The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain: A 24 hour Journal of What's Happening in Your Brain as you Sleep, Dream, Wake Up, Eat, Work, Play, Fight, Love, Worry, Compete, Hope, Make Important Decisions, Age and Change

by Scientific American

Have you ever wondered what’s happening in your brain as you go through a typical day and night? This fascinating book presents an hour-by-hour round-the-clock journal of your brain’s activities. Drawing on the treasure trove of information from Scientific American and Scientific American Mind magazines as well as original material written specifically for this book, Judith Horstman weaves together a compelling description of your brain at work and at play. The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain  reveals what’s going on in there while you sleep and dream, how your brain makes memories and forms addictions and why we sometimes make bad decisions. The book also offers intriguing information about your emotional brain, and what’s happening when you’re feeling love, lust, fear and anxiety―and how sex, drugs and rock and roll tickle the same spots. Based on the latest scientific information, the book explores your brain’s remarkable ability to change, how your brain can make new neurons even into old age and why multitasking may be bad for you. Your brain is uniquely yours – but research is showing many of its day-to-day cycles are universal. This book gives you a look inside your brain and some insights into why you may feel and act as you do. The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain  is written in the entertaining, informative and easy-to-understand style that fans of Scientific American and Scientific American Mind magazine have come to expect.

Genres: Science, Neuroscience, Nonfiction, Brain, Health

264 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2009

About the author

Scientific American , as an institutional author, is a popular science magazine founded by Rufus M. Porter and controlled by Nature Publishing Group since autumn, 2008. Mariette DiChristina has been editor-in-chief since December, 2009.

Reviews

[Angela Fong · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great summary of how your brain works if you are looking for something less heavy-duty and yet informative. There may not be a lot of new information for you if you've done introductory readings in the area of cognitive psychology. The use of a 24-hour day to weave together the different brain functions is a clever thing that the author did, making the large amount of information it presents easier to comprehend and digest.

[S.L. Berry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain is a Scientific American Mind book and it reads that way for familiar with the magazine by the same name. It is a timeline sort of book of the brain’s activities. Examples include what part of the brain controls the appetite, what makes you want to sleep, why is the middle of the afternoon a sleeper, how aging, disease, and defects affect the brain, predispositions, and the like. Every hour of the day is discussed in detail. Some of activities are tied to bodily processes,the body clock, and genes. Others are tied to historical and evolutionary paths while still others are the result of scientific advancement and anecdotal evidence.

There is a fair amount of anatomical names and descriptions used. To help, in the center of the book are excellent diagrams and verbiage as well as a glossary of terms in the back for those who are not up on their biology.

As it was published in 2009,it is certainly dated to some degree. However, to this reader, who has a fascination with the workings of the brain, a lot of the information still appears to be relevant. In the back is a listing of related articles published in past issues of The Scientific American. There is no other reference list, odd given Scientific American's penchant for citing to other sources in their articles in the magazine.

A few of the findings and the basis for those findings are controversial, such as whether sexual orientation or the propensity to commit violent crimes is the result of nature versus nature. Evolution plays a role as well as does animal testing, specifically on laboratory rats.

It is not a long book. The chapters are not long or too detailed. It is not a medical treatise nor is intended to be. The writing is excellent, easy to understand for the most part, though at times I found myself re-reading certain passages, particularly if there was medical or anatomical terminology used.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly easy to read book on the brain - if you discount the technical brain terms. I will need to read it again to recall the various neurons and cells but the information was excellent. It dispelled old thinking about the brain, yet was clear that there is a lot that we still don't know. Some of the more interesting parts was how various processes and stress affect behaviour: "…the timing of mylenation and the degree of completion can affect self-control (and why teenagers lack it) and some mental illnesses." This has implications for the concept of "choice" in regard to student behaviour. "..stress can hurt your hippocampus (the place where memories are formed) and your prefrontal cortex (where executive decisions are made). That damage can make it difficult to learn new facts and skills, and it can even provoke an attack of pseudo attention deficit disorder (ADD), in which we have difficulties concentrating…" Again, what are the implications for teaching and learning? This is also compounded by the fact that "there is no generally accepted level at which stress is beneficial or becomes too much."

The information on sleep was also good - basically we don't do well with sleep deprivation. Shift work is terrible for the body as well. A couple of new facts for me - "doctors were 30 percent more likely to be unable to maintain a steady speed in the driving simulator compared to well-rested doctors who had been drinking" and " women are more likely to lose [their] "baby fat" in the first six months after giving birth if they get more than five hours of shut-eye a night."

The format - an hour by hour description of what the brain is doing with the related research - was effective in breaking down a difficult topic. Worth the read!

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of those wonderful books that bridges the gap between scientist and lay-person. Each chapter is based on an hour of the twenty-four-hour day (starting at 5 a.m.), and is loosely based around a theme connected to that hour. So, for example, the chapter set at 5 a.m. revolves around what happens in your brain when you wake up; noon is based around eating; 10 p.m. is based around sex, love, and lust. For every chapter, there's an explanation of what's happening in your brain and what effect it has on your body and your perceptions. Also, there are discussions of what can go wrong (like insomnia or sleepwalking in the sleep chapters) and occasionally digressions into why things might be the way they are, evolutionarily speaking.

The writing is clear and straightforward, which is a decided benefit in a book whose topic easily lends itself to complexity. It's not necessarily one of those reference books I'd return to again and again, but it fills its niche well, and I feel more knowledgeable for having read it.

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does this book give us enough? Is it an accurate picture? Can't answer either question but I enjoyed the read.
The book is divided into 24 hours and each section deals with a key event that illuminates one basic funtion of the brain. The author stitches together research by a variety of sources to fill out the basics and, in most cases, this makes for an easily assimilated bit of knowledge.

No final exam which made the experience a lot easier that if I had to regurgitate any of that information.

[Alcina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, my mom wrote it so I give it high marks cause I love her. But actually, it was really readable for a lay person like myself and I learned a lot in digestible snippets. Holding my breath for the next one.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Accessible content and fresh organization. More depth would have been nice (all the sources are from Scientific American), but I'm glad the book never lagged. It's an easy, practical introduction to the brain.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. Got lost in the technical terminology a bit, but overall a good in depth discussion of different aspects of how your brain is wired, and what that means to your thinking and behavior.

[Niraj Shah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read. Human brain is indeed the most complex and yet fascinating organ of human body and this book did a great job in explaining some of the intricacies of it in the simplest way possible. The read indeed was fulfilling and makes you feel more brainier.

[Kristin B.]

I spied this at the library and thought it looked really approachable for the lay person interested in learning how the brain impacts everything. Can't wait to wrap my mind around this :)

[Katrece · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing
This book was so helpful in explaining how the brain works; great brief info on seizures; good pictures

[Sassan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quite straightforward and interesting book that helps one understanding the inner workings of your brain throughout the 24 hour day. Very interesting and well written. Highly recommended.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

WHOA. Awesome read.

[Gianfranco Ruffini · Rating 5 out of 5]

A/ alla fine rivedere illustrazioni con spiegazioni. glossario