Neurologic ― The Brain's Hidden Rationale Behind Our Irrational Behavior

A young neuroscientist investigates the brain’s hidden logic behind our strangest behaviors, explaining how conscious and unconscious systems interact in order to create our experience and preserve our sense of self.

From bizarre dreams and hallucinations to schizophrenia and multiple personalities, the human brain is responsible for a diverse spectrum of strange thoughts and behaviors. From the outside, these phenomena are written off as being just “crazy,” but what if they were actually planned and logical? NeuroLogic explores the brain’s internal system of reasoning, from its unconscious depths to conscious decision-making, and how it explains our most outlandish as well as our most stereotyped behaviors. Drawing on current research in neuroscience and fascinating neurological cases, Eliezer J. Sternberg explores questions such as:

· What do the blind see when they dream?
· Why do people believe in alien abductions?
· Why do schizophrenics hear voices?

From sleepwalking murderers, contagious yawning, and the brains of sports fans to false memories, subliminal messages, and the secret of ticklishness, you’ll find that there’s a pattern to the way the brain interprets the world—a pattern that fits the brain’s unique logic. Unraveling this pattern and the various ways it can be disturbed will alter not only our view of mental illness and supernatural experience but also shed light on the hidden parts of ourselves.

(With black-and-white illustrations throughout.)

ELIEZER J. STERNBERG, M.D. is a resident neurologist at Yale-New Haven Hospital. With a background in neuroscience and philosophy, he studies how brain research can shed light on the mysteries of consciousness and decision-making. He is the author of Are You a Machine? and My Brain Made Me Do It.