Acknowledgments xii
Introduction 1
1 Defunct Myths 15
#1 Thought Resides in the Heart 15
#2 The Brain Pumps Animal Spirits Round the Body 18
#3 Brain Cells Join Together Forming a Huge Nerve Net 21
#4 Mental Function Resides in the Brain's Hollows 22
2 Myth-Based Brain Practices 25
#5 Drilling a Hole in the Skull Releases Evil Spirits 25
#6 Personality Can Be Read in the Bumps on the Skull 28
#7 Mental Illness Can Be Cured by Disconnecting the Frontal Lobes 30
3 Mythical Case Studies 37
#8 Brain Injury Turned Neuroscience's Most Famous Case into an Impulsive Brute 37
#9 The Faculty of Language Production Is Distributed Through the Brain 40
#10 Memory Is Distributed Throughout the Entire Cortex 45
4 The Immortal Myths 51
#11 We Only Use Ten Percent of Our Brains 51
#12 Right-Brained People Are More Creative 55
#13 The Female Brain Is More Balanced (and Other Gender-Based Brain Myths) 65
#14 Adults Can't Grow New Brain Cells 74
#15 There's a God Spot in the Brain (and Other Lesser-Spotted Myths) 80
#16 Pregnant Women Lose Their Minds 87
#17 We All Need Eight Hours of Continuous Sleep (and Other Dozy Sleep Myths) 92
#18 The Brain Is a Computer 101
#19 The Mind Can Exist Outside of the Brain 106
#20 Neuroscience Is Transforming Human Self-Understanding 115
5 Myths about the Physical Structure of the Brain 135
#21 The Brain Is Well Designed 135
#22 The Bigger the Brain, the Better 140
#23 You Have a Grandmother Cell 146
#24 Glial Cells Are Little More Than Brain Glue 149
#25 Mirror Neurons Make Us Human (and Broken Mirror Neurons Cause Autism) 154
#26 The Disembodied Brain 160
6 Technology and Food Myths 177
#27 Brain Scans Can Read Your Mind 177
#28 Neurofeedback Will Bring You Bliss and Enlightenment 192
#29 Brain Training Will Make You Smart 201
#30 Brain Food Will Make You Even Smarter 209
#31 Google Will Make You Stupid, Mad, or Both 217
7 Brain Myths Concerning Perception and Action 235
#32 The Brain Receives Information from Five Separate Senses 235
#33 The Brain Perceives the World As It Is 242
#34 The Brain's Representation of the Body Is Accurate and Stable 249
8 Myths about Brain Disorder and Illness 258
#35 Brain Injury and Concussion Myths 258
#36 Amnesia Myths 265
#37 Coma Myths 273
#38 Epilepsy Myths 280
#39 Autism Myths 286
#40 Dementia Myths 294
#41 The Chemical Imbalance Myth of Mental Illness 300
Afterword 316
Index 318
