Brain and Behavior

Brain and Behavior seeks to tell the story of the brain in a logical, engaging, and meaningful way. By exposing overarching principles rather than simply listing facts, Brain and Behavior highlights what we understand about the function of the brain and what we have left to learn. This text makes clear the current thinking in the field and builds the scaffolding for the student to learn new concepts. Without compromising important ideas, this book covers a wide swath of territory critical for understanding the brain, from the basics of the nervous system to sensory and motor systems, the frontal lobes, sleep, language, memory, drug addiction, and brain disorders. Throughout the book, the narrative emphasizes the dynamically changing nature of the brain (neuroplasticity) using clear writing and real-life examples.

David Eagleman is a neuroscientist, New York Times best-selling author, and Guggenheim Fellow. He teaches neuroscience at Stanford University and serves as director of the Center for Science and Law. Dr. Eagleman's areas of research include vision, time perception, synesthesia, sensory substitution, and the intersection of neuroscience with the legal system. Dr. Eagleman has written several popular neuroscience books, including Incognito, Livewired, The Brain, and Wednesday Is Indigo Blue. He has also written an internationally best-selling book of literary fiction, Sum, which has been translated into thirty-three languages and turned into two operas in Sydney and London. Dr. Eagleman is the writer and host of the Emmy-nominated PBS/BBC television series, The Brain with David Eagleman, which poses the question of what it means to be human from the point of view of neuroscience. He is also the host of the popular podcast, Inner Cosmos.

Jonathan Downar is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. As a physician-scientist, his clinical work focuses on using non-invasive brain stimulation to treat patients with severe and medication-resistant forms of psychiatric illness, including depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and eating disorders. His research work focuses on developing a new generation of more effective, more accessible, and less costly techniques for brain stimulation in these disorders. In addition to his research and clinical work, he has taught undergraduate courses in the neuroscience of social cognition, emotion regulation, decision-making, and other forms of complex human behavior, and medical students and psychiatry resident physicians on the subjects of neuroanatomy, neuroimaging, and therapeutic brain stimulation.