Get a Move on, Neuron! (Paperback)

This book aims to stimulate the child to wonder about the brain, and to begin to learn how it works. It does this by explaining what goes on in the brain when a child is called to dinner, gets up from his bed and trips over a dog. It describes the special places in the brain that are active during this sequence of activities. Each of the nine chapters is followed by questions whose answers are contained within each paragraph. There is also a teacher's version available. In addition, for the truly fun-loving, there is a play version. When your mother calls you to come to dinner, what do all the computers in your head do when the sound waves from her voice strike your ear? They set off waves of messages that travel to all those special places in your brain. The messages travel along the axons as pulses of electricity. Since so many axons carry messages to the millions of computers in each of the special places, the messages arrive in the special places like waves arriving on the sea shore. Each different sound produces another message wave. After leaving the special place for hearing, the waves of messages go to the special places for feeling, associating and figuring things out. These special places make decisions and see the links between things. So you figure you don't need to go down to dinner just yet. But the next time your mother calls, the special place for making you feel happy or sad (the limbic system) has a big influence on the speical place for figuring. You feel afraid that something may happen to you if you don't go. So this time you figure you had better go. These special places have a big effect on the special place for moving (motor cortex), and the neurons here make you get a move on! Income from these book sales is donated to research on developing neural prostheses.