Inside the Brain: Revolutionary Discoveries of How the Mind Works

Kotulak, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer, interviewed approximately 300 researchers around the world to write this nontechnical report on the latest findings about the brain. The text is divided into three parts: how the brain gets built; how the brain gets damaged; how the brain fixes itself. Kotulak presents many startling findings, the most important of which, for him, is that ""the brain gets better and better through exercise but `rusts' with disuse. It is the ultimate use-it-or-lose-it machine."" One implication of this finding is that people who actively use their brains throughout life have greatly reduced chances of getting Alzheimer's disease. The author devotes considerable attention to the effects of alcohol--positive and negative--on the brain and elucidates why alcohol and other recreational drugs ingested by the mother are horrendous for the developing fetus. The book is laced with prescriptions for social policy based on the latest scientific findings of brain research--for example, that society would do better to treat the violent as diseased rather than imprison them. This book will be of most interest to inquiring lay readers. Illustrations. (July)