From the book jacket:

Brain Sense: The Science of the Senses and How We Process the World Around Us

By Faith Hickman Brynie

Complex and crucially important, the senses collect the massive amount of information we need to navigate daily life and serve as a filter between our inner selves and the larger world. But the science of how the senses work has been little understood--until now.

New research is rapidly uncovering fascinating insights into how the brain processes sensory information. It's not simply a matter of the brain controlling the senses; the senses actually stimulate brain development. For example, the brain's sound-processing centers mature properly only when sound impulses trigger them to do so--which is why cochlear implants are best used before the age of three.

 

 

Brain Sense reveals this and a wealth of findings on how the brain and senses interact, as it examines each of the five major senses: touch, smell, taste, vision, and hearing. With eloquent writing and gripping stories, the author deploys a rare gift for explaining complex scientific ideas in a way that is clear and comprehensible. She introduces the scientists at the forefront of "brainsense"--neurologists, brain mappers, biochemists, physicians, cognitive psychologists, and more--as well as real-life people who are contributing to the research and benefiting from its practical applications, such as haptic devices to assist people who have lost limbs or rehabilitative software for those who have suffered impairments to their motion vision. You'll find new research that explains:

         Why placebos work by changing the way the brain processes pain

         How humans respond to pheromones in the same manner as other animals

         How taste is highly influenced by expectations of taste

         Why color significantly aids the ability to remember an object

         How the capacity for language is already at work in newborn babies

         What happens in the brain to produce sensory experiences such as deja vu and phantom

                    limb pain--and much more

Expansive and enlightening, Brain Sense shows us that the brain is both flexible and variable. The reality that the brain constructs based on inputs gathered from the senses differs from person to person. It sheds a much-needed light on the elusive workings of the extraordinary human brain.

Brain Sense

The Science of the Senses and How We Process the World Around Us

Faith Hickman Brynie

 

Brain research is science's exciting new frontier, and Brain Sense takes you to the heart of some of the most amazing discoveries being made in the field today. Complete with engaging interviews, fascinating stories, and a highly accessible presentation of hard science, this appealing, original book explores the latest findings and investigations into how the senses work to communicate with the brain.

It also picks apart some outdated ideas and mistaken assumptions. Remember tongue maps that depicted which taste bud registered bitter, sour, salty, or sweet? It turns out that all regions of the tongue can read all the tastes--and there are more than just four.

Or how about the belief that our brains receive and interpret an exact replica of the image that falls on the retina of the eye? New evidence suggests that the brain's visual centers actually modify inputs from the eyes, so that we see what we expect to see.

 

You'll find hundreds of insightful answers and intriguing theories in the pages of Brain Sense, a lively, probing survey of new research into how the human brain interprets and processes sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touch--all of which help shape our view of the world, including our perceptions, ideas, and behaviors.

 

Order Brain Sense from

Amacom Books

American Management Association

1601 Broadway

New York, NY 10019

 

Visit AMACOM online at http://www.amacombooks.org

From the back cover: