psychophysiology

"In You Are What You Watch, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and data expert Walt Hickey explains the power of entertainment to change our biology, our beliefs, how we see ourselves, and how nations gain power through entertainment. Virtually anyone who has ever watched a profound movie, a powerful TV show, or read a moving novel understands that entertainment can and does affect us in surprising and significant ways. But did you know that our most popular forms of entertainment can have a direct physical effect on us, a measurable impact on society, geopolitics, the economy, and even the future itself? In You Are What You Watch, Walter Hickey, Pulitzer Prize winner and former chief culture writer at acclaimed data site FiveThirtyEight.com, proves how exactly how what we watch (and read and listen to) has a far greater effect on us and the world at large than we imagine. Employing a mix of research, deep reporting, and 100 data visualizations, Hickey presents the true power of entertainment and culture. From the decrease in shark populations after Jaws to the increase in women and girls taking up archery following The Hunger Games, You Are What You Watch proves its points not just with research and argument, but hard data. Did you know, for example, that crime statistics prove that violent movies actually lead to less real-world violence? And that the international rise of anime and Manga helped lift the Japanese economy out of the doldrums in the 1980s? Or that British and American intelligence agencies actually got ideas from the James Bond movies? In You Are What You Watch, readers will be given a nerdy, and sobering, celebration of popular entertainment and its surprising power to change the world"--.

"A funny, rhyming book about all of the cool things your brain does"--Provided by publisher.

Examines what it means to be human, covering the themes of philosophy, psychology, physiology, and more.

Examines what neuroscience, research into how the brain stores memory, and how learning and memory work together in the human brain--and most importantly how defects in these processes leading to disorders in the mind--lead to the emergence of the individual sense of self from the matter of the brain.

A layperson's guide to understanding how the brain influences all areas of one's life: sleep, diet, aging, sex, motivation, personality, and more.

The author argues that the brain is an organ, and that the soul like qualities we attribute to it are more often myth than fact. That the ability to act with freewill is overestimated because the brain cannot be separated from the body or its surroundings, and that if we focus exclusively on the brain to explain behavior using faulty neuroscience then external psychophysiological factors are overlooked that can lead to mental illness.

Pioneering brain detective V.S. Ramachandran investigates four mysterious psychological cases. See breakthrough research in phantom limb syndromes, the power of the mind in pain control, how seizures can result in intense spiritual experiences, and how research from brain injuries helps teach about the normal brain.

"After several years of drifting between school and go-nowhere jobs, a young man is drawn back into the big city of his youth. The magnet is his beloved older sister, Grace: always smart and charismatic even when she was rebelling, and always his hero. Now she is a promising graduate student in psychophysics and the center of a group of friends who take "Little Brother" into their fold, where he finds camaraderie, romance, and even a decent job"--Jacket flap.

Presents a guide to understanding the full potential of the brain and its relation to the rest of the body. Discusses how to use this knowledge to expand one's ability to achieve happiness, health, and spiritual growth and offers tips on overcoming common challenges that might hold one back.