Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys But Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life

Does drinking really kill brain cells? Does listening to Mozart make your baby smarter? For all the mileage we've gotten from our own brains, most of us have essentially no idea how they work. We're easily susceptible to myths (like the "fact" that we use only 10% of our brains) and misconceptions (like the ones perpetrated by most Hollywood movies), probably because we've never known where to turn for the truth.

But neurologists Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang are glad to help. In this funny, accessible book, we get a guided tour of our own minds, what they're made of, how they work, and how they can go wrong. Along the way, we get a host of diagrams, quizzes, and "cocktail party tips" that shed light on the questions we nag each other about. (Can a head injury make you forget your own name? Are dolphins smarter than chimpanzees?)

Fun and surprisingly engrossing, Welcome to Your Brain shows you how your brain works, and how you can make it work better.

Sandra Aamodt is the editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience, the leading scientific journal in the field of brain research. She lives in California with her husband. Sam Wang is an associate professor of neuroscience and molecular biology at Princeton University. He has published over forty articles on the brain in leading scientific journals, including Nature, Nature Neuroscience, and others. He lives in Prineton, NJ with his wife and daughter.