About the Book
16 revealing stories about the human brain Ever wondered how Scandinavians cope with 24-hour darkness, why we feel pain - or whether smartphones really make children stupid?
Have you heard about the US army's research into supercharging minds?
You need some Brainology. Written for Wellcome, the health charity, these stories follow doctors as they solve the puzzle of our emotions, nerves and behaviour.
Discover fascinating and intriguing stories from the world of science.
Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION. All of the stories in this book were first published by Mosaic (mosaicscience.com), created by Wellcome, a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving human health. They are republished here under a Creative Commons licence. Some edits have been made, including to the headlines
1. OOUCH! THE SCIENCE OF PAIN. There seemed to be a chasm of understanding in human discussions of pain. Let's find out how the medical profession apprehends pain – the language it uses for something that’s invisible, that can’t be measured save for asking for a sufferer’s subjective description
2. WHY DOCTORS ARE RECLAIMING LSD AND ECSTASY. The early LSD researchers had no way to look at what it was doing inside the brain. Now we have brain scans. Robin Carhart-Harris has carried out such studies with psilocybin, LSD and MDMA. He says there are two basic principles of how psychedelics work
3. INSIDE THE MIND OF AN INTERPRETER. So much goes on in an interpreter’s brain that it’s hard even to know where to start. Recently, however, a handful of enthusiasts have taken up the challenge, and one region of the brain – the caudate nucleus – has already caught their attention
4. HOW SHOULD WE DEAL WITH DARK WINTERS? For most, it's a mild malaise, winter blues. For a few seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a form of depression. Now the town of Rjukan in southern Norway has installed giant mirrors to make the most of the winter sun. Do they cheer up the inhabitants?
5. SMARTPHONES WON'T* MAKE YOUR KIDS DUMB (*PROBABLY). The concern among some experts is that these devices, if used in particular ways, could be changing children’s brains for the worse – potentially affecting their attention, motor control, language skills and eyesight, especially in under-fives
6. YOU CAN TRAIN YOUR BODY INTO 'RECEIVING' MEDICINE. A quiet revolution is taking place in immunology. Lowering drug doses could minimise harmful side effects and save billions in health costs. How? By teaching the body how to respond to a medicine, so it can trigger the same change on its own
7. CHARTING THE PHENOMENON OF DEEP GRIEF. 'Complicated grief' affects 10-20% of people after a spouse or romantic partner dies, or when the death of a loved one is sudden or violent. It is even more common among parents who have lost a child. It is very debilitating and treatable
8. THE MIRROR CURE FOR PHANTOM LIMB PAIN. An American, Stephen Sumner, is helping Cambodian amputees, who have lost a limb due to landmines, to stop suffering debilitating pain and anxiety – with a usual and highly successful technique. He cycles around villages and hospitals looking for amputees
9. CAN YOU THINK YOURSELF INTO A DIFFERENT PERSON? Divorced and with another break-up, Debbie Hampton took an overdose and damaged her brain: encephalopathy. Then she tried a new treatment called neurofeedback. Then she read The Brain That Changes Itself. Now she runs thebestbrainpossible.com
10. HOW TO SURVIVE A TROUBLED CHILDHOOD. In Hawaii, researchers into trauma found two-thirds of 'high-risk' children developed significant problems. But totally unexpectedly, one-third didn’t. They became competent, confident and caring adults. Why?
