brain.

I would never suggest GEB for starters...It is an amazing book - but only if you are already exposed to some simpler stuff. Phantoms in the Brain is what I would suggest someone first.