Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasn’t Solved Brain Disorders―and How We Can Change That

Rust, Professor Nicole C.

ISBN 10: 0691243050 / ISBN 13: 9780691243054

Published by Princeton University Press, 2025

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9780691243054

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasn?t Solved Brain Disorders?and How We Can Change That
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691243050
• ISBN 13: 9780691243054
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

A neuroscientist’s bold proposal for tackling one of the greatest challenges of our time—brain and mental illnesses

Brain research has been accelerating rapidly in recent decades, but the translation of our many discoveries into treatments and cures for brain disorders has not happened as many expected. We do not have cures for the vast majority of brain illnesses, from Alzheimer’s to depression, and many medications we do have to treat the brain are derived from drugs produced in the 1950s—before we knew much about the brain at all. Tackling brain disorders is clearly one of the biggest challenges facing humanity today. What will it take to overcome it? Nicole Rust takes readers along on her personal journey to answer this question.

Drawing on her decades of experience on the front lines of neuroscience research, Rust reflects on how far we have come in our quest to unlock the secrets of the brain and what remains to be discovered. She shows us that treating a brain disorder is more like redirecting a hurricane than fixing a domino chain of cause and effect, arguing that only once we embrace the idea of the brain as a complex system do we have any hope of finding cures. Rust profiles the pioneering ideas about the brain that are driving research at the cutting edge to illuminate exactly how much we know about disorders such as Parkinson’s, epilepsy, addiction, schizophrenia, and anxiety—and what it will take to eradicate these scourges.

Elusive Cures sheds light on one of the most daunting challenges ever confronted by science while offering hope for revolutionary new treatments and cures for the brain.

About the Author

Nicole C. Rust is professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Recipient of the Troland Award from the National Academy of Sciences, she is a contributing editor at The Transmitter, a leading brain research news magazine.