How the Brain Works: Understanding Brain Function, Thought and Personality

Where in the brain would you find the hippocampus and what is its function? What happens in the brain when we laugh? What’s the checklist for assessing the severity of a brain injury? And how is Alzheimer’s different from other dementias? In this accessible and fascinating book, readers will learn the answers to these questions and many more. How The Brain Works takes the reader from the physiology of the brain through to its processes – such as what happens in the brain while we sleep – and on to traumas, diseases and psychological conditions. From learning about the blood vessels in the head to what goes wrong when someone has a stroke, from how alcohol affects the brain to diagnosing meningitis, from anorexia nervosa to post natal depression, How The Brain Works expertly explains the processes of the brain in a way that we can all understand. With more than 600 colour photographs, medical imaging and anatomically accurate artworks, How The Brain Works is a highly detailed but simply written, wide-ranging guide that will appeal to both general readers and students.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 6 Physiology 8 The brain 8 Meninges 10 Blood vessels of the brain 12 Ventricles of the brain 14 PET brain imaging 16 Looking at the brain 18 CT inside the head 20 Cerebral hemispheres 22 Structure of the cerebral hemispheres 24 Thalamus 26 Limbic System 28 Basal Ganglia 30 Cerebellum 32 Brainstem 34 Brain development 36 How the brain controls blood pressure 38 How the body feels pain 40 How memory works 42 How we feel emotion 44 How laughter occurs 46 How we sleep 48 How we dream 50 How we smell 52 How the brain processes sound 54 How ageing affects the brain 56 How caffeine affects the body 58 How the body responds to stress 60 How alcohol affects the body 62 Disorders of the Brain 64 Giant cell arteritis 64 Headaches 66 Migraine 68 Managing Migraines 70 Epilepsy 72 ADHD 74 Autism 76 Down’s Syndrome 78 Viral encephalitis 80 Hydrocephalus 82 Meningitis 84 Causes of Meningitis 86 Reye’s syndrome 88 Head injuries 90 Head injuries in children 92 Emergency craniotomy 94 Alzheimer’s disease 96 Diagnosing Alzheimer’s 98 Non-Alzheimer’s dementias 100 Diagnosing vascular dementia 102 Parkinson’s disease 104 Stroke 106 Treatment after a stroke 108 Cerebral Palsy 110 Difficulties associated with cerebral palsy 112 Multiple sclerosis 114 Motor neurone disease 116 Brain tumours 118 Cerebral and cerebellar tumours 120 Diagnosing and treating brain tumours 122 Malignant brain tumour removal 124 Drainage of a brain abscess 126 Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease 128 Ataxia 130 Rabies 132 Psychological Conditions 134 Depression 134 Managing depression 136 Post-natal depression 138 Medication in psychiatric illness 140 Treating mental illness 142 Anorexia nervosa 144 Identifying and treating anorexia nervosa 146 Body dysmorphic disorder 148 Bulimia nervosa 150 Munchausen’s syndrome 152 Obsessive-compulsive disorder 154 Somatization 156 Bipolar affective disorder 158 Personality disorder 160 Phobias 162 Post-traumatic stress disorder 164 Psychotherapies 166 Treatment of psychological disorders 168 Seasonal affective disorder 170 Index 172

About the Author :
Professor Peter Abrahams has practised medicine for more than 30 years. He has written and edited many books, including Clinical Anatomy of Practical Procedures, An Atlas of Normal Radiological Anatomy, Essentials of Clinical Anatomy, and An Imaging Atlas of Human Anatomy.