Looking for the best books ever written on neuroscience? So are we. We asked the experts, including Lisa Feldman Barrett, Andrew Lees, Dick Passingham, Sebastian Seung, David Brooks and Sarah-Jane Blakemore for their reading recommendations.
Among the most commonly recommended books in this section are Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Peter C Whybrow's The Well-Tuned Brain, and Utah Frith's Autism: Explaining the Enigma. (Those seeking the best books on autism: see our tag page here.)
The best books on Neuroscience as a Career, recommended by Andrew Lees
Are you considering a career in neuroscience? Neurologist Andrew Lees, one of the world’s leading authorities on Parkinson’s and author of Mentored by a Madman: The William Burroughs Experiment, talks about the books that continue to inspire him in his work.
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Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Comes From and Why
by Ellen Dissanayake -
2
Inner Vision: An Exploration of Art and the Brain
by Semir Zeki -
3
The Neurobiology of Painting
by F Clifford Rose -
4
Feeling Beauty: The Neuroscience of Aesthetic Experience
by G Gabrielle Starr -
5
Art, Aesthetics, and the Brain
by Ed. Huston & Nadal et al
The best books on The Neuroscience of Aesthetics, recommended by Anjan Chatterjee
The best books on The Neuroscience of Aesthetics, recommended by Anjan Chatterjee
Why is it that following a certain kind of brain damage, some artists’ work changes for the better? Neurologist and cognitive neuroscientist Anjan Chatterjee speaks to Five Books about how we can deconstruct the way the brain processes aesthetic experiences. He recommends the best books on neuroaesthetics
The best books on Cognitive Neuroscience, recommended by Dick Passingham
Neuroscience has banished the problem of dualism—the ‘ghost in the machine’ mulled over by philosophists since the time of Descartes, says the renowned cognitive neuroscientist Professor Dick Passingham. Here, he chooses five books that signified major breakthroughs in this fast-advancing field.
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1
Connectome
by Sebastian Seung -
2
The Feeling of What Happens
by Antonio Damasio -
3
Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
by Richard Wrangham -
4
The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health and Disease
by Daniel Lieberman -
5
The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution
by Joseph Henrich
The best books on The Human Brain, recommended by Suzana Herculano-Houzel
The best books on The Human Brain, recommended by Suzana Herculano-Houzel
The human brain contains 86 billion neurons and burns a quarter of our energy intake. But it is by no means extraordinary, says Suzana Herculano-Houzel. Here, the Brazilian neuroscientist chooses five of the best books for understanding the complexities and connectivity of our most enigmatic organ.
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The Children's Book
by A.S. Byatt -
2
On the Move: A Life
by Oliver Sacks -
3
Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation
by David Huron -
4
Sync: How Order Emerges from Chaos In the Universe, Nature, and Daily Life
by Steven Strogatz -
5
The Well-Tuned Brain: Neuroscience and the Life Well Lived
by Peter C. Whybrow
The best books on Emotion and the Brain, recommended by Morten Kringelbach
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1
Introducing Consciousness
by David Papineau and Howard Selina -
2
Detecting Awareness in the Vegetative State
by Adam Owen et al -
3
Selective Attention Test
by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons -
4
Failure to Detect Mismatches Between Intention and Outcome in a Simple Decision Task
by Petter Johansson et al -
5
Synecdoche, New York
by Charlie Kaufman
Consciousness for Beginners: the best book, articles and one movie, recommended by David Carmel
The best books on Neuroscience, recommended by David Brooks
It’s hard to understand many things about the world around us without a knowledge of the unconscious workings of the brain, argues the New York Times columnist David Brooks. He chooses five accessible books that’ll get you into neuroscience as well.