A Few Words About Neurons

Recently, I was fascinated by knowledge about the work of the brain. Frankly speaking, there are countless books on this subject: from "heavy" professional works, to frank paper, which leaves no positive "information sludge". In this simple way, a personal collection was organized, of which some books I want to share my impressions.

This post will take for - running far ahead - the most interesting book of Norman Joyce "Plasticity of the brain." Before reading the book, I was tormented by vague doubts about the category of "read - do not read", because the Russian-language edition (in my humble opinion) had an indefinite, even overly jocular cover. Yes, yes, they meet on clothes. A pink cover with a formless thing (such, by the way, the characters often and densely met me in old newspapers in a humorous section), rolling out a rolling pin someone's workout brain, for a long time delayed the moment of acquaintance with the material. With skepticism and coffee, I opened the first page of the book. Again hurried events: with the first pages of skepticism evaporated, leaving space for children's curiosity - such books are worth a lot.

The main feature of this work is a detailed narrative about the scientific path of individuals, thanks to which the principles of plasticity of the brain have found actual confirmation. By the way: many authors forget about the latter, shifting the emphasis towards research and figures, and the researcher - like a soulless dummy - is and is okay. Recently, this is the first book in which the balance between data on the experimenters and the subject of their activities is observed.
I will not begin to admire the simplicity of the narrative, since the book was originally imprisoned for a wide audience, it immediately feels. I will say only: everyone will find not only answers to many questions related to the peculiarities of the work of the brain, but also get acquainted with its fundamental principles of action.

I will give a modest fragment of the narrative:
"Pain is the brain's conclusion about the state of health of the body, and not just a reflexive reaction to bodily harm." Before starting the mechanism of pain, the brain collects information from a variety of sources. Ramachandran also says that "pain is an illusion" and that "our brain is a mechanism for producing a virtual reality" that knows the world indirectly and processes information about it from a distance, creating a model in our head. Thus, pain, just like the image of the body, is the creation of our brain. "
The rest - learn from the book. Get a batch of invigorating conclusions and new questions.

"Plastichnost" Norman Joyce methodically rubs into a thin thread a massive wall between "obvious" material and "intangible" immaterial. To comprehend this "change in values" is extremely difficult, and living with such knowledge is amazing!

The book makes a leap "back to the future", returning the Reader to the age of surprising discoveries and new knowledge, and the future - saturates important information about the most mysterious organ of the human body.