Out of Your Mind
The Biggest Mysteries of the Human Brain
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
From the creative brain behind WE HAVE NO IDEA, an introductory journey into your own mind—if your inner voice had a PhD in neuroscience, cracked jokes, and drew cartoons
Why do you love? Why do you hate? What makes you happy? Every single thought you have comes from one place: your brain. But what makes it tick? How much of it have we decoded, and how much of it remains an impenetrable mystery?
Join bestselling author and online cartoonist Jorge Cham and neuroscientist Dwayne Godwin on a deep dive into the fascinating world of the human brain, in which they will explore questions such as: What is consciousness? Do we have free will? And what happens when we die? All while illuminating everything we know (and don't know) about one of the most complex objects in the known universe. Think of it as conversation ammunition for your next cocktail party, or a quick, fascinating read while you’re in the bathroom (don’t worry, the chapters aren’t that long). Centered on questions we all ask ourselves at some point but don’t usually have answers to, Out of Your Mind is an illustrated book about the brain that isn’t too "brainy." Playful, accessible, and deeply insightful, it’s the one brain book that’s truly suitable for all brains.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cartoonist Cham (We Have No Idea) teams up with neuroscientist Godwin for this fizzy investigation of how the brain works. Mixing science with lighthearted illustrations, the authors survey how different brain regions affect behavior, demonstrating the frontal lobes' importance to personality with a brief comic about a 19th-century railroad worker who developed a bad temper after an explosion damaged his left frontal lobe. The authors delve into the physiological underpinnings of love by explaining that positive stimuli cause the release of dopamine, which deactivates the brain's fear center and calls on the hippocampus to encode the experience "so you can remember later what led to this enjoyment." Cham and Godwin highlight some fascinating if well-known experiments and case studies, describing, for instance, how "Patient H.M." lost the ability to form new memories after a doctor removed his hippocampus in 1933. Unfortunately, the discussions can feel rudimentary, with a chapter on free will revolving around the obvious point that such behavior as sneezing and crying appear to be innate and therefore unconscious. Diverting if insubstantial, this is heavy on "pop" and light on "science." Illus.
