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How Your Brain Works: Neuroscience Experiments for Everyone
Discover the hidden electrical world inside your nervous system using DIY, hands-on experiments, for all ages. No MD or PhD required!
The workings of the brain are What are neural signals? What do they mean? How do our senses really sense? How does our brain control our movements? What happens when we meditate?
Techniques to record signals from living brains were once thought to be the realm of advanced university labs . . . but not anymore! This book allows anyone to participate in the discovery of neuroscience through hands-on experiments that record the hidden electrical world beneath our skin and skulls. In How Your Brain Works , neuroscientists Greg Gage and Tim Marzullo offer a practical guide—accessible and useful to readers from middle schoolers to college undergraduates to curious adults—for learning about the brain through hands-on experiments.
Armed with some DIY electrodes, readers will get to see what brain activity really looks like through simple neuroscience experiments. Written by two neuroscience researchers who invented open-source techniques to record signals from neurons, muscles, hearts, eyes, and brains, How Your Brain Works includes more than forty-five experiments to gain a deeper understanding of your brain.
Using a homemade scientific instrument called a SpikerBox, readers can see how fast neural signals travel by recording electrical signals from an earthworm. Or, turning themselves into subjects, readers can strap on some electrode stickers to detect the nervous system in their own bodies. Each chapter begins by describing some phenomenology of a particular area of neuroscience, then guides readers step-by-step through an experiment, and concludes with a series of open-ended questions to inspire further investigation. Some experiments use invertebrates (such as insects), and the book provides a thoughtful framework for the ethical use of these animals in education. How Your Brain Works offers fascinating reading for students at any level, curious readers, and scientists interested in using electrophysiology in their research or teaching.
Example Experiments
• How fast do signals travel down a neuron? The brain uses electricity . . . but do neurons communicate as fast as lightning inside our bodies? In this experiment you will make a speed trap for spikes!
• Can we really enhance our memories during sleep? Strap on a brainwave-reading sweatband and test the power of cueing up and strengthening memories while you dream away!
• Wait, that’s my number! Ever feel that moment of excitement when you see your number displayed while waiting for an opening at the counter? In this experiment, you will peer into your brainwaves to see what happens when the unexpected occurs and how the brain gets your attention.
• Using hip hop to talk to the brain. Tired of simply “reading” the electricity from the brain? Would you like to “write” to the nervous system as well? In this experiment you will use a smartphone and hack a headphone cable to see how brain stimulators (used in treating Parkinson’s disease) really work.
• How long does it take the brain to decide? Using simple classroom rulers and a clever technique, readers can determine how long it takes the brain to make decisions.
The workings of the brain are What are neural signals? What do they mean? How do our senses really sense? How does our brain control our movements? What happens when we meditate?
Techniques to record signals from living brains were once thought to be the realm of advanced university labs . . . but not anymore! This book allows anyone to participate in the discovery of neuroscience through hands-on experiments that record the hidden electrical world beneath our skin and skulls. In How Your Brain Works , neuroscientists Greg Gage and Tim Marzullo offer a practical guide—accessible and useful to readers from middle schoolers to college undergraduates to curious adults—for learning about the brain through hands-on experiments.
Armed with some DIY electrodes, readers will get to see what brain activity really looks like through simple neuroscience experiments. Written by two neuroscience researchers who invented open-source techniques to record signals from neurons, muscles, hearts, eyes, and brains, How Your Brain Works includes more than forty-five experiments to gain a deeper understanding of your brain.
Using a homemade scientific instrument called a SpikerBox, readers can see how fast neural signals travel by recording electrical signals from an earthworm. Or, turning themselves into subjects, readers can strap on some electrode stickers to detect the nervous system in their own bodies. Each chapter begins by describing some phenomenology of a particular area of neuroscience, then guides readers step-by-step through an experiment, and concludes with a series of open-ended questions to inspire further investigation. Some experiments use invertebrates (such as insects), and the book provides a thoughtful framework for the ethical use of these animals in education. How Your Brain Works offers fascinating reading for students at any level, curious readers, and scientists interested in using electrophysiology in their research or teaching.
Example Experiments
• How fast do signals travel down a neuron? The brain uses electricity . . . but do neurons communicate as fast as lightning inside our bodies? In this experiment you will make a speed trap for spikes!
• Can we really enhance our memories during sleep? Strap on a brainwave-reading sweatband and test the power of cueing up and strengthening memories while you dream away!
