Brain

Every experience leaves a trace in the brain, and some traces seem to become permanently attached to its tissue. Yet your brain’s event library is highly selective, producing edited highlights rather than a complete recording of your life and experiences to date. More than half a century ago, the Canadian neuroscientist Wilder Penfield presented remarkable […]

The brain, like every other part of the body, is molded partly by sex hormones, which affect its functioning throughout life. These hormones are at least in part responsible for the differing ways in which I and women remember things. If a man describes the way to somewhere, the chances are that he provides a

Stroke is one of the commonest causes of brain damage. However, the effects of stroke are not, as was once assumed, necessarily irreversible. Brains – even older ones – are incredibly ‘plastic’ and, with the right encouragement, they can rewire themselves to compensate for the damaged part. Research has shown that the brain can generate

The human brain, like the rest of the body, can be damaged in a variety of ways – through physical injury, disease, or genetic inheritance. Yet the brain has remarkable powers of self-healing and adaptation and is often able to regain its function after damage. As we go through life, our brains can be physically

To cope with what life throws at us, we develop ‘psychological defences’ – patterns of behaviour that can lessen our anxieties in response to what is going on. These defences are often automatic and unconscious but are vital in allowing us to get on with our lives. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, described psychological

Stress is the body’s reaction to the challenges and threats of the world around us. Back in our evolutionary past, stress had real survival value, enabling humans to flee from or combat threats from wild animals and enemies. Stress can still be crucial in an emergency, but usually, our stress responses merely produce wear and

The body has remarkable powers of recovery, which the mind can trigger to produce a wide range of healing effects. One way of activating this healing potential is to give a patient a ‘dummy’ treatment that he or she expects to have a curative effect. Such treatment is known as a placebo. Fifty years ago,

Pavlov’s discovery of ‘conditioning’ – the process in which the brain forms associations between events that occur together – has given fascinating insights into our ability to learn new behavior patterns. The Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov never considered himself a psychologist. However, he had a huge influence on the science of psychology, which was still

Our bodies are subject to hourly, daily, and even longer natural rhythm cycles. These rhythms dictate when 11e are most vulnerable to illness when a baby is most likely to be conceived and born, and how we respond to drugs. Developments in our understanding of the body’s daily rhythm – the circadian cycle – have

The brain possesses a life-long capability to adapt to new challenges and circumstances. This chapter looks at ways of giving the brain its best chance to retain its powers. During adult life, the number of neurons in the brain slowly diminishes. However, the connections between brain cells – which provide the physical basis for everything