11. WHAT TAIL-CHASING DOGS REVEAL ABOUT HUMANS. Sputnik has canine compulsive disorder (CCD) and is at Tufts for a checkup with Nicholas Dodman, a veterinarian who has been studying CCD for over two decades. When he started, he realised he had a potentially ideal animal study model for human OCD
12. A CENTRAL NERVOUS SOLUTION TO ARTHRITIS. Operating far below the level of our conscious minds, the vagus nerve is vital for keeping our bodies healthy. It is an essential part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for calming organs after the adrenaline response to danger
13. COULD VIRTUAL REALITY HEADSETS RELIEVE PAIN? Playing SnowWorld during wound-care sessions eases patients’ reported pain up to 50 per cent in addition to the pain relief they get from drugs – significantly better than other forms of distraction, such as music or video games. VR's immersion is crucial
14. WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HOMESICK IN THE 21ST CENTURY. Dr Miranda van Tilburg has written extensively about homesickness and is the editor of a collection of articles called Psychological Aspects of Geographical Moves, all of which focus on homesickness and acculturation stress (the psychological impact)
15. LIGHTING UP BRAIN TUMOURS WITH PROJECT VIOLET. Fluorescence imaging literally lights up tumours so surgeons can see them, providing real-time image guidance. 5-ALA, also called Gliolan, makes brain tumour cells glow red under UV light. The dye is swallowed by patients 3–4 hours before surgery
16. THE US MILITARY PLAN TO SUPERCHARGE BRAINS. DARPA-funded researchers imaged volunteers’ brains to see which regions were active as they learned to spot threats. Then they applied 2 milliamps of direct current for 30 minutes to that crucial region: the inferior frontal cortex. It halved learning time
17. MICROCHIPPING THE YOUNG AT THE CYBORG FAIR. Michael Bareev-Rudy never expected to have his finger implanted with a magnet. But in November 2015, the 18-year-old decided to embed a 3 mm x 1 mm magnet in his index finger at an event held in Dusseldorf, Germany. A crowd watched the €100 operation
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Canbury Press wishes to thank Mosaic and the Wellcome Foundation for its assistance with Brainology. And the following for writing, editing, fact-checking, or art directing the articles in this book: John Walsh, Louisa Saunders, Liana Aghajanian, Rob Reddick, Charlie Hall, Sam Wong
About the Author :
Top science writers report for Mosaic Science, a project founded by the health charity Wellcome to promote high-quality science writing.
Mosaic has published dozens of stories exploring the science people care about. Canbury Press has curated these long-form stories into two books, Bodyology: The Curious Science of Our Bodies (ISBN 9780995497863) and Brainology: The Curious Science of Our Minds (ISBN 9781912454006).
The leading authors who contributed to Brainology are: John Walsh, Sam Wong, Geoff Watts, Linda Geddes, Olivia Solon, Jo Marchant, Andrea Volpe, Srinath Perur, Will Storr, Lucy Maddox, Shayla Love, Gaia Vince, Jo Marchant, John Osborne, Alex O'Brien, Emma Young
Review :
'A companion to Bodyology, Brainology consists of articles originally published on the Mosaic Science website and funded by medical charity Wellcome. These are well-written, professional articles: if you hit on a topic that interest you, it's very easy to be sucked in.
Because I'm not a great fan of medical journalism, I was less interested by topics such as 'the nerve cure for arthritis' and 'you can train your body to receive medicine.' However, some of the other articles really rewarded my read: for example, 'How should we deal with dark winters' and (despite the 'doctor' word) 'How doctors are reclaiming LSD', which was genuinely interesting on the history of attempts to use LSD and MDMA for medical purposes (though perhaps a little light on the deaths allegedly caused by the latter).
For me, though, the standout article was 'What tail-chasing dogs reveal about humans', which uses studies of the compulsive behaviour of dogs to try to get insights into OCD. If I'm honest, I wasn't very interested in the human side, but the idea that dogs could have such behaviour - one dog, for example, apparently had to put seven pieces of food into recesses in a couch before eating - was fascinating.
In reviewing Bodyology, I complained about the over-heavy use of 'true life stories'. This is also the case with Brainology, though more of them here are first person, which tend to have less of the over-dramatised wording. Perhaps because of limiting the book to a single organ - even one as interesting as the brain - though, I found there were fewer stories that really grabbed me. However, the ones that did were superb.
As with Bodyology, it's a great collection to dip into for a single item as a quick read - though it's very tempting then to read just one more. And another. Makes a potentially heavy topic approachable and fascinating.'
