脳はいったい何のためにあるのか。一見単純そうな疑問ながら、私たちは何千年もかかってその答えをようやく理解しはじめたところで、脳はいまだに謎につつまれています。
人類はいかにして脳を大きく進化させたのか。感情とは何で、私たちはなぜ感情を抱くのか。記憶とは何で、なぜ人は簡単に忘れてしまうのか。食生活は考え方や感じ方にどのような影響を与えるのか。脳が老いるとどうなるのか。本書は、この謎めいた器官についてわかっていることを紹介し、人間の脳の働きがどのように思考、感情、恐怖を生み出しているかを説明します。
私たち人類は、脳についてあまりに無知であるがゆえ、歴史の中で科学的事実を誤って解釈し、非科学的で、時に有害な過ちを数多く繰り返してきました。脳にまつわる嘘がなぜ人を惹きつけるのか、そしてそれらがなぜお金と時間の無駄なのか。示唆に富む洞察、穏やかなユーモア、そしてわかりやすさを備えた本書は、複雑な脳の科学を一般読者にわかりやすく解説しています。
    

• 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.