Brain Sense: The Science of the Senses and How We Process the World Around Us
by Faith Hickman Brynie. AMACOM. 2009. 274 pages. $24.
The brain is much more dynamic than scientists used to think, according to science and health writer Faith Hickman Brynie in Brain Sense. She takes readers on a tour of how the brain and the senses interact, sharing discoveries that she says have dramatic implications for brain research and medical practice. Examples:
• Monkeys using their own brain waves to control robotic arms.
• Patients blinded by strokes but regain some of their vision by retraining their eyes by means of computer-assisted visual exercises.
• New physical-therapy regimens that relieve amputees of “phantom-limb” pain (pains in the empty spaces where those parts used to be).
Brynie points to newly discovered ways that the brain constantly reshapes its own structure and replacing circuits—or even memories—that had been lost or damaged. She also describes recent observations about how the brain perceives reality: “Our brains have minds of their own,” she says. In other words, no two people will taste, smell, or feel in the same way.
Brynie’s Brain Sense is a fascinating look at what it means to be human and conscious. It is also an exciting preview of treatments that doctors might one day achieve.
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