Neuroscientists once believed your brain was essentially "locked down" by adulthood. No new cells. No major changes. If you grew up depressed, angry, sad, aggressive, or nasty, you'd be that way for life. And, as you grew older, there'd be nowhere to go but down, as disease, age, or injury wiped out precious, irreplaceable brain cells. But over the past five, ten, twenty years, all that's changed. Using fMRI and PET scanning technology, neuroscientists can now look deep inside the human brain and they've discovered that it's amazingly flexible, resilient, and plastic. Pictures of the Mind: What the New Neuroscience Tells Us About Who We Are shows you what they've discovered and what it means to all of us. Through author Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald's masterfully written narrative and use stunning imagery, you'll watch human brains healing, growing, and adapting to challenges. You'll gain powerful new insights into the interplay between environment and genetics, begin understanding how people can influence their own intellectual abilities and emotional makeup, and understand the latest stunning discoveries about coma and "locked-in" syndrome. You'll learn about the tantalizing discoveries that may lead to cures for traumatic brain injury, stroke, emotional disorders, PTSD, drug addiction, chronic pain, maybe even Alzheimer's. Boleyn-Fitzgerald shows how these discoveries are transforming our very understanding of the "self", from an essentially static entity to one that can learn and change throughout life and even master the art of happiness.

米麗安．波林－費茲傑羅（Miriam Boleyn－Fitzgerald）

畢業於美國史華茲摩爾學院（Swarthmore College）物理係，是湯瑪斯華生研究獎金（Thomas J. Watson Fellowship）的得主，曾獲麻省理工學院愛達葛林獎（Ida M. Green Award）研究生科學、技術和社會獎。她在柯林頓總統「人類放射性實驗諮詢委員會」（Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments）當過特約撰稿人，也曾擔任自然資源保衛委員會（Natural Resources Defense Council）和關心科學傢聯盟（the Union of Concerned Scientists）的分析傢。在過去的十五年裡，緻力於傳遞科學新知，發錶瞭許多科學性的文章來滿足各種不同背景的讀者。