Part I: Introducing Your Nervous System 7

Chapter 1: A Quick Trip through the Nervous System 9

Chapter 2: All about the Brain and Spinal Cord 23

Chapter 3: Understanding How Neurons Work 47

Part II: Translating the Internal and External World through Your Senses 65

Chapter 4: Feeling Your Way: The Skin Senses 67

Chapter 5: Looking at Vision 83

Chapter 6: Sounding Off: The Auditory System 103

Chapter 7: Odors and Taste 119

Part III: Moving Right Along: Motor Systems 135

Chapter 8: Movement Basics 137

Chapter 9: Coordinating Things More: The Spinal Cord and Pathways 149

Chapter 10: Planning and Executing Actions 161

Chapter 11: Unconscious Actions with Big Implications 179

Part IV: Intelligence: The Thinking Brain and Consciousness 197

Chapter 12: Understanding Intelligence, Consciousness, and Emotions 199

Chapter 13: How the Brain Processes Thoughts 223

Chapter 14: The Executive Brain 243

Chapter 15: Learning and Memory 259

Chapter 16: Developing and Modifying Brain Circuits: Plasticity 283

Chapter 17: Neural Dysfunctions, Mental Illness, and Drugs That Affect the Brain 305

Part V: The Part of Tens 317

Chapter 18: Ten Crucial Brain Structures 319

Chapter 19: Ten Tricks of Neurons That Make Them Do What They Do 327

Chapter 20: Ten Amazing Facts about the Brain 335

Chapter 21: Ten Promising Treatments for the Future 343

Index 351