Brain Mysteries

People behave in strange ways. We sometimes giggle when someone falls down, swear we've been to places we haven't, or continue believing in something despite scientific evidence to the contrary. For more than a decade, Scientific American MIND's long-running feature "Ask the Brains" has addressed questions from their readers on the quirks and quandaries of human behavior, psychology, and neurology. Here, in Ask the Brains, Part 1, they’ve compiled some of the best and most interesting inquiries about the human brain.

There are plenty of books that profess to tell you the meaning of life. But where can you go to find answers to the little mysteries of life that drive you nuts until you find their solution? Imponderables are questions that cannot be answered by numbers or measurements or standard reference books, and Feldman has devoted his life to the eradication of all imponderables.

When CIA Agent Cameron Hansen receives a call from his friend Mitzi Lenz, an FBI pathologist, regarding her missing father, they soon are embroiled in a desperate race to thwart Hansen's old enemy, Juan Carlos Perez, a powerful tech magnate and international drug trafficker. Perez is doing secret experimental brain implant operations on victims kidnapped from Mexican farms. As Cameron and Mitzi struggle to understand the purpose of the hi-tech implants, Perez draws closer to his ambitious goal.

For decades addiction has been viewed and treated as a social and behavioral illness, afflicting people of "weak" character and "bad" moral fiber. However, recent breakthroughs in genetic technology have enabled doctors, for the first time, to correctly diagnose the disease and prove that addiction is an inherited, neuro-chemical disease originating in brain chemistry, determined by genetics, and triggered by stress. In their groundbreaking The Addiction Solution, David Kipper and Steven Whitney distill these exciting findings.

Every time surgeons operate, they're betting their skills are better than the brain tumor, the faulty heart valve, the fractured femur. Sometimes, they're wrong. At Chelsea General, surgeons answer for bad outcomes at the Morbidity and Mortality conference, known as M & M. This extraordinary peek behind the curtain into what is considered the most secretive meeting in all of medicine is the back drop for the entire book.

Dr. Allison Perez appears to have it all - a brilliant career in nanotechnology, a comfortable home, and the promise of a medical revolution on the horizon. Yet, beneath the surface, a sense of restlessness gnaws at her, her life reduced to a monotonous cycle of work and routine. But opening her heart to anything more since her brother died is too dangerous. Until everything changes when a sinister plot unfolds, threatening to seize control of her groundbreaking nanocytes, the very innovation she believed would benefit humanity.

Nick Hall, ausgestattet mit revolutionären Gehirnimplantaten, kann mit seinem Geist Gedanken lesen und auf das Internet zugreifen. Als eine skrupellose Terrorgruppe damit droht, internationale Stars live und vor den Augen der Welt zu töten, ist Nick die einzige Rettung. Doch stattdessen wird er zur Zielscheibe der mächtigsten Kräfte der Welt und erlebt einen schmerzhaften Verrat in seinem engsten Kreis – ein brutales Rennen gegen die Zeit beginnt! Gedankennetz basiert auf den realen Forschungen zu neuronalen Implantaten von Pionieren wie Elon Musk (Neuralink).

In 1918, a world war raged, and a lethal strain of influenza circled the globe. In the midst of all this death, a bizarre disease appeared in Europe. Eventually known as encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness, it spread worldwide, leaving millions dead or locked in institutions. Then, in 1927, it disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived. Asleep, set in 1920s and '30s New York, follows a group of neurologists through hospitals and asylums as they try to solve this epidemic and treat its victims - who learned the worst fate was not dying of it, but surviving it.

In 1848 Vermont, railroad foreman Phineas Gage sat above a hole, preparing to blast through some granite. A 13-pound iron rod fell from his hands into the hole, triggering the explosion and sending the rod straight through Phineas' head. Thirty minutes after this terrible accident, Phineas sat on the steps of a hotel, patiently waiting for the town doctor to arrive. He chatted with his amazed coworkers as if nothing had happened. But something terrible had happened.

