The Human Brain: A Guided Tour (Science Masters) - Tapa blanda

Locked away in its casing of skull bone, the brain remains a tantalising mystery, despite astounding progress in brain research. This book begins by exploring the different regions of the brain and goes on to examine how certain functions are accommodated in the brain. It looks at how the basic building blocks of the brain, brain cells, communicate with each other and how such communication can be modified by drugs. It also describes how a brain is made from a single fertilzed egg and the fate of a brain is traced through life as readers see how it constantly changes as a result of experience to create the essence of a unique individual. Finally, the book explores what memory is, how it works and where it occurs in the brain.

Susan Greenfield has held fellowships in the Department of Physiology, Oxford; the College de France, Paris and NYU Medical Center, New York. The title of Professor of Pharmacology was conferred in 1996. She became Director of The Royal Institution of Great Britain in 1998. She heads a group of 18 scientists studying Parkinson's and Alzheimer's Disease, and developed an interest in the physical basis of the mind. She published her own theory of consciousness Journey to the Centres of the Mind and Ego: The Neuroscience of the Self. In 1994 she was the first woman to give the Royal Institution Christmas lectures. She recently authored The Human Brain: A Guided Tour which was published as paperback in 1998. She was included as one of the 50 most powerful women in Britain by the Guardian and ranked number 14 in the "50 Most Inspirational Women in the World" by Harpers and Queen. She has recently received the Michael Faraday medal from the Royal Society for making the most significant contribution in 1998 to the public understanding of science, as well as receiving the "Woman of Distinction" 1998 award from Jewish Care. In January 2000 she was awarded the CBE for her services to the public understanding of science.