• A readable and highly entertaining resource on how the brain works.
• The author's extensive experience as a teacher and scientist brings perspective and insight that go beyond simply reading a list of facts about brain function.
• Interprets the current state of knowledge and distills the essence of what is important to everyday lives.
• Does not require any prior knowledge about the brain.
• Offers a balanced, concise, and authoritative primer, in question-and-answer format

 
What is the principle purpose of a brain? A simple question, but the answer has taken millennia for us to begin to understand. So critical for our everyday existence, the brain still remains somewhat a mystery. Gary L. Wenk takes us on a tour of what we do know about this enigmatic organ, showing us how the workings of the human brain produce our thoughts, feelings, and fears, and answering questions such as: How did humans evolve such a big brain? What is an emotion and why do we have them? What is a memory and why do we forget so easily? How does your diet affect how you think and feel? What happens when your brain gets old? 

Throughout human history, ignorance about the brain has caused numerous non-scientific, sometimes harmful, interventions to be devised based on interpretations of scientific facts that were misguided. Wenk discusses why these neuroscientific myths are so popular, and why some of the interventions based on them are a waste of time and money. With illuminating insights, gentle humor, and welcome simplicity, The Brain: What Everyone Needs to Know makes the complex biology of our brains accessible to the general reader.