• Wait, that’s my number! Ever feel that moment of excitement when you see your number displayed while waiting for an opening at the counter? In this experiment, you will peer into your brainwaves to see what happens when the unexpected occurs and how the brain gets your attention.
• Using hip hop to talk to the brain. Tired of simply “reading” the electricity from the brain? Would you like to “write” to the nervous system as well? In this experiment you will use a smartphone and hack a headphone cable to see how brain stimulators (used in treating Parkinson’s disease) really work.
• How long does it take the brain to decide? Using simple classroom rulers and a clever technique, readers can determine how long it takes the brain to make decisions.
- GenresScience
324 pages, Paperback
Published October 25, 2022
9 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 1, 2022
As soon as you see the cover of this book, it feels like it's going to be light hearted and super fun (or at least it seems the authors want it to be this). In practice, it's not. It might have big, Joy of Sex style line drawings and an odd shape with cheap feeling paper, but the content is fairly straightforwardly serious.
In the introduction Greg Gage and Tim Marzullo tells us that 'There are many examples of how amateur scientists add to our collective understanding of nature.' This feels a dubious statement at best - it's obviously true historically when professional scientists didn't exist, but these days amateur contributions are distinctly niche. If you think of any of the really big scientific breakthroughs of the last 100 years, there isn't a lot of amateur input. And using this book certainly won't add anything.
Once we get into the book proper, it delivers on at least part of the subtitle 'neuroscience experiments for everyone' - the whole book is driven by home neuroscience. The very first item is an introduction to neurons. After a little text we are told to immerse a (live) cockroach from 'your container' in ice water to anaesthetise it before pulling off one of its legs. (I'm already feeling a touch queasy.) We then put pins through the leg with wires attached, then 'connect the wires to the SpikerBox.' Hang on, the what? It turns out we need a complex bit of electronic gubbins to do these experiments. To be fair to the authors, they provide circuit diagrams to build your own, which could be used by anyone who could build a basic computer from components - i.e. hardly anybody. Or you can buy one from their online store - as indeed you can a box of cockroaches.
We go on to be taken through a range of cockroach-based neuronal experiments, from exploring different senses to the speed of neurons and the impact on them of drugs. We then move on to the human brain with another set of equipment used as a basic EEG. Finally we take on the human nervous system, employing more tech: both EEG and EMG equipment. There's no doubt that there's a lot to explore here, and the reader will find out a lot about the basics of neurons, human brains and the human nervous system - though it is arguable how much benefit is gained from doing the experiments.
We do have a bit of a problem with that claim of neuroscience experiments 'for everyone'. If you don't live in the US you probably won't be able to obtain live cockroaches from Gage and Marzullo's store (though a quick internet search will probably bring up a local supplier). But their SpikerBoxes are not cheap - we're talking a minimum of around $200 to get a mid-range bundled neutron kit sent to the UK, while the human SpikerBox will set you back $350. This isn't DIY experiments with stuff you find in the kitchen drawer.
There's also a slight concern that doing these experiments truly benefits anyone. Of course it's useful for would-be scientists to learn how to do experiments - that's one of the reasons they go to university. But pulling legs of cockroaches at home, for example, to perform an experiment that could easily be described and that adds nothing to scientific knowledge seems an unnecessary step. The human parts are less of an issue - you don't have to pull off any human limbs, for example.
This is an interesting idea, and I'm sure it will appeal to some, just as doing chemistry experiments at home appealed to me in my teens. But as a book, this isn't one I enjoyed reading or would give to an enthusiastic teen.
In the introduction Greg Gage and Tim Marzullo tells us that 'There are many examples of how amateur scientists add to our collective understanding of nature.' This feels a dubious statement at best - it's obviously true historically when professional scientists didn't exist, but these days amateur contributions are distinctly niche. If you think of any of the really big scientific breakthroughs of the last 100 years, there isn't a lot of amateur input. And using this book certainly won't add anything.
Once we get into the book proper, it delivers on at least part of the subtitle 'neuroscience experiments for everyone' - the whole book is driven by home neuroscience. The very first item is an introduction to neurons. After a little text we are told to immerse a (live) cockroach from 'your container' in ice water to anaesthetise it before pulling off one of its legs. (I'm already feeling a touch queasy.) We then put pins through the leg with wires attached, then 'connect the wires to the SpikerBox.' Hang on, the what? It turns out we need a complex bit of electronic gubbins to do these experiments. To be fair to the authors, they provide circuit diagrams to build your own, which could be used by anyone who could build a basic computer from components - i.e. hardly anybody. Or you can buy one from their online store - as indeed you can a box of cockroaches.