Why do you love? Why do you lie? What makes you happy? Every thought you have comes from one place: your brain. But what makes it tick? How much of it have we decoded, and how much of it remains an impenetrable mystery? Join author and cartoonist Jorge Cham and neuroscientist Dwayne Godwin on a deep dive into the fascinating world of the human brain, in which they will explore questions such as: What is consciousness? Where is you in the brain? And do we have free will? All while illuminating everything we know (and DON’T know) about one of the most complex objects in the known universe.

Is she insane or psychic? Private investigator Taylor Morrison has just managed to put her life back together after the death of her husband when strange things begin to happen around her. Things that can’t be explained. Taylor begins her desperate search for answers only to discover that others know what she can do, and they’ll stop at nothing to control her and the ability she now possesses - even if it means using the people she cares about against her.

Bullet to the Brain is a Felix Hoenniker medical murder mystery. A short story at the intersection of a murder most foul, a drug dealer grappling with quantum entanglement, and a neurosurgeon who thinks he’s Sherlock Holmes. Throw in an angry girlfriend and a genius scientist who disco dances in stiletto heels, and you’re in for a wild ride.

On the verge of signing the most important document in African history, Agent Six and Detective Reggie Kona must race against the clock to get the document in the right hands before the big day. The powers-that-be have other plans. Six and Reggie find the job tougher at every turn, meeting elite operatives and killers all after one thing: a document that could change the future of Africa.

Brain Freeze Frenzy: The Summer that Changed Everything is a gripping tale of three best friends who challenge themselves to eat the biggest sundae ever made. What starts as a simple bet turns into an epic journey that will leave you on the edge of your seat. Ava, Luke, and Ana are three best friends who are always up for a challenge.

What is this strange mental world that seems so essential to being human? The conscious mind brings together sensations, perceptions, thoughts and memories to generate the seamless movie of a person's life. It makes us aware of the world around us and our own self. How all this emerges from a kilogram of brain cells is one of the greatest unanswered questions.

It is the 22nd century and technology has reached epic heights. Cures to most diseases have been found and people are living perpetually thanks to the influx of prosthetic augmentations. Crime also has been at a record low until a grisly homicide case lands on Detective Jack Payne's desk. Jack Payne is from the old generation and has lost his edge since being in his prime. He will have to put his career, life, and sanity on the line to catch a cyber serial killer of tomorrow....

The computer world is always evolving, but now it logs on trouble for CURE. Dr. Harold Smith's own meticulously organized neural files are covertly copied, analyzed and downloaded by an amazing new interface system. Soon all of CURE's deepest secrets are under control of a shadow force. Not only Remo but even the Master of Sinanju have been accessed and installed. Now they are virtual puppets on a hard drive, slicing and dicing for the enemy at the touch of a keystroke.

Seventeen-year-old Caleb Shaw's eidetic memory makes him a valuable asset to a government that harvests children like him for their innate ability to create memory modules for the brain drive—an implantable device that stores information in the form of memories. Caleb discovers that his father has been sheltering him from the truth about the brain drive, and he begins to question everything about the world he grew up in. When he is ripped from his home and taken to a government facility, his eyes are opened to the atrocities committed against children for technological advancement.

Every small town has it's share of big, dark secrets, and the sleepy little town of Lobo, Texas, seems to be bursting at the seams. Who is the mysterious derelict the town Sheriff talks to down at the old train depot at night? What exactly are the old train cars filled with? What has the local biker gang suddenly gone missing? For the citizens of Lobo, these questions may be answered soon enough - and with terrifying clarity.

Each of us will know physical pain in our lives, but none of us knows when it will come or how long it will stay. Today as much as 10 percent of the population of the United States suffers from chronic pain. It is more widespread, misdiagnosed, and undertreated than any major disease. While recent research has shown that pain produces pathological changes to the brain and spinal cord, many doctors and patients still labor under misguided cultural notions and outdated scientific dogmas.