How the Brain Works
The human brain is among the most complex objects in the known universe. In this collection, neuroscientists discuss our advancing understanding of the mind and how it helps to explain human behavior.
Oliver Sacks, Exploring How Hallucinations Happen.
The famed neurologist talks to Fresh Air about how grief, trauma, brain injury, medications and neurological disorders can trigger hallucinations — and about his personal experimentation with hallucinogenic drugs in the 1960s.
Oliver Sacks: A Neurologist Examines 'The Mind's Eye.'
Neurologist Oliver Sacks is famous for his case studies of people with neurological disorders that cause unusual problems with perception. In The Mind's Eye, Sacks turns to himself, explaining how an eye tumor affected his vision and perception of the world.
'Musicophilia' Examines Music in the Mind
In the book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, neurologist Oliver Sacks explores the relationship between music and the mind.
Through a series of case studies ranging from songs stuck in one's mind to a newfound passion for concert piano after being struck by lightning, the professor of Neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the NYU School of Medicine examines the complexity of human beings and the role music plays in our lives.
Oliver Sacks Discusses "The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat."
Neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks, whose book of case studies, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, has been made into a music theater production. Sacks is also the author of Awakenings, a work about victims of sleeping sickness, to whom he administered the experimental drug L-dopa.
Why Teens Are Impulsive, Addiction-Prone And Should Protect Their Brains
New research shows that teenagers' brains aren't fully insulated, so the signals travel slowly when they need to make decisions. Neuroscientists Frances Jensen, who wrote The Teenage Brain, explains.
A Neurosurgeon Reflects On The 'Awe And Mystery' Of The Brain
In his memoir Do No Harm, Henry Marsh confesses to the uncertainties he's dealt with as a surgeon, revisits his triumphs and failures and reflects on the enigmas of the brain and consciousness.
After a Stroke, a Scientist Studies Herself
Neurological researcher Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke 12 years ago. While the damage caused by a stroke is often devastating, Taylor was able to make a complete recovery after becoming her own experimental subject.
V.S. Ramachandran's Tales Of The 'Tell-Tale Brain'
Neurologist V.S. Ramachandran, a pioneer in the field of visual perception, explains how his simple experiments in behavioral neurology have changed the lives of patients suffering from a variety of neurological symptoms in The Tell-Tale Brain.
'Brain Bugs': Cognitive Flaws That 'Shape Our Lives.'
Neuroscientist Dean Buonomano explains why our brains make mistakes when we try to remember long lists of information or add large numbers in our heads. Humans live "in a time and place we didn't evolve to live in," he says.