BRAIN SENSE:
THE SCIENCE OF THE SENSES
AND HOW WE PROCESS THE WORLD AROUND US

by Faith Hickman Brynie. AMACOM, 2009 (274 pages)


OUTLINE OF BOOK'S FACTS & IDEAS

PREFACE — Falling in love with science (ix-xii)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (xiii-xiv)

PART 1 — TOUCH (1-36)

1) Life without touch (3-8)

2) In from the cold (9-14)

3) On which side is your bread buttered? (15-20)

4) Pain and the placebo effect (21-28)

5) Nermatodes, Haptics, and brain-machine interfaces (29-36)

PART 2 — SMELL (37-71)

6) It's Valentine's Day ... sniff! (39-44)

7) Do odors dance in your nose? (45-52)

8) Life without scent (53-58)

9) The sweaty scent of sex (59-64)

10) Express train to happiness (65-71)

PART 3 — TASTE (73-106)

11) The bitter truth (75-82)

12) Coconut crazy (83-88)

13) Cooking up some brain chemistry (89-94)

14) How to knit a baby taste bud (95-100)

15) Expecting what you taste and tasting what you expect (101-106)

PART 4 — VISION (107-143)

16) The big picture (109-116)

17) Color and memory (117-122)

18) Sizing things up (123-129)

19) On the move (130-136)

20) Vision and the video game (137-143)

PART 5 — HEARING (145-179)

21) Hearing, left and right (147-153)

22) Listening and language (154-159)

23) My ears are ringing (160-165)

24) Music and the plastic brain (166-173)

25) Cochlear implant: one man's journey (174-179)

PART 6 — BEYOND THE BIG FIVE (181-218)

26) Synesthesia --- When senses overlap (183-189)

27) If this looks like Deja Vu, you ain't seen nuthin' yet (190-196)

28) Feeling a phantom (197-205)

29) Probabilities and the paranormal (206-211)

30) Time (212-218)

APPENDIXThe brain and nervous system: a primer (219-234)
    [1] Brain structure (221-222)

    [2] Brain regions (222-225)

    [3] Lobes of the cortex (225-229)

    [4] Names of brain structures (229-231)

    [5] The nervous system (231-233)

    [6] The neural impulse (233-234)
NOTES (235-261)

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES (263-265)
    (1) Books (263-264)

    (2) Web sites (264-265)
INDEX (267-274)

EPILOGUE (p297-300)

INDEX (p301-308)


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