How the World Works: Neuroscience

by Anne Rooney

How we think, feel, move, remember, imagine and experience the outside world and our own bodies is the domain of neuroscience. It is as old as humanity itself, yet has only been recognized as a discrete science in the past hundred years or so. This book traces its history, from Ancient Egyptian and Greek beliefs about the mind, body and soul, through the findings of Leonardo, Vesalius, Descartes and others, to the brain-imaging technologies of the present day. The story of neuroscience weaves together narratives from philosophy, religion, psychology, physics, anatomy, chemistry, pharmacology and a host of other sciences. It is a story that is still unfolding today.

Genres: Nonfiction, Neuroscience, Psychology

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Anne Rooney gained a degree and then a PhD in medieval literature from Trinity College, Cambridge. After a period of teaching medieval English and French literature at the universities of Cambridge and York, she left to pursue a career as a freelance writer. She has written many books for adults and children on a variety of subjects, including literature and history. She lives in Cambridge and is Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Essex.

Reviews

[Randall Connally · Rating 5 out of 5]

In recent years I have taken an interest in philosophy and Artificial Intelligence (each independently) and both areas of interest have a lot of overlap with Neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry etc. Thus seeing this book on sale at Barnes & Noble I picked it up and it was a great buy.

The author deftly combines a topical - historical approach which for non-scientific oriented readers, like myself, helps in developing an understanding of the subject matter. Building up the development of neuroscience from the early thought of ancient philosophers to modern brain imaging equipment this book was an easy read with many informative and interesting pictures and side-bars.

Highly recommended for anyone wanting to get familiar with neuroscience and the fascinating organ that is our brain. The ultimate test of the quality of a book for me is whether it leaves the reader wanting to know more about the subject matter and this book definitely had that impact on me, I will be reading more in the area of neuroscience.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of how neuroscience came to be. Starting with the ancient philosophers, religious figures, and early anatomists. The 19th and 20th centuries saw all kinds of experimentation into phrenology, surgical experimentation, lobotomies, and all sorts of good and bad science. And today, we have more advanced machinery and humane research methods to make psychiatric, medicinal, and behavioral health better available.

[Olivia Brisebois · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neuroscience is a very interesting field to read about, while the book did contain lots of information regarding the actual brain I liked the parts that included testimonies from doctors and the historical skills, despite how horrible some of them were. A great read nonetheless

[Lina~Blackbird Queen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very informative primer on why and how the brain does what it does. A must-read for those interested in neuroscience.

More in-depth review to come!

[Uma Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars. There is a typo on page 174 which misspells “and” as “amd”. Another typo on page 188 where “was” is misspelled as “has”. Also calls Oliver Sacks a psychologist. He was a neurologist. I enjoyed this book, although I went into it with mismanaged expectations as I expected a scientific book. This was more science history. Exciting and interesting to know how concepts of cognition have progressed over the years. Helpful illustrations and images. A lack of neuroanatomy would confuse anyone with little knowledge (me!). If you’re thinking of reading this: it’s more about the history of neuroscience than anything else. Anne Rooney is undoubtedly a talented science communicator, though.

[رؤى · Rating 5 out of 5]

I luv this book a lot cuz there are so many pictures