Recommended Reading

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A Whole New Mind: How to thrive in the conceptual age

Author(s):

Daniel H Pink

Summary:

Pink argues that we are leaving the Information Ace and entering the Conceptual age in which right-brainedness will become relatively more important. A well written, well argued and entertaining book.

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Do No Harm, Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery

Author(s):

Henry Marsh

Summary:

This book provides a candid insight into the life and work of practicing neurosurgeon. It has both won and been nominated for several awards for non-fictional literature and is well worth reading for anyone with an interest in the subject.

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Making the Brain Body Connection

Author(s):

Sharon Promislow

Summary:

This is an interesting and fun introduction to the basic principles of using the brain body connection as a way of achieving health and well being. Using the tools will help provide an improvement in how you perform and how you feel, significantly reducing stress, increasing concentration - and waking up your whole brain.

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Molecules of Emotion: Why you feel the way you feel

Author(s):

Candace B. Pert

Summary:

Pert provides a fascinating insight into the way in which she discovered the bimolecular basis for our emotions and came to the conclusion that our minds do not simply reside in the brain, but incorporate the brain, our organs and immune system.

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Neuroscience for Leadership: Harnessing the Brain Gain Advantage

Author(s):

Tara Swart, Kitty Chisholm and Paul Brown

Summary:

The debate as to whether leadership can be a learned skill or not continues, but this easy-to-read book presents evidence from the world of neuroscience to suggest that all leaders can significantly improve how they engage with and motivate others, thereby improving the organisations performance.

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Normal Sucks: How to Live, Learn and Thrive Outside the Lines

Author(s):

Jonathan Mooney

Summary:

As a kid diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD at the age of 10, the realisation that he wasn't the problem - the system and the concept of normal were - saved Mooney's life and fundamentally changed his outlook. Here he explores the toll that being not normal takes on kids and adults when they're trapped in environments that label them, shame them, and tell them, even in subtle ways, that they are the problem.

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On Intelligence

Author(s):

Jeff Hawkins with Sandra Blakeslee

Summary:

Jeff Hawkins, the founder of Palm Computing and Handspring, has harboured a long-standing interest in the workings of the brain. In this book he brings these two interests together to consider whether it would be possible to copy aspects of the brain in the process of making truly intelligent machines.

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Play: How it shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul

Author(s):

Stuart Brown and Christopher Vaughan

Summary:

Stuart Brown is a physician, psychiatrist and clinical researcher. He has made a career of studying the effects of play and concludes that play is a powerful force in nature that helps determine the likelihood of the very survival of the human race. Sprinkled with anecdotes demonstrating the play habits of subjects as diverse as polar bears and corporate CEOs, Brown and co-writer Vaughan present a compelling case for promoting play at every age.

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Still Alice

Author(s):

Lisa Genova

Summary:

"Still Alice" is the story of 50 year old Alice Howland, a brilliant Harvard professor who is diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's. Whilst it is a fictional work, it tells the story from the perspective of the sufferer and provides both a factual and well researched dialogue of the disease as well as a heart rending account of the experience.

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Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are

Author(s):

Joseph LeDoux

Summary:

The brain of every human being is remarkably similar. What makes each person unique is therefore not their brain, but the way they use it, which in turn is as a result of their synaptic connections. This book looks at how the synaptic connections are formed and how they create and maintain memories and personality.

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The Brain, The Story of You

Author(s):

David Eagleman

Summary:

Bestselling author and neuroscientist David Eagleman provides an entertaining and extremely readable overview of the human brain.

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The Dominance Factor: How Knowing Your Dominant Eye, Ear, Brain, Hand and Foot Can Improve Your Learning

Author(s):

Carla Hanniford

Summary:

A book about Dominance Profiles - a personal assessment technique that helps to determine learning styles and characteristics. Neuroscientist Carla Hannaford explores the intriguing area of the linkages of the side of the body we favour for seeing, hearing, touching and moving - and the way we think, learn, play and relate to others.

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The Essential Difference

Author(s):

Simon Baron-Cohen

Summary:

An interesting read that looks at the age old debate about male-female differences. Baron-Cohen discusses females as being predominantly empathizers and males as being systemizers, providing evidence from years of research at Cambridge University and before. He postulates that the extreme male brain may be synonymous with autism.

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The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind

Author(s):

Elkhonon Goldberg

Summary:

In a fascinating book that examines the most "human" and recently evolved region of the brain, Goldberg does an excellent job of describing difficult concepts such as consciousness and learning in accessible terms. Not an easy read but well worth the effort.

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The Frog Who Croaked Blue: Synesthesia and the mixing of the senses

Author(s):

Jamie Ward

Summary:

Synesthesia is a condition in which a person's senses are linked such that, for example, numbers have a colour or words are related to flavours. The book provides one of the most comprehensive explanations of the condition that exists while comparing and contrasting synesthesia with ordinary multi-sensory perception.

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The Gift of Dyslexia

Author(s):

Ronald D Davis

Summary:

The Gift of Dyslexia provides a brilliant explanation of what it is like to be dyslexic through the eyes of a dyslexic person. In this excellent book Ron Davis explains how he overcame his difficulties and how the same techniques can help other dyslexic people.

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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

Author(s):

Oliver Sacks

Summary:

A brilliant insight into the world of people lost in a bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders. These individual case studies are told in a deeply human and sensitive way by the renowned neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks.

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The Myth of Mirror Neurons: The Real Neuroscience of Communication and Cognition

Author(s):

Gregory Hickok

Summary:

In this excellent book cognitive scientist Gregory Hickok provides a devastating critique of what New York Times bestseller Gary Marcus describes as "one of the most oversold ideas in psychology".

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The Soul in the Brain: The Cerebral Basis of Language, Art and Belief

Author(s):

Michael R. Trimble

Summary:

In this thought provoking book, Michael Trimble tackles the interrelationship between brain function, language, art (especially music and poetry) and religion. Trimble argues that religious belief and experience are borne out of the involvement of the right hemisphere.

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