We go on to be taken through a range of cockroach-based neuronal experiments, from exploring different senses to the speed of neurons and the impact on them of drugs. We then move on to the human brain with another set of equipment used as a basic EEG. Finally we take on the human nervous system, employing more tech: both EEG and EMG equipment. There's no doubt that there's a lot to explore here, and the reader will find out a lot about the basics of neurons, human brains and the human nervous system - though it is arguable how much benefit is gained from doing the experiments.
We do have a bit of a problem with that claim of neuroscience experiments 'for everyone'. If you don't live in the US you probably won't be able to obtain live cockroaches from Gage and Marzullo's store (though a quick internet search will probably bring up a local supplier). But their SpikerBoxes are not cheap - we're talking a minimum of around $200 to get a mid-range bundled neutron kit sent to the UK, while the human SpikerBox will set you back $350. This isn't DIY experiments with stuff you find in the kitchen drawer.
There's also a slight concern that doing these experiments truly benefits anyone. Of course it's useful for would-be scientists to learn how to do experiments - that's one of the reasons they go to university. But pulling legs of cockroaches at home, for example, to perform an experiment that could easily be described and that adds nothing to scientific knowledge seems an unnecessary step. The human parts are less of an issue - you don't have to pull off any human limbs, for example.
This is an interesting idea, and I'm sure it will appeal to some, just as doing chemistry experiments at home appealed to me in my teens. But as a book, this isn't one I enjoyed reading or would give to an enthusiastic teen.
December 26, 2022
My high school kid is interested in neuroscience. These days if you stand a chance at a "elite" institution of higher education, you need to do research. Well, we homeschool due to the wonders of the pandemic, so I figured why not, these sounds promising. We have been playing with electricity forever, and by playing we have learned a decent amount about it, why not!
Well, this books describes a few experiments that can be done to get some exposure to neuroscience. Except: 1) it comes with a fairly expensive equipment. True you can build it yourself, if you know how. My hs freshman does not. 2) it raises lots of questions - how do I know I am dealing with individual neurons and not a collection of them. the book makes tons of claims that are not intuitive. 3) the worst diagrams on the face of the earth. I can read diagrams. And I really enjoy reading diagrams. But these ones are both poorly annotated and placed in the wrong parts in the text.
On the plus side: 1) there are some pieces of information one can take and run away with, meaning can learn more about. 2) there are things one can do that are less quantitative and more qualitative which do not require the tech side and also do not require the book, as these are freely available pieces of information in the public domain.
I was hopeful and disappointed. But as with everything else, it comes down to how to use what you have access to. This is just another stop on the roader to learning about neuroscience, and getting hold of something disappointing is also a teaching moment.
Do not purchase.
Well, this books describes a few experiments that can be done to get some exposure to neuroscience. Except: 1) it comes with a fairly expensive equipment. True you can build it yourself, if you know how. My hs freshman does not. 2) it raises lots of questions - how do I know I am dealing with individual neurons and not a collection of them. the book makes tons of claims that are not intuitive. 3) the worst diagrams on the face of the earth. I can read diagrams. And I really enjoy reading diagrams. But these ones are both poorly annotated and placed in the wrong parts in the text.
On the plus side: 1) there are some pieces of information one can take and run away with, meaning can learn more about. 2) there are things one can do that are less quantitative and more qualitative which do not require the tech side and also do not require the book, as these are freely available pieces of information in the public domain.
I was hopeful and disappointed. But as with everything else, it comes down to how to use what you have access to. This is just another stop on the roader to learning about neuroscience, and getting hold of something disappointing is also a teaching moment.
Do not purchase.
February 8, 2023
Compared to more serious books on neuroscience, this one approaches the subject from the perspective of using various experiments to show neuron signal pathways the brain deals with our body's functions. I appreciate the use of waves (electrical signals) output from the SpikeBox to a visualizer on computer or phone, which were used by the authors to demonstrate and elaborate different neuron activities. As I already know the basics of neuroscience and never intend to actually perform these experiments, my take away from reading the book is more like knowing how home experiments can reveal the basics of how the brain works.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews