The Brain: A Beginner's Guide

A ground-breaking and lively exploration of the latest research on the brain.

It has been remarked that if the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn’t. Commencing with a brief history of neuroscience, from the ancient practice of drilling holes in the head to relieve headaches to the latest results from MRI and CT scans, this accessible guide sets out to explore exactly what we do know about the brain. Including the most up-to-date research on the cerebral processes behind a wide array of human activity – from our capacity for language to how we remember – this lively and entertaining introduction assumes no previous scientific knowledge and offers a tantalizing glimpse into man’s most complex organ.

Ammar Al-Chalabi is Honorary Honorary Consultant Neurologist at King's College Hospital and Senior Lecturer in Neurology and Complex Disease Genetics at King's College London

Martin R. Turner is a Specialist Registrar in Neurology at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, and a Clinical Tutorial Fellow at Green College, Oxford University.

R. Shane Delamont is a Consultant Neurologist at King’s College Hospital.

All three have extensive experience of teaching the key principles of neuroscience, and between them their specialist fields of expertise cover all of the main areas of contemporary brain research.